"Expansion teams, won 8 postseason games their first year in the National Hockey League."
The great expansion of 1967/68 saw the NHL double in size from six teams to twelve. One of the new teams was the St. Louis Blues, who were coached by some chap named Scotty Bowman. They had Glenn Hall in net, plucked away from Chicago in the expansion draft.
The team itself was full of many of these castoffs, but Hall certainly was a steal. Amazingly enough, the Blues would be the third team he took all the way to the Stanley Cup finals. How long did it take Glenn to do that? Only 13 seasons. In 1961, he beat Montreal single-handily in the semi-finals and then nailed the door shut on Detroit (His old team) a round later. Just the type of goalie a new team needs.
Now, the Blues W-L-T record wasn't very good, 27-31-16. Put in perspective five of the Original Six teams (Boston, Chicago, Montreal, New York and Toronto did better than that. Two other new teams topped it for good measure. But neither the Philadelphia Flyers or Los Angeles Kings would make the Stanley Cup finals that year.
Philadelphia, with their 31-32-11 record for...first place in the Western Conference (Home of all the newbies) got St. Louis in the first round of the playoffs. It was now three rounds to win for the Stanley Cup. Previously, it had been only two.
Red Berenson had led the Blues in scoring with just 51 points. Their team captain, btw, was none other than future legendary coach Al Arbour. Amazingly enough, he'd been to the Stanley Cup finals with three teams himself. And St. Louis would be the fourth.
It took seven games, but St. Louis had an upset. They stole it 3-1 in game 7 on the road. Minnesota was next, but this time, guess who had home ice advantage? St. Louis did. They needed it, too, as Ron Schock's double-OT winner in game seven sent the Blues into the finals against the Montreal Canadians.
Now, here's where it's not fair. An established team vs. a new team. A current greats vs. a bunch of "has beens"? St. Louis wasn't exactly the latter, but they were swept!
But then again, every game was close. One goal decided every game, in fact. Games one and three went into OT. Glenn Hall? He walked away with the playoff MVP (Conn Smythe Award). The team had nothing to be ashamed of.
50 years later, the Las Vegas Golden Knights were the one and only newbies in the NHL, which was now at 31 teams, if you can believe it. You know what team was the worst? Why the Golden Knights. Only, they didn't exactly play like that in 2017/18, did they?
They didn't.
How long did it take them to win their 27th game? Only 38 contests were needed for Las Vegas to get that. At the time, the Golden Knights were 27-9-2. Wow!
Soon, the expansion team won their 34th game of the season, a new National Hockey League record for first-year organizations. Vegas didn't stop there. When the smoke had cleared after 82 regular season games, the new kids were 51-24-7. 1st place in the Pacific. Third overall in the Western Conference. Hmmm...Where have I heard that one before?
When the playoffs started, Vegas rode a strong team effort to sweep the Los Angeles Kings in round #1. But here we go again. All four games were decided by one goal.
The San Jose Sharks was once an expansion team not that long ago. 1991/92 to be exact. Hey, Gary Bettman wasn't even around back then and the NHL was 75 years old. Not 101.
Getting back to it, no sweep here. The Sharks, coming off a sweep of their own of the Anaheim Ducks, stayed with the Knights. After losing the first game by a lopsided score of 7-0, they bounced back with some overtime magic to steal game two. The new guys were undaunted. They won an OT game of their own in the third contest, but couldn't get anything past Martin Jones in the fourth one. The 4-0 win by San Jose at home leveled this, 2-2 in games.
Here's where Las Vegas was expected to fold. But they held on to their nerves. A 4-0 lead was nearly erased, and the home team needed a Jonathan Marchessault empty net goal to prevail 5-3. The series then shifted back to San Jose and Marc Andre Fleury was through giving up goals to the Sharks. His team scored three, but Marc needed only one. The 3-0 win moved 'em into the Conference Finals. Winnipeg was up next!
So, do the wheels finally come off the chariot here? Just like it did in the third round for St. Louis 50 years ago? Could very well have. Game one went to the home team, the Jets.
If the new guys want to make it a series, Las Vegas will have to steal game two on the road. Coach Gerald Gallant will have to be a mastermind ala-Scotty Bowman. Nonetheless, years after the first expansion experiment produced the lovable Blues, the Knights are trying to write their own history. For now, they'll have to settle with a shared spot in NHL history for postseason wins by a first year expansion team.
References
Maguire, Liam. What's The Score? Random House Canada, 2001. Print
“Official Site Of The National Hockey League.” NHL.com. The National Hockey League. Web. 13 May. 2018. <www.nhl.com/>.
The great expansion of 1967/68 saw the NHL double in size from six teams to twelve. One of the new teams was the St. Louis Blues, who were coached by some chap named Scotty Bowman. They had Glenn Hall in net, plucked away from Chicago in the expansion draft.
The team itself was full of many of these castoffs, but Hall certainly was a steal. Amazingly enough, the Blues would be the third team he took all the way to the Stanley Cup finals. How long did it take Glenn to do that? Only 13 seasons. In 1961, he beat Montreal single-handily in the semi-finals and then nailed the door shut on Detroit (His old team) a round later. Just the type of goalie a new team needs.
Now, the Blues W-L-T record wasn't very good, 27-31-16. Put in perspective five of the Original Six teams (Boston, Chicago, Montreal, New York and Toronto did better than that. Two other new teams topped it for good measure. But neither the Philadelphia Flyers or Los Angeles Kings would make the Stanley Cup finals that year.
Philadelphia, with their 31-32-11 record for...first place in the Western Conference (Home of all the newbies) got St. Louis in the first round of the playoffs. It was now three rounds to win for the Stanley Cup. Previously, it had been only two.
Red Berenson had led the Blues in scoring with just 51 points. Their team captain, btw, was none other than future legendary coach Al Arbour. Amazingly enough, he'd been to the Stanley Cup finals with three teams himself. And St. Louis would be the fourth.
It took seven games, but St. Louis had an upset. They stole it 3-1 in game 7 on the road. Minnesota was next, but this time, guess who had home ice advantage? St. Louis did. They needed it, too, as Ron Schock's double-OT winner in game seven sent the Blues into the finals against the Montreal Canadians.
Now, here's where it's not fair. An established team vs. a new team. A current greats vs. a bunch of "has beens"? St. Louis wasn't exactly the latter, but they were swept!
But then again, every game was close. One goal decided every game, in fact. Games one and three went into OT. Glenn Hall? He walked away with the playoff MVP (Conn Smythe Award). The team had nothing to be ashamed of.
50 years later, the Las Vegas Golden Knights were the one and only newbies in the NHL, which was now at 31 teams, if you can believe it. You know what team was the worst? Why the Golden Knights. Only, they didn't exactly play like that in 2017/18, did they?
They didn't.
How long did it take them to win their 27th game? Only 38 contests were needed for Las Vegas to get that. At the time, the Golden Knights were 27-9-2. Wow!
Soon, the expansion team won their 34th game of the season, a new National Hockey League record for first-year organizations. Vegas didn't stop there. When the smoke had cleared after 82 regular season games, the new kids were 51-24-7. 1st place in the Pacific. Third overall in the Western Conference. Hmmm...Where have I heard that one before?
When the playoffs started, Vegas rode a strong team effort to sweep the Los Angeles Kings in round #1. But here we go again. All four games were decided by one goal.
The San Jose Sharks was once an expansion team not that long ago. 1991/92 to be exact. Hey, Gary Bettman wasn't even around back then and the NHL was 75 years old. Not 101.
Getting back to it, no sweep here. The Sharks, coming off a sweep of their own of the Anaheim Ducks, stayed with the Knights. After losing the first game by a lopsided score of 7-0, they bounced back with some overtime magic to steal game two. The new guys were undaunted. They won an OT game of their own in the third contest, but couldn't get anything past Martin Jones in the fourth one. The 4-0 win by San Jose at home leveled this, 2-2 in games.
Here's where Las Vegas was expected to fold. But they held on to their nerves. A 4-0 lead was nearly erased, and the home team needed a Jonathan Marchessault empty net goal to prevail 5-3. The series then shifted back to San Jose and Marc Andre Fleury was through giving up goals to the Sharks. His team scored three, but Marc needed only one. The 3-0 win moved 'em into the Conference Finals. Winnipeg was up next!
So, do the wheels finally come off the chariot here? Just like it did in the third round for St. Louis 50 years ago? Could very well have. Game one went to the home team, the Jets.
If the new guys want to make it a series, Las Vegas will have to steal game two on the road. Coach Gerald Gallant will have to be a mastermind ala-Scotty Bowman. Nonetheless, years after the first expansion experiment produced the lovable Blues, the Knights are trying to write their own history. For now, they'll have to settle with a shared spot in NHL history for postseason wins by a first year expansion team.
References
Diamond,
Dan. Total Stanley Cup: An Official
Publication Of The National Hockey League. Toronto: Published in Canada by
Total Sports Canada, 2000. Print.
McFarlane, Brian. Brian McFarlane's History Of Hockey. Sports Publishing Inc., 1997. Print.
Irvin, Dick. The Habs: An Oral History Of The Montreal Canadiens, 1940-1980. McClelland & Stewart, 1992. Print.
Maguire, Liam. What's The Score? Random House Canada, 2001. Print
“Official Site Of The National Hockey League.” NHL.com. The National Hockey League. Web. 13 May. 2018. <www.nhl.com/>.
Sports Reference LLC. Hockey-Reference.com - Hockey
Statistics and History. http://www.hockey-reference.com/. Web. 13 May. 2018.
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