Rank This Decade's Best Cup Winning Teams

[Heroes of Hockeytown 694]

Calgary should have won in 04, but the officials were on the Lightning's side...so even though I'm NOT a Flames fan, it isn't nice to see a team get screwed out of a Cup, as they were in 04.

You're not one of those guys that thinks Gelinas scored in Game 6, are you?

[RedWings Gone Wild 6]

I gotta go against the grain and say that, despite the super stacked roster, the 02 team is not better than the 08 team... purely because the 08 squad came close to repeating, and the 02 sucked in the 03 playoffs, despite a largely similar roster and the emergence of Datsyuk as a star.

With largely intact squads the 02 wings (minus only Hasek basically), 07 ducks, 06 canes, 04 lightning, and 03 devils all either didn't make the playoffs or lost in the early rounds the following year. Not exactly a quality I would look for in my best squad of the decade.... Colorado did well the season following their cup win, but still weren't the club they were the previous season (it took them two games 7s in a row to get to the semis).

The only squads with playoff consistency were the 08 Wings, the 09 Penguins (how they do next year is still a ? tho), and the 2000 Devils.... I put the 08 Wings at the top of that list because I consider the West a much deeper and stronger conference.

[Chunkylover 26]

8/9 '04 Tampa Bay/'06 Carolina

7 '03 Devils

6 '00 Devils

5 '09 Penguins

4 '07 Ducks

3 '08 Red Wings

2 '01 Avalanche

1 '02 Red Wings

This isn't really very scientific, but it's how I see 'em. The difference between 1 and 2 is so narrow that at times the '01 Avs might appear to be better. Same could be said about 3 and 4; two very competitive teams. I think some people are purposely under-rating the Penguins out of spite, but they're a good team. It's hard for me to rank the Devils because at the time I was unable to watch hockey. Nevertheless I don't think Stevens and Brodeur would put them over the more dynamic offenses of the teams ahead of them. No explanation required for 8 and 9.

Will anyone dare put Colorado ahead of Detroit?

I mean they gave us a tough series in 2002, and their 2001 team had Ray Bourque and was a hungrier team. Not to mention the won the Cup WITHOUT their best player Forsberg.

I dared to hint at such a possibility! What do I win?

[aw1340 0]

1. 08 Wings

2. 02 Wings

3. 01 Avs

4. 03 Devils

5. 07 Ducks

6. 00 Devils

7. 04 Lightning

8. 09 Penguins

9. 06 Hurricanes

[Hiei 192]

2002 Red Wings.

A team of HOFers and guys who played their positions and did it damn well.