Read the opposing arguments from Sports Geek and Bleacher Fan.
I admittedly am not a huge hockey fan. Not by a long shot, in fact. I have watched hockey sparingly over the years. Many have said I would get the “hockey bug” if I ever went to watch a hockey game live, which is what happened to me when I went to a NASCAR race many years ago. We shall see. But today’s debate was brought on by the fact that last week the Washington Capitals, the number one seed in the Eastern Conference, quite frankly choked en route to being upset by the eighth seeded Montreal Canadiens. It got the brain trust here at TSD debating behind the scenes about what the biggest NHL playoff upset in playoff history. As I stated, my knowledge of NHL history is not extensive, but a quick look at the numbers of all the eighth seed upsets in NHL history tells me that the biggest upset took place eight years ago in 2002 when the Montreal Canadiens upset the Boston Bruins.
The Canadiens entered the playoffs that season with an overall record of 36-31-12-3, accumulating just 87 points… which was good for fourth place in the Northeast Division. Meanwhile, the Bruins had won the division and, at least on paper, were the legitimate overwhelming favorites. The Canadiens weren’t even supposed to make the playoffs. They won the eighth and final playoff spot by holding off the big market New York Rangers and the Jaromir Jagr-led Washington Capitals. But, as the old saying goes, the games aren’t played on paper.
The star of the Canadiens, in the regular season as well as this series, was goaltender Jose Theodore. During the season he had seven shutouts and had a minute goals-against average of 2.11. He essentially carried his team into the playoffs, and it’s what eventually won him the Hart Trophy… a.k.a. the MVP. The Bruins were led by left winger Sergei Samsonov and center Joe Thornton, who were well known by hockey fans.
What made the upset so remarkable was that the Canadiens were often called “the little team that could.” They didn’t have the big budget of other teams. They are kind of like the Minnesota Twins were in baseball for much of the past ten years. They pushed through a lot of adversity, which included captain Saku Koivu being lost for much of the regular season due to being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Showing the heart of a true champion, Koivu made it through chemotherapy and returned for the playoffs as he led the team in scoring during the postseason with ten points.
By defeating the Bruins in six games, the Canadiens captivated the hockey world with a plethora of feel good stories. And though they lost to the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round, it couldn’t take away from what the team had surprisingly accomplished in the first round.
