History Made at the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs
Photo Credit: Bruce Bennet/Getty Images via CBC
With another year of NHL hockey gone and the Stanley Cup playoffs finally being awarded, it's time to look back at what transpired. This year saw historic upsets and history being rewritten, with the Vegas Golden Knights ultimately hoisting the cup.
Golden Knights: Fastest Team in the West
Vegas, in only six seasons, has done something that 11 teams haven’t done over their entire existence. The Golden Knights now have the same amount of finals appearances, being two, as the Buffalo Sabres, a team that entered the league in 1970. The Golden Knights’ incredible pace has made them the fastest expansion team to win the Stanley Cup, beating the previous mark of seven seasons set by the Philadelphia Flyers.
Throughout the playoffs, Vegas rarely looked outmatched, beating the Winnipeg Jets 4-1; the Edmonton Oilers, a team that looked poised for the finals, 4-2; and defeating the Dallas Stars 4-2 to take them to the finals. In the finals, Vegas had their strongest showing taking down the Florida Panthers in five games, while outscoring them 26-12 over the series.
The Conn Smythe trophy, awarded to the most valuable player of the playoffs, was given to Jonathan Marchessault. He became the 10th undrafted player to win the award, the most recent since Wayne Gretzky. Adin Hill, Vegas’ goalie, was also a major factor in the Golden Knights’ Cup victory, posting a .932 save percentage.
Panthers: The Ultimate Underdog
Yes, the Florida Panthers got run over in the finals, but one should be impressed they even made it there. The lowest-seeded team in the playoffs this year, the Panthers even had a worse record than Calgary, a team that failed to make the playoffs in the Western Division. Time and time again, nothing was expected from this Florida team, despite having the best regular season record the previous season.
Down 3-1 to Boston in the first round, it was expected that Boston, the team which had just set the record for the most regular season wins, would close it out. However, Florida went on to win the next three games, including a game seven overtime win in Boston.
They would go on to defeat the higher seeded Toronto, a team which finally entered the second round for the first time in nearly 20 years, in five games. They would then sweep the Carolina Hurricanes in four games, including a quadruple overtime win in game one, which team leader in points Mathew Tkachuk would provide the game winner.
Along with Tkachuck, Sergei Bobrovsky, despite struggling in the final, put up a .915 save percentage over the playoffs, and carried the Panthers through much of their first three rounds. In large part because of Bobrovsky, Florida never lost once in overtime, going 7-0 in OT games. While it may have been a disappointing end, the Panthers have shown they have great potential for next year.
Maple Leafs: The Slimmest of Victories
After 19 years, the Toronto Maple Leafs finally won another playoff series. The great drought is over, and Leafs fans no longer need to worry about the curse. Instead, they get to deal with the fact that one of the best Maple Leafs teams ever assembled fell in five games to the 16th seed Panthers.
While losing to the Panthers, a team who had already upset the powerhouse Boston Bruins, is not the most embarrassing fate, it still shows that Toronto still isn’t ready to compete for the Cup. The team is now at a crossroads, with a large amount of their salary cap tied up in four major players, players who ultimately didn't deliver when the time required it.
McDavid, Draisaitl Not Enough, Avalanche Fail to Defend Title
Despite having the two top scorers from the regular season this year, the Oilers failed to make it out of the second round. None of this was the fault of Connor McDavid, who had 20 points in two rounds, putting him only five points behind Jack Eichel for the playoff lead, with Eichel playing four rounds. Leon Draisaitl also put up video game numbers, looking to be on pace to destroy the playoff goal record, with 13 goals in 12 games, tying for the most goals with Marchessault, who played 10 additional games.
However, the team desperately lacked secondary scoring, with McDavid and Draisaitl only being on the ice for so long. With only two years remaining on Draisaitl’s contract, and three remaining on McDavid’s, the Oilers desperately need to break through soon, or risk losing generational talent for nothing.
Finally, last year, the Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup final. This year, they were ousted in the first round by the Seattle Kraken, a team in their second year of existence. Plagued by injury through the regular season, the Avalanche began to pull together at the end of the season, finishing first in the Central Division. However, they lost in game seven at home to the Kraken. Much of this can be attributed to the injuries that faced the team, as they still had several key missing players when facing the Kraken, such as team captain Gabriel Landeskog and Valeri Nichushkin. While disappointing, head coach Jared Bendar found it “pretty impressive what they've overcome”.