2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs thread

After "There's trouble with the snap! And the ball is free!" Sean McDonough's voice gives me Vietnam-quality flashbacks.

 

Would not have guessed the Blues have the most post-expansion playoff appearances (Flyers and Penguins would have come to mind first). Amazing to think it's been 57 years and counting since the Original Six doubled in size. (And I'm disappointed my Golden Seals -- 2! -- are missing from that graphic!)

 

Kudos to the Leafs for staying alive. I know they are going to disappoint me, but they are the only team still standing I have much interest in.

 

Going out meekly in 5 just isn’t their modus operandi. Saturday, they could take a 10-goal lead in the first period and it wouldn’t be enough.

 

My first ever NHL game was in old St Louis Arena, so I adopted the Blues as one of my rooting interests in the pre-Preds era. They ran off a huge streak in the 80s and 90s of making the playoffs every year and virtually (maybe completely) never making it out of the Norris Division.

 

The thing about the Blues is how little they’ve made out of those appearances. As hack mentioned, for most of my life they were good for a competitive first or second round exit, and before that most of their playoff success was by way of being the best of the expansion teams, which were curiously all put in the same division.

That whole Stanley Cup run in 2019 was bizarre in that they actually won it.

 

I was wondering how many the Golden Seals/Cleveland Barons had. We're those in the first two years of expansion?

The Jets/Coyotes made the playoffs 20 times, nine in Phoenix. They won five total series and made it to the conference finals in 2012. The rest were first round losses.

 

Doubly so b/c they were the worst team in the league into January. But then Gloria!

 

From 79-80 to 03-04, the Blues made the playoffs 25 consecutive seasons (I seem to recall they were mentioned as holding the longest current playoff appearance streak around the end of that run).

From all those seasons, just 2 conference finals and no Stanley Cup appearances.

 

I was curious, so I looked it up. The three longest streaks all ended within 10 years of each other.
1) Boston 29 67/68-95/96
2) Chicago 28 69/70-96/97
3) St Louis 25 79/80-03/04
(Detroit tied St. Louis later)

 

Doing the ol LMGTFY, but it's OK, now I want to know:

The Seals made the playoffs twice in nine years, losing in the first round both times. The Barons missed in both of their years of existence.