The Five Worst NHL Stanley Cup Finals Ever (At Least Since 1980)
What's bad for the casual hockey fan is, as always, good for Gary Bettman.
The NHL commissioner, who has spent the last 30 years putting money into owners' pockets with the hard salary cap, shoehorning hockey into warm weather cities and putting even more money into owners' pockets with regular expansion, will finally have something go his way on June 1, when the Carolina Hurricanes host the Vegas Golden Knights in the opener of the Stanley Cup Final.
No Canadian teams looking to end their nation's championship drought. No traditional powerhouses looking to hoist the most cherished trophy in sports. Just two warm-weather cities - one housing the former Hartford Whalers, torn from their loving Nutmeg State embrace, the other an expansion team whose idea of dues-paying involved losing in the Stanley Cup Final following its debut season in 2017-18 - aiming to make all six of the hardcore hockey fans in their markets happy.
(I'm from Connecticut, so keep that in mind when reading the above paragraph)
The Hurricanes-Golden Knights duel will also be a testimony to how the playoff format rarely yields the best teams in the Final.
Carolina finished second in the Eastern Conference, but Vegas won the Pacific Division with 93 points and 39 wins- fewer points than every Eastern Conference team and fewer wins than all but two East squads - before blitzing the Presidents' Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche in a four-game conference final sweep.
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The good news is the Stanley Cup Final usually delivers enough drama to lure in the casual viewer who wants to see the two best regular-season teams and doesn't live in a southern or western hockey hotbed.
Just 20 of the last 45 Stanley Cup Finals were decided in fewer than six games. So the odds are good the Not Whalers and Golden Knights won't join this list of the worst Stanley Cup Finals since 1980!
5.) 2023: Golden Knights over Florida Panthers in 5
The last time something went Bettman's way, the Golden Knights' epic title drought ended with a rout of the Cinderella Panthers, who won the East as the no. 8 seed.
Vegas outscored Florida 42-18 in a series that included just two games decided by one goal and one that went into overtime.
4.) 2021: Tampa Bay Lightning over Montreal Canadiens in 5
Whoever came up with the term gentleman's sweep had this Stanley Cup Final in mind. The Canadiens, who collected just 59 points during the pandemic-shortened 56-game regular season before getting hot in what amounted to the Western Conference playoffs, never led in any of their losses to the Lightning, who are not appreciated enough for winning consecutive titles in a nine-month span in the middle of a pandemic.
The real title series came a round earlier in what amounted to an Eastern Conference final between the Lightning and New York Islanders - a clash that included the Islanders closing out Nassau Coliseum and forcing Game 7 with a raucous win before the Lightning earned a 1-0 victory on a short-handed goal two nights later.
3.) 1982: Islanders over Vancouver Canucks in 4
The dynastic Islanders lost just one game in the Finals over the course of their final three championships. But we choose this sweep - in which the Islanders, who collected 41 more regular season points than the Canucks, won the final three games by at least two goals apiece - over their 1983 sweep of the Edmonton Oilers, which fueled the NHL's next dynasty.
The sight of the Islanders, too exhausted to celebrate in the bowels of Nassau Coliseum, reminded the Oilers how much work they still had to do. Edmonton dethroned New York in 1984 for the first of its five titles in a seven-year span.
2.) 1997: Detroit Red Wings over Philadelphia Flyers in 4
This was the first of two straight Final sweeps for the Red Wings, who faced their only deficit when John LeClair scored 7:03 into Game 2.
Steve Yzerman scored exactly two minutes late to begin a game-ending six-goal flurry for Detroit.
1.) 1995: New Jersey Devils over Red Wings in 4
The sludgy, trap-loving Devils outscoring the Red Wings - whose 70 points were 10 more than anyone else and 18 more than New Jersey - by a 16-7 margin in the sweep was the perfect ending to Bettman's first lockout-shortened season, which wiped away all the momentum the NHL gained when it moved into the mainstream as the New York Rangers finally ended their title drought in June 1994.
Great job, great effort. Can't wait for Rob Manfred to do the same thing this winter.
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This story was originally published June 1, 2026 at 5:03 PM.