New York Islanders

The New York Islanders are a professional ice hockey team that plays in the NHL that is based in Uniondale, a hamlet located on Long Island in Town of Hempstead, Nassau County, New York, United States.
The team is a member of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). The Islanders began play in 1972 and rapidly developed a dominant team that won four consecutive Stanley Cup championships in the early 1980s. They play their home games at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Franchise history

1970-74: The NHL Comes to Long Island
With the impending start of the World Hockey Association in the fall of 1972, the upstart league had plans to place its New York team in the brand-new Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Nassau County. However, Nassau County officials did not consider the WHA a major league and wanted nothing to do with the upstart New York Raiders. The only legal way to keep the Raiders out of the Coliseum was to get an NHL team to play there, so William Shea, who had helped bring the New York Mets to the area a decade earlier, was pressed into service once again. Shea found a receptive ear in league president Clarence Campbell, who did not want the additional competition in the New York area. So, despite having expanded to 14 teams just two years before, the NHL hastily awarded a Long Island-based franchise to clothing manufacturer Roy Boe, owner of the American Basketball Association's New York Nets. A second expansion franchise was awarded to Atlanta (the Flames) at the same time to balance the schedule. The new team was widely expected to take the Long Island Ducks name used by an Eastern Hockey League franchise; the more geographically expansive "New York Islanders" came largely as a surprise. The fledgling Islanders, who were soon nicknamed the Isles by the local newspapers, had an extra burden to pay in the form of a $4 million territorial fee to the nearby New York Rangers.
While the Islanders secured veteran forward Ed Westfall from the Boston Bruins in the 1977 NHL Expansion Draft, junior league star Billy Harris in the 1972 NHL Amateur Draft, and a few other respectable players, several other draftees jumped to the WHA. Unlike most other expansion teams' general managers, Islanders' GM Bill Torrey didn't make many trades for veteran players in the early years. Rather than pursue a "win now" strategy of getting a few veterans to boost attendance (a tactic which proved disastrous for many teams in the long run), Torrey was committed to building through the draft.
In the team's first season, young players such as goaltender Billy Smith (the team's second pick in the expansion draft) and forwards Bob Nystrom and Lorne Henning were given chances to prove themselves in the NHL. However, this young and inexperienced expansion team posted a record of 12-60-6, one of the worst in NHL history.
The team who finished last in 1972-73 received the right to pick first in the 1973 amateur draft and select junior superstar defenseman Denis Potvin, who had been touted "as the next Bobby Orr" when he was 13. Despite several trade offers from Montreal Canadiens GM Sam Pollock, Torrey refused to part with the pick. That same summer, Torrey made perhaps the most critical move in the history of the franchise when he convinced former St. Louis Blues coach Al Arbour to come to Long Island. Even with Potvin, who won the Calder Memorial Trophy as NHL Rookie Of The Year, the team still finished last in the East in its second year. Under Arbour, the team showed signs of respectability. Although the team did not make the playoffs, they allowed 100 fewer goals than the previous season, and their 56 points represented a healthy 26-point improvement from the previous season. It turned out to be the team's last losing season for 15 years.

1974-79: Ascendency
In 1975, the Islanders made one of the biggest turnarounds in NHL history. Led by Potvin, forwards Harris, Nystrom, Clark Gillies, and goaltenders Smith and Glenn "Chico" Resch, the Islanders earned 88 points — 32 more than the previous season, and two more than their first two seasons combined — and earned their first playoff berth. They stunned the rival New York Rangers in a best-of-3 first-round series. The Islanders won the series in the third game as J.P. Parise scored just 11 seconds into the extra session.
In the next round, an even bigger surprise occurred. Down three games to none in the best-of-seven series against the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Islanders rallied to win the next four and take the series. Only two other major North American professional sports teams have accomplished this feat, the 1941-42 Toronto Maple Leafs and the 2004 Boston Red Sox. In the third round of the playoffs, the Islanders nearly did it again, rallying from another 3-0 deficit to force a seventh game against the defending Stanley Cup champion Philadelphia Flyers before the Flyers took the decisive seventh game at home and went on to win the Stanley Cup.
The Islanders continued their stunning climb up the NHL standings in 1975-76, earning 101 points, the fifth-best record in the league. It was the first 100-point season in Islanders history, in only their fourth year of existence. Few teams in any sport have come so far so fast. Centerman Bryan Trottier, who scored 95 points and won the Calder Trophy, was blossoming into a superstar. It would be the first of four consecutive 100-point seasons, including the first two division titles in franchise history.

Postseason Disappointments
However, regular-season success was not rewarded in the playoffs. In 1976 and 1977, the Islanders were knocked out in the semifinals by the eventual Stanley Cup champion Montreal Canadiens. The Canadiens were 24-3 in the playoffs in those two years — all three losses to the Islanders.
In the 1977 NHL Amateur Draft, Torrey had the 15th pick and had to make a tough decision between right winger Mike Bossy and another forward. Bossy was known as a scorer who wasn't physical, while the other forward could check but wasn't very good offensively. Coach Arbour persuaded Torrey to pick Bossy, figuring it was easier to teach a scorer how to check. In the upcoming 1978 season, Bossy became the third Isle to win the Calder Trophy, having scored 53 goals that season, at the time the most scored by a rookie. The team was upset in the quarterfinal round in overtime of game 7 by the Toronto Maple Leafs.
In 1978-79, the team finished with the best record in the NHL. Bryan Trottier was voted the league MVP and captured the scoring title, while sophomore Bossy scored 69 goals, which also led the league. Despite their regular season dominance, the Islanders exited the playoffs with a loss to the hated New York Rangers in the semifinals. Hockey professionals and journalists generally regarded the Rangers as an inferior team, which led them to question whether the Islanders were capable of winning big games in the playoffs when they really counted.
Off the ice, the Islanders were on shaky ground. Boe was losing money on both the Islanders and the Nets even as the Islanders quickly surged to NHL prominence and the Nets became an ABA power. The Islanders were still far behind on the $10 million they had paid in startup costs, and the expenses associated with moving the Nets to the NBA threw Boe's finances into a tailspin. Eventually, Boe was forced to sell both his teams. He readily found a buyer for the Nets, but had less luck finding one for the Islanders. Torrey orchestrated a sale to one of the team's limited partners, John O. Pickett Jr., who made Torrey team president. Soon after buying the Islanders, Pickett signed a very lucrative cable contract with the fledgling Sportschannel network. SportsChannel's owner, Charles Dolan, thought the up-and-coming team would be a perfect centerpiece for his new network. Dolan gave Pickett a long-term guaranteed contract intended to not only keep the team on Long Island, but give area governments an incentive to renew his cable contracts. The Islanders have been on the network, now known as Fox Sports Net New York, for over a quarter-century.

1980-84: The Dynasty Years
After the Isles' regular season dominance and playoff disappointment in 1979, Arbour decided that he would no longer concern himself too greatly with his team's finish in the regular season. Instead, he focused his team's energy on how they would perform in the playoffs. In 1980, the Islanders dropped below the 100-point mark for the first time in five years, earning only 91 points. However, they finally broke through and won the Stanley Cup.
Before the playoffs, Torrey made the difficult decision to trade longtime and popular veterans Billy Harris and defenceman Dave Lewis to the Los Angeles Kings for second line center Butch Goring. Goring's acquisition was acknowledged as bringing in the "final piece of the puzzle", as he was a strong two-way player, ensured that opponents would no longer be able to focus their defensive efforts on the Isles' first line of Bossy, Trottier, and Clark Gillies. Contributions from new teammates, such as wingers Duane Sutter and Anders Kallur, and stay-at-home defensemen Gord Lane and Olympic champion Ken Morrow also figured prominently in the Islanders' playoff success.
In the semi-finals, the Isles faced the Buffalo Sabres, who had finished second overall in the NHL standings. They won the first two games in Buffalo, including a 3-2 victory in Game 2 on Bob Nystrom's goal in double overtime. They went on to win the series in six games and reach the Finals for the first time in franchise history, where they would face the NHL's regular season champions, the Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers had gone undefeated for a North American professional sports record 35 straight games (25-0-10) during the regular season. In Game 1 in Philadelphia, the Isles won 4-3 on Denis Potvin's power-play goal in overtime. Leading the series 3-2, they went home to Long Island for Game 6. In that game, original Islander Bob Nystrom continued his overtime heroics, scoring at 7:11 of the extra frame, on assists by John Tonelli and Lorne Henning, to bring Long Island its first Stanley Cup. It was the Isles' sixth overtime victory of the playoffs. Bryan Trottier won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Torrey's strategy of building through the draft turned out very well; nearly all of the major contributors on the 1980 champions were home-grown Islanders.
The Islanders dominated the next two seasons. Bossy scored 50 goals in 50 games in 1981, and the Islanders knocked off the Minnesota North Stars in five games to win their second Cup, with Butch Goring winning the Conn Smythe Trophy.
In 1981-82 the Islanders won a then-record 15 straight games en route to a franchise-record 118 points, while Mike Bossy set a scoring record for right wingers with 147 points in an 80 game schedule. The Islanders won both the regular-season title and the Stanley Cup, this time over the Vancouver Canucks in a four-game sweep. Memorably, Bossy was up-ended by a check from Tiger Williams and tumbling in the air, parallel to the ice, when he managed to hook the puck with his stick and score. Bossy netted the Stanley Cup-winning goal and was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy.
Though the Islanders had won three straight Stanley Cups, more attention was being paid to the upstart Edmonton Oilers, whose young superstar Wayne Gretzky had just shattered existing scoring records[. The 1982-83 season was thus a battle to decide which was the best team in the NHL. Though the Oilers won the regular season championship, the Islanders swept them in the championship finals to win their fourth straight Cup, holding Gretzky without a goal during the series. Billy Smith was named the Most Valuable Player of the Playoffs after shutting down the Oilers' vaunted scoring machine. Bossy again scored the Stanley Cup-winning goal.
The Isles finished the 1983-84 regular season tied atop the Prince of Wales Conference while successfully defending their Patrick Division title. They won a hard fought series with the Rangers in the opening round of the playoffs, nicknamed the Battle of New York. It was the fourth consecutive season that the Isles had beaten the Rangers en route to the Finals. This time, however, they were dethroned in five games by the Oilers' offensive juggernaut. For the 1984 postseason, the NHL changed the schedule for the finals, from 2-2-1-1-1 to 2-3-2. Under this format, the Islanders, who had earned home ice advantage in the series (despite finishing lower than the Oilers in the regular season), had to play three straight games in Edmonton, where the Oilers managed to lock up the series. Bossy said afterward that the team believed that if they could win a single away game, they would have been able to win games six and seven at home to win the cup.
Out of their two home games, the Islanders had lost game one 1-0 in what was a goaltending duel between Billy Smith and Grant Fuhr, though they roared back with a 6-1 win in game two. The three games in Edmonton were a disaster, as the Islanders lost 7-2, 7-2, and 5-2. Bossy, who had scored 17 goals in each of the past three playoffs only scored 8 in the first three rounds of the 1984 playoffs and was silenced during the final series. Though the Islanders' bid for a record-tying fifth championship was ended, Game Five was noted for rookie Pat LaFontaine's emergence as he scored two third period goals in 38 seconds to cut the Oilers' lead to 4-2.
During their run of four Stanley Cup championships and a fifth finals appearance, the Islanders won 19 straight playoff series, the longest streak in the history of professional sports (one more than the Boston Celtics' 1959-67). Unlike the 1976-79 Montreal Canadiens who only needed to win three series in the 1976 and 1977 playoffs under the playoff format in place at that time, the Islanders had to win four series in each of their Stanley Cup seasons.

1984-91: Post-Dynasty and the Easter Epic
The Isles generally remained competitive for the rest of the decade, even as some of the stars from the Cup teams began departing. As the decade wore on, Pickett began to keep the money from the team's cable deal rather than reinvest it in the team as he had done in years past. Although it didn't become clear immediately, the lack of funds limited Torrey's ability to replace all of the departing talent.
However, in the 1984-85 NHL season, they slipped to third in the Patrick Division and could do no better in the 1985-86 and 1986-87 seasons. The Isles were now facing stiff competition from their division rivals, the Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals; they suffered 1985 and 1987 second round playoff elimination at the hands of the eventual finalist Flyers, while the 1986 sweep by the Capitals marked the Isles' first exit without winning a playoff round since 1978.
In 1986, Nystrom retired and Clark Gillies was picked up on waivers by the Buffalo Sabres. Arbour retired as coach following 1985-86 and was replaced by longtime junior hockey coach Terry Simpson. Young players such as Pat LaFontaine, Patrick Flatley, and Brent Sutter, who had been viewed as the future of the team, began coming into their own as players.
During the first round of the 1987 playoffs against the Washington Capitals, the Isles had fallen behind in the series three games to one. In previous years, the Capitals would have won the series, but 1987 marked the first season that the opening round of the playoffs was a best-of-7 series, not a best-of-5 series. The Isles evened the series, which set the stage for one of the most famous games in NHL history: the "Easter Epic". Kelly Hrudey stopped 73 shots on a goal while Pat LaFontaine scored at 8:47 of the fourth overtime--and at 1:56 am on Easter Sunday morning. The win came even though the Islanders had been outshot 75-52. The Islanders were beaten in seven games by the Flyers in the second round of the playoffs. Chronic back pain forced Mike Bossy to retire after the 1986-87 season.
The next year, in 1988, the Islanders captured another division title but were upset in the first round of the playoffs by the New Jersey Devils. After the '88 playoffs, Denis Potvin retired holding records for most career goals (310), assists (742) and points (1052) by a defenseman.
Around this time, the Islanders' run of good luck in the draft began to run out. Of their four top draft picks from 1987 to 1990, the Islanders lost one to a freak knee injury and two others never panned out.
A year after winning the division, the Islanders got off to a slow start in the 1988-89 season, winning only seven of their first 27 games. Torrey fired Simpson and brought Arbour back. Unfortunately, Arbour couldn't turn things around, and the Islanders finished with 61 points, tied with the Quebec Nordiques for the worst record in the league. It was the Islanders' first losing season and first time out of the playoffs since their second year of existence. Goalie Billy Smith, the last remaining original Islander, retired after the season.
Not long after the end of the 1988-89 debacle, Pickett moved to Florida and turned over day-to-day operations over to a committee of fourLong Island entrepreneurs--Ralph Palleschi, Steve Walsh, Bob Rosenthal and Paul Greenwood. In return, they each bought a 2.5 interest in the team.
In 1989-90, the Islanders rebounded to get back in the playoffs, but they lost to the Rangers in five games. The team bought out the remaining years of Bryan Trottier's contract, and he signed on as a free agent for the Pittsburgh Penguins in the off-season.
The next year, the team finished well out of the playoffs after winning only 25 games.

1991-95: New Faces and the Miracle of 1993
LaFontaine, the Islanders' remaining superstar, was frustrated with the team's lack of success and the progress of his contract negotiations, and held out rather than report to camp before 1991-92. In response to the holdout, Torrey engineered a rebuilding project with two blockbuster trades on October 25, 1991. He dealt Lafontaine, Randy Wood, and Randy Hillier (along with future considerations) to the Buffalo Sabres in return for Pierre Turgeon, Benoit Hogue, Uwe Krupp, and Dave McLlwain. He also sent longtime captain Brent Sutter and Brad Lauer to the Chicago Blackhawks for Steve Thomas and Adam Creighton. With these additions and a talented core of players such as Derek King, Ray Ferraro, and Patrick Flatley along with incoming Soviet-bloc players Vladimir Malakhov and Darius Kasparaitis, the Islanders had a new foundation in the early '90s. However, the management committee was not nearly as patient as Boe and Pickett had been, and forced Torrey to resign after the Islanders missed the playoffs again that season. Assistant GM Don Maloney was hired in Torrey's place, while Torrey quickly resurfaced with the expansion Florida Panthers.
In Maloney's first year, 1992-93, the Islanders rebounded to make the playoffs, in the process surpassing the 80-point mark for the first time in six years. The LaFontaine-Turgeon trade proved successful for both the Islanders and Buffalo Sabres as both players hit career highs in points and Turgeon won the Lady Byng Trophy.
Unheralded Ray Ferraro and Steve Thomas emerged as playoff heroes, with Ferraro scoring a pair of overtime winners in the first round series against the Washington Capitals. Instead of celebrating after winning the decisive sixth game at Nassau Coliseum, however, the Islanders were both irate and despondent. Turgeon, the team's star center and leading scorer, suffered a shoulder separation when Dale Hunter checked him from behind as he celebrated a series-clinching goal. Turgeon was believed to be out for the entire second round, if not longer. Hunter received a then-record 21-game suspension.
The Islanders' next opponent, the Pittsburgh Penguins, were twice-defending Stanley Cup champions and full of stars such as Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, and Ron Francis. The Penguins had roared through the regular season with 119 points, and were overwhelmingly favored to win a third championship. Jim Smith of Newsday, Long Island's hometown newspaper, predicted that with Turgeon on the sidelines, the Penguins would sweep the Islanders out of the playoffs. However, on the strength of outstanding goaltending from Glenn Healy and contributions from all four lines, the Islanders achieved a huge upset when David Volek scored at 5:16 of overtime of the deciding seventh game. Newsday's front page the day following the win was a picture of Healy with a headline reading, "It's a Miracle!"
Turgeon returned for the semifinals against the Montreal Canadiens, though he was not in peak form as he had not fully recovered. The Islanders bowed out of the playoffs after a hard-fought five games, two of which went to overtime. After beating the Isles, the Canadiens went on to win the Cup.
Maloney had avoided making many personnel changes his first year, but a contract dispute with Healy led him to sign Ron Hextall, who had his best years with the rival Philadelphia Flyers.Fans grew more skeptical when, after a series of deals, Healy ended up as the backup on the Rangers. Although on paper Hextall appeared to be an upgrade, his play was inconsistent and he never endeared himself to Islanders fans.
The Islanders barely squeezed past the expansion Florida Panthers into the 1994 playoffs before being swept in a lopsided opening series by the first-place Rangers, who went on to win the Cup. Arbour retired for good as coach and was succeeded by longtime assistant Lorne Henning. Hextall, fairly or not, drew most of the criticism for the failed playoff campaign and was shipped back to Philadelphia for Tommy Soderstrom in the off-season.
In the lockout-shortened 1994-95 season, the Islanders not only failed to qualify for the playoffs, they finished ahead of only the third-year Ottawa Senators.

1995-2000: Management Issues
By the end of the 1994-95 season, it became clear that Maloney had mismanaged the team. Since taking over in 1992, the only noticeable attempt he made to upgrade the roster was letting Healy go in favor of Hextall. Near the end of the failed 1995 campaign, Maloney decided that the core of players he had left alone for three seasons should be totally revamped, and he undertook a rebuilding project. He traded Turgeon and Malakhov to Montreal for Kirk Muller and Mathieu Schneider, and Hogue was sent to Toronto for young goaltender Eric Fichaud. Additionally, Maloney allowed the team's leading scorer, Ferraro, to depart as a unrestricted free agent at the conclusion of the season. Fans' displeasure at the GM for trading the popular Turgeon was magnified when Muller balked at joining a rebuilding team. He only played 45 games for the Islanders before being sent to the Maple Leafs.
Before the 1995-96 season, Maloney fired Henning and named Mike Milbury head coach. The same year, the Isles' attempt at updating their look resulted in the unveiling of a logo depicting a fisherman holding a hockey stick. It proved to be such a disaster that the team announced less than a year after unveiling it that they would revert back to the original logo as soon as league rules allowed. Rangers fans still mock the Isles with chants of "we want fishsticks", a reference to the way the logo resembled the Gorton's fisherman. The year was a failure on the ice as well, as the Islanders finished in last place with a record of 22-50-10. During the season, team management fired Maloney, whom fans blamed for the team's downfall, and gave Milbury total control of hockey operations as both coach and general manager.
In the middle of the 1996-97 season, Milbury resigned as coach and elevated assistant Rick Bowness to the head coaching position. However, after another losing season and little improvement, Milbury took over as coach in the middle of the 1997-98 season. The team improved to fourth place in the Atlantic Division but still failed to make the playoffs. He stepped down as coach yet again in the middle of the 1998-99 season but retained his job as GM.
During their lean years, chaos within the Islanders' ownership and front office mirrored their substandard performance on the ice. Pickett sold the team to Dallas businessman John Spano in 1996. However, three months after the 1997 closing, Spano still hadn't paid Pickett the first installment on the cable deal. Evidence surfaced that Spano had deliberately misled the NHL and the Islanders about his net worth, and an investigation by Newsday revealed that Spano also had two lawsuits pending against him. When it became clear that Spano was a fraud and that he lacked the assets to purchase the team, ownership reverted to Pickett. Federal prosecutors turned up evidence that Spano had forged many of the documents used to vouch for his wealth and to promise payment to Pickett. He was sentenced to five years eleven months in prison for bank and wire fraud. The NHL was embarrassed when reports surfaced that it had only spent $750 to check Spano's background, and subsequently stiffened the process for vetting future owners.
Pickett finally found a buyer, a group led by Howard Milstein and Phoenix Coyotes co-owner Steven Gluckstern. Even that deal almost fell through when Spectacor Management Group, which managed the Coliseum for Nassau County, tried to force Pickett to certify that the Coliseum was safe. However, Pickett refused, since the Coliseum had fallen into disrepair in recent seasons. SMG backed down under pressure from the Islanders, the NHL and Nassau County officials.
Initially the team made numerous trades and increased their payroll in an effort to assemble a better team. In one representative transaction, well regarded young players Todd Bertuzzi and Bryan McCabe were traded for veteran Trevor Linden. However, as the Islanders continued to fall short of the playoffs, the new ownership group eventually decided to run the team on an austere budget in an attempt to make a profit. At the same time, Milstein bid hundreds of millions of dollars in unsuccessful attempts to purchase the National Football League's Washington Redskins and Cleveland Browns. Eventually, under Milstein and Gluckstern, the team traded or released many popular players who made more than $1M, including star scorer Zigmund Palffy, captain Trevor Linden, 1997 Calder Trophy-winning defenseman Bryan Berard and rugged defenseman Rich Pilon.

2000-2006: New ownership, a return to the playoffs
In 2000, Milstein and Gluckstern sold the team to Computer Associates executives Charles Wang and Sanjay Kumar.
With stable ownership finally in place, Milbury was allowed to spend money and invest in free agents. His first attempt proved unpopular with fans, as he traded away future stars Roberto Luongo and Olli Jokinen to the Florida Panthers for Oleg Kvasha and Mark Parrish. Additionally, Eric Brewer, a future All-Star defenseman was traded to the Edmonton Oilers for veteran defenseman Roman Hamrlik. Milbury then further surprised the hockey world when he took Rick DiPietro with the first selection in the entry draft, ahead of the consensus picks Dany Heatley and Marian Gaborik. Reporters and fans were alternately confused and enraged by the moves, which Milbury acknowledged, saying, "As dangerous as this may be, we think Mad Mike maybe has something going for him." The "Mad Mike" nickname has remained with Milbury ever since. Milbury said that his moves were intended to improve the team immediately, and in that respect they failed completely. The Islanders finished with the worst record in the NHL, and the team's uninspired play led Milbury to fire Isles legend Butch Goring as head coach before the end of the year. Many fans were upset that Goring and not Milbury took the fall for the lost season, and they were again upset when Milbury hired newcomer Peter Laviolette to coach the team, passing on Ted Nola.
The team also made three key personnel acquisitions prior to the 2001-02 season. They acquired Alexei Yashin from the Ottawa Senators in exchange for the Isles' the second overall in the entry draft, which the Senators used to select Jason Spezza, forward Bill Muckalt, and defenseman Zdeno Chara. The following day, Islanders prospects Tim Connoll and Taylor Pyatt were traded to the Buffalo Sabres for Michael Peca, who became the team's captain. By virtue of finishing last the year before, the Isles were also able to claim goaltender Chris Osgood with the first pick in the waiver draft, adding a former championship goaltender without giving up any players in exchange. Thanks in large part to strong play by Peca, Yashin and Osgood, the new-look Islanders opened the season on a tear, going 11-1-1-1 en route to finishing with 96 points--their best point total in 18 years, and just one point short of the Atlantic Division title. They fell to the Toronto Maple Leafs in a very physical first round series in which no road team won a game. Game 4 featured a Shawn Bates penalty shot goal with a 2:30 to play that gave the Islanders the lead and ultimately the game. In Game 5, Gary Roberts charged Islander defenseman Kenny Jonsson and Darcy Tucker submarined Peca, the Islanders' captain, with a questionable check. Neither Jonsson nor Peca returned in the series.
Despite the promise shown in the Toronto series, the Islanders had a slow start to the 2002-0 NHL season and lost a five game series in the first round to the top-seeded Senators. Milbury, known to make moves that often riled the fanbase, fired Laviolette after the season, citing end season interviews with the players in which they expressed a lack of confidence in the coach. He was replaced with Steve Stirling, who had previously been coaching the team's top minor league affiliate, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. In 2004, the Islanders again made the playoffs as the 8th seed and again lost in the first round to the eventual champion Tampa Bay Lightning. Despite the fact that the Lightning finished first in the conference and the Islanders qualified for the playoffs as the 8th and final seed, a few journalists had picked the Islanders to win based on their strong regular season performance against Tampa Bay.
Following the 2004-05 NHL lockout, which eliminated the 2004-05 season, the Islanders made several player moves to increase offense for 2005-06. Peca was traded to Edmonton for speedy center Mike York, freeing up room under the NHL's new salary cap. The same day, the team signed winger Miroslav Satan to play alongside Yashin. Milbury also remade the defensive corps, replacing departed free agents Adrian Aucoin and Roman Hamrlik and Jonsson, who left the NHL to play in his native Sweden, with Alexei Zhitnik, Brad Lukowich, and Brent Sopel. In the aftermath, Yashin was named the team's new captain. The team played inconsistent hockey, leading to Stirling's replacement on an interim basis by assistant Brad Shaw midway through the season. Although they played .500 hockey for the rest of the season, they missed the playoffs.

2006-present: A new look
On the day he replaced Stirling with Shaw, Milbury also announced that he would step down as general manager once a successor was found and become senior vice president of all of Wang's sports properties (Kumar had sold his interest to Wang in 2004).
The offseason was characterized by a degree of tumult. Team owner Charles Wang hired Ted Nolan as coach and Neil Smith as GM, but he fired Smith after a little over a month and replaced him with recently retired backup goaltender Garth Snow. The Islanders also made several free agent acquisitions, including defensemen Brendan Witt and Tom Poti and forwards Mike Sillinger and Chris Simon. The Islanders also signed goaltender Rick DiPietro to a 15-year, 67.5 million dollar contract, among the longest in professional sports history.
At the trade deadline, the team traded a first round draft pick and prospects Robert Nilsson and Ryan O'Marra to the Oilers for all-star Ryan Smyth.
In March, Chris Simon was suspended for the rest of the season and playoffs following a match penalty for intent to injure New York Rangers forward Ryan Hollweg.
The last four games in the 2006-07 season were crucial and most thought a playoff spot would be out of reach. However, the team won each game and edged out the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs for the final playoff spot in the process. The playoff-clinching game ended in a shootout win over the New Jersey Devils with minor league goalie Wade Dubielewicz poke-checking Sergei Brylin. The team expressed pride that they qualified because many NHL preview predictions had the Isles slated to finish at or near the bottom of the standings. They lost their first round matchup with the Buffalo Sabres, the NHL's best team during the regular season, in 5 games.
Milbury resigned his post in Wang's organization in May of 2007, saying he missed making day-to-day hockey decisions. The team announced that they would buy out Alexei Yashin's contract in June of 2007. Smyth, Viktor Kozlov, Jason Blake, Tom Poti, and Richard Zednik also left in July 2007 via free agency.
Days later, the Islanders signed Bill Guerin, who assumed the captaincy, to a two-year contract. Also in the offseason, free agents Mike Comrie, Ruslan Fedotenko, Andy Sutton, Jon Sim and Josef Vasicek joined the team.
On November 3, 2007 Al Arbour returned to coach his 1500th game for the Islanders at the behest of Ted Nolan, who wanted Arbour's regular season games coached total to reach 1500, a round number. The Islanders won the game, which extended Arbour's National Hockey League record for most games coached with one team and extended his NHL record 740 regular season wins with one team. Afterwards, in a post-game ceremony, the Islanders raised a new banner to honor Arbour's 1500th game coached for the Islanders.

**WWW.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

New Jersey Devils

The New Jersey Devils are a professional ice hockey team based in Newark, New Jersey. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). The club was founded in Kansas City, Missouri in 1974, moved to Denver, Colorado after only two seasons, and then settled in New Jersey in 1982. Under current general manager Lou Lamoriello, the Devils have made the playoffs in 17 out of the last 19 seasons, including each of the last 10. They have won the Stanley Cup in 1995, 2000, and 2003.
Since their move to New Jersey, the Devils had played their home games at the Izod Center (then known as first the Brendan Byrne Arena followed by the more common Continental Airlines Arena). Starting in the 2007-08 season, the team began playing their home games at the brand new Prudential Center, in Newark. The first game at the new arena took place on October 27, 2007 against the Ottawa Senators, whom the Devils played against in the last home game at Continental Airlines Arena.
They have rivalries with their trans-Hudson neighbor, the New York Rangers, and with the Philadelphia Flyers. The Devils or Flyers have won the Atlantic Division title every season since 1995.

Franchise history

Kansas City and Colorado
In 1974, the NHL ended its first expansion period by adding teams in Kansas City, Missouri and Washington, D.C. The Kansas City franchise was to be called the Mohawks, since the Kansas City metropolitan area includes portions of Missouri and Kansas. However, the Chicago Black Hawks objected to the similarity. The team was renamed the Scouts after a statue in the city.
On October 9, 1974, the Scouts took the ice for the first time at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto and lost 6-2 to the Maple Leafs. Due to a rodeo being held in Kansas City's brand-new Kemper Arena, the Scouts were forced to wait nine games before making their home debut. Although they lost that game to (ironically) the Black Hawks 4–3, the next night they beat their expansion brethren, the Washington Capitals, 5-4. Like most expansion teams, the Scouts were terrible, garnering only 41 points in their inaugural season. The next season, they won only 12 games—still the worst in franchise history. The Scouts failed to make the playoffs in either season in Kansas City and won only 27 of 160 games.
Although they were better than the Capitals (who won only eight games in their inaugural season), the Scouts began to suffer from an economic downturn in the Midwest. For their second season, the Scouts sold just 2,000 of 8,000 season tickets and was almost $1 million in debt. They finished the 1974-75 season with only 41 points. Due to these on-and off-ice disappointments, the franchise moved to Denver and was renamed the Colorado Rockies.
The team made a fresh start in Colorado, winning its first game 4-2 over Toronto. They picked up momentum and looked like a possible playoff contender, but things collapsed in February, and the Rockies finished the 1976–77 season with a record of 20-46-14; good for 54 points. The next season, despite finishing with fewer wins (they finished 21 games under .500), they managed to edge the Vancouver Canucks out of the last playoff spot by two points, but were quickly eliminated by the Philadelphia Flyers in the first round of the 1978 Stanley Cup playoffs.
A lack of stability continually dogged the team. In their first eight years, the Scouts/Rockies went through ten coaches, including eight in their first seven years, and none lasting more than one full season. While in Denver, the team changed owners twice.
Prior to the 1978–79 season, owner Jack Vickers sold the team to Arthur Imperatore, who announced that he wished to move the team to the New Jersey Meadowlands. The NHL vetoed the move since the Brendan Byrne Arena was still being built, and there was no suitable temporary facility in the area. In 1979, the team hired Don Cherry as head coach and traded for Maple Leafs star Lanny McDonald. Despite these moves, the Rockies still posted the worst record in the NHL. They played the next two seasons with the possibility of moving until May 27, 1982, when New Jersey shipping tycoon John McMullen purchased the team and announced that the long-expected move to New Jersey would finally come to pass.
The team would now be playing right in the middle of the New York–New Jersey–Connecticut tri-state area, home to the three-time defending Stanley Cup champion New York Islanders, as well as the very popular New York Rangers. The Devils had to compensate the Islanders, Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers for "invading" New Jersey.

New Jersey
1982–1993
The team was renamed the New Jersey Devils on June 30, 1982. Over 10,000 people voted in a contest held by local newspapers to select the name, which is influenced by the legend of the Jersey Devil; an ominous cryptozoological creature supposed to inhabit the Pine Barrens of South Jersey. The Devils' first game ended in a 3–3 tie to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Their first win, a 3-2 victory, came in New Jersey at the expense of their new trans-Hudson rivals, the New York Rangers. The team finished with a 17-49-14 record, putting them three points above last place in the Patrick Division.
In the following season, the Devils were publicly humiliated by Wayne Gretzky after they were blown out 13-4 by his team, the Edmonton Oilers. Gretzky was upset that former teammate Ron Low played for what he considered an inferior team, and in a post-game interview said:
“
Well, it's time they got their act together, folks. They're ruining the whole league. They had better stop running a Mickey Mouse organization and put somebody on ice.
”
Later, Gretzky publicly admitted that his comment went too far, but privately maintained that his comment was accurate. In response, many Devils fans wore Mickey Mouse apparel when the Oilers returned to New Jersey.
In the 1983–84 season, the Devils hosted the annual NHL All-Star Game at the Brendan Byrne Arena. Chico Resch was the winning goaltender, and Devils defenseman Joe Cirella tallied a goal as the Wales Conference beat the Campbell Conference 7–6. However, the team did not achieve much success. Head coach Bill MacMillan was fired midway through the season and replaced with Tom McVie, and the Devils won only 17 games. After the season, McVie was replaced by Doug Carpenter.
Meanwhile, the Devils had begun building a nucleus of young players. John MacLean, Kirk Muller, and Pat Verbeek all complemented the veteran leadership of Resch. The team's record improved each season between 1984 and 1987. However, the presence of the powerful Islanders, Flyers and Capitals in the Patrick Division meant that the Devils found themselves in a losing battle with the Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins for the division's last playoff spot. The Devils actually finished last in the Patrick in 1986 and 1987 despite improving their record.
Hoping to light a spark under the team, McMullen hired Providence College coach and athletic director Lou Lamoriello as team president in April 1987. Lamoriello appointed himself general manager shortly before the 1987–88 season. This move came as a considerable surprise to NHL circles. Although Lamoriello had been a college coach for 19 years, he had never played, coached, or managed in the NHL and was almost unknown outside the American college hockey community.
The 1987–88 Devils garnered the first winning record in the franchise's 13-year history. On the final day of the regular season, they were tied with their nemesis, the Rangers, for the final playoff spot in the Patrick Division. After New York defeated the Quebec Nordiques 3–0, all eyes were on the Devils, who were playing the Blackhawks in Chicago. The Devils were trailing 3-2 midway through the third period when John MacLean tied the game, and with two minutes left in overtime, he added the winning goal. Although the Rangers and Devils both finished with 82 points, the Devils had one more win, sending them to the playoffs for the second time in franchise history.
The team made it all the way to the conference finals, but lost to the Boston Bruins in seven games. In that series, head coach Jim Schoenfeld verbally abused referee Don Koharski after the third game, screaming obscenties. During the exchange, Koharski slipped and fell against the wall. He immediately claimed that Schoenfeld had pushed him, but Schoenfeld retorted that Koharski had fallen down. As Koharski snapped that Schoenfeld was "gone," Schoenfeld replied, "Good, 'cause you fell, you fat pig. Have another donut!" League disciplinarian Brian O'Neill ordered Schoenfeld to sit out game four. The Devils demanded a hearing, but O'Neill refused. Claiming their rights as well as Schoenfeld's had been violated, the Devils appealed to New Jersey Superior Court judge James F. Madden--an unprecedented appeal to authority outside the league. Forty minutes before game time, Madden ordered the suspension overturned pending a formal league hearing. In his order, Madden pointed out that the NHL's investigation consisted of two phone calls--one to Koharski and one to Schoenfeld--and criticized O'Neill for not reviewing the videotape. In protest, referee Dave Newell and linesmen Gord Broseker and Ray Scapinello refused to work the game. After more than an hour's delay, three off-ice officials--Paul McInnis, Jim Sullivan and Vin Godleski--were tracked down to work the game. McInnis served as the referee, while Sullivan and Godleski worked the lines wearing yellow scrimmage sweaters. Notably, league president John Ziegler was away on personal business and could not be contacted, leaving Chicago Blackhawks owner Bill Wirtz, as chairman of the league's board of governors, to give the order to play the game with backup officials.
Ziegler conducted a hearing on May 10, and suspended Schoenfeld for game five and fined him $1,000; the Devils were fined $10,000. Schoenfeld later admitted he regretted his comments. Nonetheless, Devils fans and broadcasters claimed for years afterward that the officials shortchanged them for several years afterward.
The next season, the Devils once again slipped below .500 and missed the playoffs. Lamoriello made several postseason player changes, notably signing of the first two Soviet stars to play in the NHL: Viacheslav Fetisov and Sergei Starikov. The Devils drafted Fetisov years earlier in the 1983 entry draft, but the Soviet government would not allow Fetisov, who was an army officer as well as a member of the national team, to leave the country. Shortly after, the Devils signed Fetisov's defense partner, Alexei Kasatonov.
The team changed coaches midway through each of the next two seasons. Schoenfeld was replaced with John Cunniff in 1989–90, and Tom McVie was re-hired midway through the 1990–91 season and helmed the team through its third-straight first-round elimination in 1991–92. Herb Brooks, who coached the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" team, was brought in for the 1992–93 season, but when the team yet again was eliminated in the first round, he was fired and replaced with former Montreal Canadiens coach Jacques Lemaire.

1993–2000
Under Lemaire, the team roared through the 1993–94 regular season with a lineup including defensemen Scott Stevens, Scott Niedermayer, and Ken Daneyko, forwards Stephane Richer, John MacLean, Bobby Holik, and Claude Lemieux, and goaltenders Chris Terreri and Martin Brodeur, who was honored as the league's top rookie with the Calder Memorial Trophy. The Devils' first 100-point season earned them the NHL's second-best record behind the New York Rangers. However, due to the NHL's new playoff format, the Devils were seeded third in the East, behind the Rangers and Penguins. The Devils and Rangers met in a memorable Eastern Conference Finals match up, which went seven games. The Devils had lost all six regular season meetings to the Blueshirts, but let the world know they were up for the challenge, after Stephane Richer scored the game winning goal in the second overtime of Game One. Going into Game 6, the Devils led the series 3-2. Before the game Rangers captain Mark Messier made his famous guarantee that the Rangers would win Game 6. Keeping true to his word, Messier led his team back, netting a natural hat trick, and leading the Rangers to a 4-2 victory (after the Devils were up 2–0). In game seven, the Devils' Valeri Zelepukin tied the deciding game with 7.7 seconds remaining, but the Devils were defeated in double overtime, on a goal by Stephane Matteau. Devils fans, however, claimed that Esa Tikkanen was in the crease, and the goal should have been wiped out. Nonetheless, the series is viewed by many hockey fans as one of the greatest playoff series in NHL history.
Despite the setback, the team returned to the Eastern Conference Finals during the lockout-shortened 1995 season and defeated the Philadelphia Flyers four games to two. They swept the heavily favored Detroit Red Wings to win New Jersey's first-ever Stanley Cup, and the first major professional sports championship in the state's history. Claude Lemieux was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoffs MVP. The Devils established an NHL record by posting 11 road victories in one playoff season. The success also came amid constant rumors that the team would move for the third time in its history to Nashville.
The Devils missed the playoffs by 2 points the following season, with a 37-33-12 record. They were beaten by the Tampa Bay Lightning for the last playoff spot in the East on the last day of the season. It marked the first time in 26 years that a defending Cup champion failed to reach the playoffs. Throughout the remainder of the decade, the Devils failed to live up to expectations. They were ousted by the New York Rangers in the second round of the 1997 playoffs, and were eliminated in the first round by the Ottawa Senators and the Pittsburgh Penguins the next two seasons.
But in the 1999–00 season, however, they reached the top again, defeating the defending champion Dallas Stars in six games to win the Stanley Cup for the second time. Stevens, Holik, Lemieux, Niedermayer, and Brodeur, all integral parts of the 1995 team, were augmented with new players acquired in the intervening five years including Patrik Elias, Petr Sykora, Jason Arnott, Alexander Mogilny, and rookies Brian Rafalski, John Madden, and Calder Trophy recipient Scott Gomez. A highlight of the Devils' second championship run was their come-from-behind victory in the conference finals. They trailed the Philadelphia Flyers three games to one, but rebounded to win the three straight games and the series. This was both the first time in Devils playoff history and in NHL Conference Finals history that a 3-1 deficit was surmounted.[ This series was also remembered for the bone crushing hit that team captain Scott Stevens laid on Flyers captain Eric Lindros, effectively ending Lindros' career in Philadelphia. Stevens was named the winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy, and assisted on Jason Arnott's Stanley Cup clinching goal in double-overtime of Game 6 in Dallas.
Shortly before this victory, McMullen sold the team to Puck Holdings, an affiliate of YankeeNets, for $175 million. The owners wanted to use the Devils and the New Jersey Nets (also a tenant at CAA) for programming on the YES Network and move both teams to a new arena in Newark. (Neither of these proposals would become reality under Puck Holdings' ownership.) The new owners largely left the Devils' operations in Lamoriello's hands. For the start of the next season, Lamoriello was appointed CEO of both the Devils and Nets. He would remain at the helm of the basketball team until it was sold with the intention of moving it to Brooklyn.

2001–2004
Led by the Elias-Arnott-Sykora line (The A Line) and the stellar play of goaltender Martin Brodeur, the Devils reached the Stanley Cup Finals for the second straight year in 2001. They lost the series to the Colorado Avalanche despite leading 3-2 and having game six on home ice. The team's strong regular season was recognized at the NHL's annual awards that year, with Madden becoming the first player in franchise history to win the Frank J. Selke Trophy (for top defensive forward), along with Brodeur and Stevens named as finalists for the Vezina Trophy (top goalie) and Norris Trophy (top defensemen) awards respectively.
In the 2001–02 season, they were expected to be contenders once again, and they finished the season as the 3rd best team in the Atlantic Division, with 95 points. The Devils entered the playoffs as a 6 seed, but lost in the first round to the number 3 seed Carolina Hurricanes.
In 2003, the Devils finished first in the Atlantic Division with 108 points, earning the number 2 seed in the East. Their playoff run included a seven-game conference final series victory, decided in the final three minutes on a goal by newly acquired forward Jeff Friesen, over the Ottawa Senators, who won the President's Trophy that season. In the Stanley Cup Finals, the Devils and Mighty Ducks of Anaheim had a back and forth battle, with both teams winning only their home games. The Devils brought the Stanley Cup to New Jersey a third time, defeating the Ducks in the 7th game of the Finals in New Jersey. Martin Brodeur, Scott Stevens, Scott Niedermayer, Ken Daneyko, and Sergei Brylin each won their third Cup, and after the series, Daneyko, a long-time fan favorite, announced his retirement. Despite Anaheim's loss, the Conn Smythe Trophy for playoff MVP was awarded to their goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere who was the first player not on the championship team to be named playoff MVP since Ron Hextall in 1987. Some hockey writers speculated a New Jersey player did not win because there were multiple candidates, resulting in a split vote among the sportswriters who select the winner. However, Brodeur was awarded the Vezina Trophy as outstanding goaltender in the regular season for the first time in his career.
In the 2003–04 season, Martin Brodeur would take home the Vezina Trophy again. Despite the permanent loss of long time team captain Scott Stevens the Devils finished 2nd in the Atlantic Division with 100 points. With the 6th seed in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Devils would bow to the Philadelphia Flyers 4 games to 1. In March of 2004, near the end of the season, Lehman Brothers executive Jeffrey Vanderbeek purchased a controlling interest from Puck Holdings and resigned from Lehman Brothers to assume full-time ownership. He had been a minority owner since the 2000 sale.
Vanderbeek was a strong proponent of the proposed arena in Newark, which first received funding from the city council during Puck Holdings' ownership in 2002. After legal battles over both eminent domain and the city's financial participation in the arena project, the final deal was approved by council in October 2004, and the groundbreaking occurred almost exactly a year later. Nonetheless, in January 2006 financial issues threatened to halt the deal, as the Devils did not provide the city with a required letter of credit until the last possible day.
Though construction was well underway, in late summer 2006, Cory Booker, who had recently taken office as Mayor of Newark, promised to reevaluate the deal and considered backing out. In October Booker conceded there would be "a first-class arena built in the city of Newark, whether we like it or not", and soon after the Devils struck a deal including both property and monetary givebacks that appeased city officials. The arena, which was named the Prudential Center when Newark-based Prudential Financial purchased naming rights in early 2007, opened shortly after the start of the 2007–08 season.

2004–present
During the 2004-05 NHL lockout, many Devils players played in European leagues and in the hockey world championships. Patrik Elias, who was playing in the Russian Superleague, contracted hepatitis A by eating poorly cooked fish. Faced with Elias' indefinite recovery timetable, plus the loss of defensive stalwarts Scott Niedermayer to free agency and Scott Stevens to retirement, Lamoriello signed veteran defenseman Dan McGillis and two former Devils — winger Alexander Mogilny and defenseman Vladimir Malakhov, none of whom would finish the season on the ice. In July 2005, the team announced that head coach Pat Burns would not return for the 2005–2006 season after being diagnosed with cancer for the second time in little more than a year. Assistant coach Larry Robinson, the team's head coach from 2000 to 2002, was promoted to start the season.
The Devils struggled early in the 2005–06 season, ending the 2005 calendar year with a 16-18-5 record. Robinson resigned as head coach on December 19, and Lamoriello moved down to the bench.[49] Once Elias returned from his bout with hepatitis, the team quickly turned around, finishing 46-27-9 after a season-ending eleven-game winning streak capped with a dramatic 4-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens. During that final victory, which clinched the Devils' sixth division title, Brian Gionta set a new team record for goals in a season with 48, topping Pat Verbeek's 46. The win streak to close the year was also an NHL record.
On April 29, 2006, the Devils won their first round Stanley Cup playoff series against the New York Rangers four games to none, extending their winning streak to fifteen games and marking the first time the Devils defeated their cross-river rival in a playoff series. The team's season ended in the next round with an 4-1 Game 5 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes, who would go on to win the Stanley Cup.
In the offseason, the Devils hired former Montreal Canadiens coach Claude Julien to replace Lamoriello behind the bench. However, in the last week of the 2006–2007 Devils season, with just three games left, Julien was fired, and Lamoriello once again reprised his coaching role. The move is reminiscent of Robbie Ftorek's firing with eight games left in the 1999–00 season, after which the Devils won the Stanley Cup. Lamoriello defended the move saying, "I don't think we're at a point of being ready both mentally and [physically] to play the way that is necessary going into the playoffs." The Devils went on to win their seventh Atlantic Division title and earn the second seed in the Eastern Conference after finishing ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins by two points. They defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games in the first round, but struggled against the fourth seeded Ottawa Senators in the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals and lost to them in five games. Their final loss of the series on May 5, 2007 marked the final game of the Devils' 25-year history at the Continental Airlines Arena.
The early playoff exit has led to some speculation that this is the "end of an era" for the Devils. This proved to be correct, as on July 1, 2007, long-time Devils Scott Gomez and Brian Rafalski left the team as unrestricted free agents, Gomez to the rival New York Rangers and Rafalski to the Detroit Red Wings. Back-up goalie Scott Clemmensen went to the Toronto Maple Leafs, and local favorite forward Jim Dowd opted for free agency. However, the Devils signed Sabre forward Dainius Zubrus and Ranger defenseman Karel Rachunek shortly after. On July 5, the Devils signed Rangers goalie Kevin Weekes as a backup to Brodeur, as well as Predators defenseman Vitali Vishnevski on July 10. Devils' Zach Parise, Patrik Elias, and Paul Martin all signed six year deals each, later that month also. On July 13, 2007, Brent Sutter was named the 14th head coach of the team, along with previous coach Larry Robinson, to aide John Maclean as the second assistant coach. On August 7, 2007, the Devils signed former Islander Arron Asham. After the Devils preseason came to an end, Devils prospects Nicklas Bergfors and David Clarkson made the final roster. The Devils opened their new arena, the Prudential Center, on October 27, 2007 against the Ottawa Senators after opening the season with a nine game road trip. The game ended with a 4-1 win for Ottawa. On October 31, 2007, the New Jersey Devils won their first home game at the Prudential Center by beating the Tampa Bay Lightning, 6-1. Jay Pandolfo was the first Devils player to score a hat trick at the Prudential Center.

**WWW.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

Nashville Predators

The Nashville Predators are a professional ice hockey team based in Nashville, Tennessee. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League(NHL)

Franchise history

The team was named after the fossil skull of a saber-toothed cat—a species extinct for at least 10,000 years—that was found in August 1971, in a cave during the excavation for the AmSouth Center in downtown Nashville. The fossil is only the fifth of its kind found in North America.
When awarded a franchise, the Predators got a very lucrative deal. The city of Nashville paid 31.50% of the $80-million fee to join the league. The city also absorbs operating losses from the arena, despite the fact that the Sommet Center is operated by a subsidiary of the team.
The Predators first took the ice on October 10, 1998, where they lost 1-0 at home to the Florida Panthers. Three nights later, on October 13, they defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 3-2 for their first win. Forward Andrew Brunette scored the first goal on a play that was reviewed by the video goal judge.

1998-99 season
The Predators, in their first year of existence, finished second-last in the Western Conference with a 28-47-7 record, ahead of the Vancouver Canucks.

1999-00 season
The Predators finished the 1999-00 NHL season with an almost identical record to the previous season (28-47-7-7), and finished last in the West behind the Calgary Flames. During a game versus the New York Islanders on February 20, 2000 the Predators scored four goals in 3 minutes and 38 seconds.

2000-01 season
The Predators opened the 2000-01 NHL season with two games in Japan against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Each team won a game in front of the largest crowds ever to see a hockey game in Japan. Backed by the goaltending duo of Mike Dunham and Tomas Vokoun, Nashville finished the season in tenth place in the West, 10 points out of a playoff spot with a 34-36-9-3 record, good for 80 total points.

2001-02 season
A highlight of the 2001-02 NHL season for the Predators was recording their 100th victory as a franchise on December 6, 2001. With that win, Nashville became the second-fastest expansion team of the 1990s to reach the 100-win plateau. The team was especially unlucky in overtime, finishing with a 28-41-13-0 record - good for 69 points, and 15th spot in the West.

2002-03 season
The 2002-03 NHL season saw another record broken by the Predators, as coach Barry Trotz broke the record for most games coached by the original coach of an expansion team (392 games). Nashville finished the season with a 27-35-13-7 record for 74 points, putting them well out of contention in the Western Conference in 14 place.

2003-04 season
In the 2003-04 NHL season, the Predators, under coach Barry Trotz, finished eighth in the Western Conference and made their first trip to the playoffs. The rival Red Wings beat them in six games in the quarterfinal.

2004-05 season
This season did not occur due to a labour dispute between the owners and players.

2005-06 season
In 2005-06, the Predators set an NHL record by winning their first four games by one goal each (although two of those were shootout victories, which would have been tie games in previous seasons). They also became only the fourth NHL franchise to start the season 8-0; the last time a team did so was the Toronto Maple Leafs, who set the mark with a 10-0 start in 1993. The Buffalo Sabres tied the Leafs' record in 2006. The Predators set the franchise mark for wins in a season with a 2-0 shutout of the Phoenix Coyotes on March 16, 2006. In that match, Chris Mason became the ninth goaltender to score a goal. By the end of the season, the Predators had accumulated 106 points—their first 100-point season—and clinched home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs for the first time in team history. They finished the season with an NHL-best 32-8-1 record at home.
In the 2006 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Predators faced the San Jose Sharks in the Western Conference Quarterfinals. The Sharks beat them in five games.

2006-07 season
The Predators acquired veteran center Jason Arnott from free agency on July 2, 2006. Arnott and David Legwand led the team in goals with 27 each. Late in the season the Predators traded two former first round draft picks Scottie Upshall and Ryan Parent, plus their first-round pick and a third-round pick in the 2007 draft, to the Philadelphia Flyers for five-time NHL all-star Peter Forsberg.
The Predators finished the season in fourth place in the Western Conference with 110 points, a franchise record. They were defeated by the San Jose Sharks in the 2007 Stanley Cup Playoffs Western conference quarter-finals for the second year in a row, losing the series 4 games to 1, for the second straight season.

**WWW.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

Montreal Canadiens

The Montreal Canadiens (French: Les Canadiens de Montréal) are a professional men's ice hockey team based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). The club is officially known as Le Club de Hockey Canadien. French nicknames for the team include Les Canadiens, Le Bleu-Blanc-Rouge, La Sainte-Flanelle, Le Tricolore, Les Glorieux, Les Habitants and Le Grand Club. In English, the main nickname is the Habs (coming from "Les Habitants").
The Canadiens are one of the 'Original Six' teams – that is, the teams of the NHL just prior to the expansion of the league in 1967. They have won more Stanley Cups (24, the first in 1916, before the NHL existed, and the last in 1993) than any other NHL team. On a percentage basis, as of 2006 this made them historically the third most successful major professional sports team in North America, having won 25% of all NHL/NHA Stanley Cup championships. Only the Boston Celtics of the NBA (26.2%) and the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (25.2%) have higher success rates.
The Canadiens play their home games at the Bell Centre, which was previously named the Molson Centre up until 2003. Former homes of the team include Jubilee Rink, Montreal Westmount Arena, Mount Royal Arena and the famous Montreal Forum. The Forum was considered a veritable shrine to hockey fans everywhere, and housed the team for seven decades and all but two of their Stanley Cup championships.
The team's Championship season in 1992-93 still marks the last time that a Canadian team won the Stanley Cup, in a current span of thirteen seasons (fourteen years, due to the NHL lockout season):

Franchise history

Founded in 1909, eight years before the founding of the NHL, the Canadiens are the oldest continuously operating club in the league

1910-17: Before the National Hockey League
Before there was an NHL, there was a Montreal Canadiens team. They were founded on December 4, 1909 as a charter member of the league's forerunner, the National Hockey Association (NHA). The league's founder, Renfrew mining tycoon Ambrose O'Brien had his Renfrew ice hockey team turned down for membership in the new CHA along with the Montreal Wanderers, run by Jimmy Gardner. Together they conceived the idea of forming a new league, the NHA. Mr. Gardner sold Mr. O'Brien on the idea of a team of French-Canadian players to create a natural rivalry with the Montreal Shamrocks and the Wanderers. Mr. Gardiner suggested that Mr. O'Brien name the team the 'Canadiens'. Les Canadiens played their first game on January 5, 1910, coached by Jack Laviolette.
After that first season, George Kennedy, owner of the "Club Athlétique Canadien" founded a year earlier, claimed rights to the Canadiens name. To settle the dispute, a complex deal was worked out in the spring of 1910. Les Canadiens suspended operations for the 1910-11 NHA season (the franchise rights were taken over a year later by the Toronto Blueshirts), while Kennedy's team joined the NHA as its second Montreal franchise and assumed the Montreal Canadiens name (the Shamrocks had folded after the season). Kennedy took over the franchise rights of the Haileybury Hockey Club. The Haileybury team had also been owned by O'Brien, but folded after the season when it became obvious that the mining town was too small to support a big-league hockey team; the remains of the club were sold to Kennedy as part of the deal with O'Brien. To this day, however, the Canadiens claim descent from the original "Les Canadiens" franchise.
The 1914-15 NHA season was the Canadiens' first in their famous red sweaters with a blue stripe across the middle and a red "C" inside the stripe. The only difference between these uniforms and today's was that the "C" was interlocked with an "A." However, the team had been wearing red sweaters since the 1910-11 season. In 1916 the Canadiens beat the Portland Rosebuds of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association to win their first Stanley Cup, and they returned to the finals the following season, only to lose to the Seattle Metropolitans. The next year, the Canadiens changed their corporate name to the present "Club de Hockey Canadien", and adopted the first version of their current logo (which stands for "Club de Hockey").

1917-32: The Early National Hockey League
The Canadiens and four other NHA teams pulled out of the NHA to form the NHL in 1917. This stemmed from a long-running dispute with Toronto Blueshirts owner Eddie Livingstone. Kennedy and his allies had the votes to throw Livingstone out of the league, but rather than risk a long court battle, they simply created a new league and left Livingstone in the NHA all by himself. Kennedy was the dominant force in the new NHL; he not only controlled the Canadiens but had loaned Tommy Gorman the money he needed to purchase the then-troubled Ottawa Senators. They moved out of the Jubilee Rink to share the Montreal Arena with the Wanderers, only to return to Jubilee after the Montreal Arena burned down in January 1918. During this season, Joe Malone scored 44 goals--a record that would last for 27 years. Longtime goaltender Georges Vezina notched the league's first shutout, blanking Toronto 9-0 on February 18, 1918. They won the first half of the regular season, qualifying for the playoffs against Toronto, but lost the playoff in what would be the first of many playoff battles with the team that would later become the Maple Leafs.
The next year, they once again faced Seattle for the Stanley Cup, but tragedy struck with the series tied at two games apiece. Seattle was struck by the worldwide Spanish flu pandemic, and many players on both teams fell sick. On the day of the deciding fifth game, nearly every player on the Canadiens was either hospitalized or confined to bed. With most of his other players either overseas or frozen in critical jobs due to World War I, Kennedy could not find any replacements
PCHA president Frank Patrick vetoed a request to use players from the Victoria Cougars. The last game was canceled, and Kennedy then offered to forfeit the series--and the Cup--to the Metropolitans. However, Seattle coach Pete Muldoon felt it wouldn't be fair to accept the victory under the circumstances. As a result, the 1919 series is officially listed as a no-decision. The Canadiens went through a series of troubles after the series. Player-coach Newsy Lalonde was sick for over a month after the series, and star forward Joe Hall died five days after the series was abandoned. In the Summer of 1919, the Canadiens' home Jubilee Rink burned down, and they had to build Mount Royal Arena as a replacement. The team also lost their star player Malone, who had been on loan from the dormant Quebec Bulldogs. That team returned to the ice in 1919-20. Kennedy died in 1921; he had never recovered from the 1919 flu bug. His widow sold the team to Leo Dandurand, former player Joseph Cattarinich and Louis A. Letourneau.
With rookie Howie Morenz completing a line between Aurel Joliat and Billy Boucher, the Canadiens once again reached the top in 1924, defeating both the Calgary Tigers (of the Western Canada Hockey League) and the Vancouver Maroons (of the PCHA) in a convoluted playoff format. In 1925, the Habs lost to the Victoria Cougars (now the Detroit Red Wings) in the last year of the old Western Hockey League challenging for the Stanley Cup. The Canadiens lost Vezina to tuberculosis in late 1925, and finished last in the league. The following season, the Canadiens signed a suitable replacement in George Hainsworth, who would win the newly created Vezina Trophy, which was awarded to the goalie who allowed the fewest goals scored. Hainsworth would be the winner of that prize for the next few years.
The 1926-27 season was the Canadiens' first in the Montreal Forum. They moved there full-time due to constant problems getting acceptable ice at the Mount Royal Arena.
Generally, however, the Habs stumbled in the playoffs until they won their third Stanley Cup in 1930, defeating the seemingly invincible Boston Bruins (who had lost a mere six games in a 44-game schedule). The "Flying Frenchmen" once again beat the regular-season champion Bruins in the 1931 playoffs, then beat the Ottawa Senators and Chicago Black Hawks to win their fourth Cup.

1932-67: The end of Morenz and the Original Six
The Canadiens' stars (Morenz and Joliat) faded out in the early 1930s, and they had the worst record in the league by the 1935-36 NHL season. Stunned by such a horrible performance, the NHL gave the Habs rights to all French Canadian players for two years. They had the second-best record in the NHL in 1936-37, but were stunned by the death of Morenz on March 8, 1937 at the age of only 34. On January 28, 1937 Morenz suffered multiple fractures of his leg from a hit by Earl Seibert of the Blackhawks, and developed blood clots in his fractured leg which led to a stroke.
The Canadiens were once again mired in mediocrity for several more seasons. The low point came in 1939-40, with a horrendous 10-win season--still the worst in franchise history. This led to talk that the Canadiens might fold. An unlikely saviour arrived in the form of Maple Leafs owner Conn Smythe. The Depression had already claimed several teams, and Smythe felt that the league might not have been able to survive the loss of its oldest franchise. He persuaded the Canadian Arena Company, which had bought the Canadiens in 1935, to hire Leafs coach Dick Irvin, who had taken the Leafs to the finals six times in eight years.
Irvin didn't take long to turn the Canadiens around. His efforts bore fruit when, led by the "Punch Line" of Maurice "Rocket" Richard, Toe Blake and Elmer Lach, the Habs lifted the Cup again in 1944 after losing only five games in the regular season. The sophomore Richard proved he was not "small, fragile and too brittle for the National Hockey League", as GM Tommy Gorman, after Richard's rookie year, concernedly voiced. If anything, he was Morenz's successor as one of hockey's preeminent superstars. Like Morenz, Richard was a great goal-scoring forward — and both Richard and Morenz were quite physical. Richard, in fact, became the first NHL player to hit 1000 career penalty minutes.
In 1945, Richard made NHL history by becoming the first player to score 50 goals in one season, reaching the mark on the final night of the season — 50 goals in 50 games. Despite their power, the Habs lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the semi-finals. The team was to be invigorated in the 1946 playoffs, winning their sixth Stanley Cup. But in 1947, despite Rocket Richard winning the Hart Memorial Trophy as NHL Most Valuable Player, the Habs lost in the Stanley Cup Final against the nemesis Maple Leafs.
In 1957, brothers Tom and Hartland Molson, owners of the Molson brewery, purchased the team. The 1950s were by far the most successful decade for the Canadiens, and it is believed by many that the Habs of this era were the best team in NHL history. Between 1951 and 1960, the Canadiens made the finals every year, winning six times (including a record five straight between 1956 and 1960). Toe Blake succeeded Irvin as coach in 1955, and they added more of the league's great players such as Jean Beliveau (nicknamed Le Gros Bill), Dickie "Digger" Moore, Doug Harvey, Bernie "Boom Boom" Geoffrion, goalie Jacques Plante (who, in 1959, became the first goalie to regularly wear a mask on November 1 in a 3-1 win at the New York Rangers, but not without some resistance, even from coach Toe Blake), "Rocket" Richard, and his younger brother, Henri, who became known as the "Pocket Rocket" — many thought the Habs were merely placating the elder Richard when his brother was signed.
Montreal fell into a state of unbridled love, if not obsession, with the Habs team. At no time was this more evident than when Rocket Richard was suspended for the rest of the season on March 13, 1955, for assaulting an official in the aftermath of a stick fight in a game against the Bruins. Montrealers rioted in the streets at the following game (on March 17, at home versus the Detroit Red Wings), causing millions of dollars in damage. The Canadiens had to forfeit the game, and went on to lose in the finals to the Red Wings. The previous year, the Habs had also fallen at the hands of the Red Wings, when Harvey (considered one of the best defencemen of all time) redirected a clearing attempt by the Red Wings' Tony Leswick into the Montreal net past Canadiens goalie Gerry McNeil. In 1956 the Canadiens established a "farm team" in Peterborough, Ontario, now the Peterborough Petes of the Ontario Hockey League.
Despite Rocket Richard's retirement in 1960, the Canadiens looked ready to win yet another, a sixth straight Cup in 1961; but they were stunned in the playoffs by the Chicago Blackhawks (who eventually won the Stanley Cup behind the goal-producing genius of left-winger Bobby Hull) in the semi-finals. The Canadiens continued to suffer (relative) playoff frustration until they won the Cup again in 1965, in Yvan Cournoyer's rookie season, and repeated in 1966.

1967-86: Expansion era

Canada's centennial year of 1967 was momentous for the country, and more importantly for the city of Montreal. A world's fair, Expo 67, was held in Montreal, and the Canadiens had promised to deliver the Stanley Cup to the Quebec Pavilion of the Canadian Showcase. The Stanley Cup final that year pitted the Canadiens against the Maple Leafs. Montreal was an overwhelming favorite, especially since Toronto featured two 30+-year-old goaltenders, Terry Sawchuk and Johnny Bower. However, the Leafs won in an upset, and instead of displaying the Cup in the Quebec Pavilion, the Habs had to watch the Leafs parade the Cup in downtown Toronto.
The Leafs have never been to the final since then, and with expansion in 1968, the Canadiens handily defeated the fledgling St. Louis Blues in the finals during each of the next two seasons. The Canadiens missed out on a playoff spot in 1970 on the final day of the regular season, thanks to a tiebreaker. Entering the final games of the season, the Canadiens held a two point lead over the New York Rangers, plus a 242-237 edge in goals scored. The Rangers played their last regular season game first, and beat the Detroit Red Wings 9-5 to pull even in points and take a 246-242 goal lead. This led to an unusual incident in which, since the Canadiens would make the playoffs if they scored five or more goals in their final game regardless of the outcome, Montreal coach Claude Ruel pulled his goaltender with eight minutes remaining against the Black Hawks with Chicago leading 5-2. Chicago tallied five empty net goals, but Montreal failed to score again. Since Toronto missed out as well, it meant both the only time in NHL history no Canadian teams made the playoffs, as well as the only time between 1948 and 1995 that Montreal missed the playoffs — an unprecedented stretch of nearly 50 seasons.
Quickly, though, the Habs got back to their winning ways in 1971, defeating the Black Hawks to capture yet another Stanley Cup in goalie Ken Dryden's rookie season (starting a career where he would average an astonishing two goals allowed per game), in addition to long-time Leafs' star Frank Mahovlich's first in a Canadiens uniform. After 1969-70, captain Jean Beliveau, who retired in 1971, had only stayed on for the one last season at the insistence of General Manager Sam Pollock, who knew there had to be a veteran leader in Montreal.
Dryden had only played six regular-season games in '70-'71, but Al MacNeil, who had replaced Ruel midway through the season, made what was considered a wise choice in sticking with Dryden -- who had had a perfect record in those six games and a 1.65 GAA -- as the Habs dispatched the mighty Bruins in the first round. Despite his Cup triumph, MacNeil resigned amidst accusations that he showed favourtism toward the Habs' English-speaking players, including an ongoing dispute with Henri Richard. He was replaced by St. Louis Blues coach and Montreal native Scotty Bowman.
After losing in the quarter-finals to the New York Rangers in 1972 (Guy Lafleur's rookie season as well as Dryden's official one), they would once again win the Cup over Chicago in 1973.
Dryden would sit out the season in a contract dispute, although the official line was that he was completing his law degree. The Canadiens were upset by the Rangers in the first round in 1974, and would lose out to the Buffalo Sabres in the semi-finals in 1975. Henri Richard retired after that season, ending 33 consecutive seasons of a Richard being on the Habs roster.
In 1976, under the leadership of head coach Scotty Bowman, they went on to win the Cup again, thwarting the Philadelphia Flyers' hopes for a third consecutive championship. The series was widely hailed as a victory for skilled play over the thuggish tactics of the "Broad Street Bullies". The team was led by Lafleur (who was in the midst of six straight 50-goal seasons, the league's first ever six-consecutive-time 50-goal and 100-point scorer), Cournoyer, Dryden, Frank Mahovlich's brother Pete, Steve Shutt, Serge Savard, Guy Lapointe and Larry Robinson (the last three of whom a powerful triumvirate of All-Star defencemen dubbed "The Big Three"). In 1976-77 the Canadiens would set a modern-day record by only losing eight games in an 80-game season. The Canadiens would then go on to win three more consecutive Cups to close out the 1970s. Bowman left the team after the fourth consecutive Cup triumph. Earlier in the decade, he'd been promised the general manager's post when Sam Pollock retired, but the Molsons went back on their word.
The Canadiens nearly scuttled the deal between the NHL and World Hockey Association, in which four WHA teams--the Hartford Whalers (now the Carolina Hurricanes), Edmonton Oilers, Quebec Nordiques (now the Colorado Avalanche) and Winnipeg Jets (now Phoenix Coyotes)--were due to join the NHL. The Canadiens, along with the NHL's other two Canadian teams (the Leafs and Vancouver Canucks) were not pleased at the prospect of splitting television revenue with three new teams. However, when word got out that Molson was standing in the way of Edmonton, Quebec City and Winnipeg joining the NHL, consumers in those cities staged a massive boycott of Molson products. This forced the Habs to reverse themselves two weeks after the first vote and support the final deal.
Most of the Canadiens' best players were retired or traded by the early 1980s (the major exceptions being Bob Gainey, Robinson, and Lafleur). They would, however, pick up star Swedish left-winger Mats Naslund, as well as Guy Carbonneau in the early 1980s. By the 1985-86 NHL season, they once again had a top goalie in rookie Patrick Roy, and another All-Star in sophomore Chris Chelios, manning the blue line. Gainey, Carbonneau, Chelios, Naslund, Robinson and Roy would lead the Canadiens to their only Stanley Cup of the decade that season, defeating the Calgary Flames.

1986-present — The Modern NHL
The Montreal Canadiens won their league-leading 24th (and, to date, last) Stanley Cup against the Los Angeles Kings in 1993, during the 100th anniversary of the Stanley Cup. That playoff season, the Canadiens won an NHL-record 10 consecutive overtime games. They also tied an NHL-record by winning 11 consecutive games in one playoff year (the record is shared by the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Chicago Blackhawks - both teams won 11 in a row the previous year).
But in 1995, the Canadiens missed the playoffs for the first time in 25 years, and only the third time in 54 years. In December of that year, when the Canadiens lost 11-1 at home to the Detroit Red Wings, then-head coach Mario Tremblay refused to pull Patrick Roy from the net until after the ninth goal, despite the goalie's repeated pleas. After he was pulled, Roy, approached then team president Ronald Corey and told him, "This is my last game in a Montreal Canadiens uniform." He was traded to the eventual Stanley Cup Champion Colorado Avalanche along with Mike Keane for Jocelyn Thibault, Andrei Kovalenko, and Martin Rucinsky.
On March 11, 1996, the Canadiens defeated the Dallas Stars, 4-1 in the final game at the historic Montreal Forum. The final goal at the Forum was scored by Andrei Kovalenko. The Stars were chosen as the final Forum opponent because their captain, Guy Carbonneau, and their general manager, Bob Gainey, were both former Canadien captains. Following the game, a moving closing ceremony was held, in which each living Canadiens captain, wearing an up-to-date version of the uniform with his old number on it, passed a torch, the older one to the younger one: Butch Bouchard to Maurice Richard to Jean Beliveau to Henri Richard to Yvan Cournoyer to Serge Savard to Gainey to Carbonneau to Pierre Turgeon, the then-captain. (Three living former captains were unavailable because they were still active with other teams: Mike Keane with the Avalanche, Kirk Muller with the New York Islanders, and Chris Chelios with the Chicago Blackhawks).
The team moved into the new Molson Centre (renamed Bell Centre for 2003-04) the following Saturday, defeating the New York Rangers, 4-2. However, the Canadiens missed the playoffs three straight seasons between 1999 and 2001. There was even brief talk of the team moving, especially after American investor George N. Gillett Jr. was the only interested buyer when the Molson family sold the team in 2001. After no acceptable offers came from Canadian interests, the NHL allowed Gillett to buy the team, provided that he promise to keep it in Montreal until 2021.
In the fall of 2001, it was revealed that centre Saku Koivu, who had been with the team since 1995, had cancer and would miss the season. However, he came back to win the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy for perservance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey, register two assists in the last three games and, along with the surprising strong play of goalie Jose Theodore (who won the Roger Crozier Saving Grace Award, Hart Trophy and Vezina Trophy that season), inspired the team for a run to the 2002 playoffs as the final seed in the Eastern Conference. They upset the Boston Bruins in the first round, before bowing to the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round.
On November 22, 2003, the Canadiens participated in the Heritage Classic, the first outdoor hockey game in the history of the NHL. The Canadiens defeated the Edmonton Oilers 4-3 in front of more than 55,000 fans — an NHL attendance record — at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton. The team seemed to turn a corner at that point, and finished the season in the 7th playoff seed in the Eastern Conference. The team would again play the Bruins in the playoffs, for a record 30th time. Coming back from a 3-1 deficit, the Canadiens won the final three games to again upset the Bruins. The Canadiens were swept away in second round by the eventual Stanley Cup champions Tampa Bay Lightning.
On January 13, 2006, Claude Julien was fired as coach, and replaced on an interim basis by Bob Gainey, the team's general manager. Later on in the season, Montreal starting goalie Jose Theodore was traded to the Colorado Avalanche after numerous disappointing starts, in return for goalie David Aebischer. The Canadiens narrowly made the playoffs, but lost in 6 games to the eventual champion Carolina Hurricanes.
In the 2006-07 NHL season, Guy Carbonneau took over as head coach of the team.
In December 2006, as the founder of the Montreal Canadiens, John Ambrose O'Brien was an inaugural inductee in the team's newly created 'Builders Row' in the Bell Centre. As well, the team inducted special advisor William Northey, former team president Donat Raymond and former owners Leo Dandurand, Joseph Cattarinich, Louis A. Letourneau and Senator Hartland de Montarville Molson.

The near future and beyond
A major announcement about the one hundred year anniversary of Les Habs was made on October 2, 2005. On October 15 of that year, to begin the Montreal Canadiens Centennial countdown, it was announced that three more jersey numbers would be retired — Dickie Moore's and Yvan Cournoyer's number 12 on November 12 before their game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the number 5 worn by Bernard "Boom Boom" Geoffrion on March 11, 2006 prior to their contest against the New York Rangers, the other team he played for after a two-year retirement — the first since moving from "The Forum" during a "Legends Night" ceremony, with one additional number to be hoisted to the rafters in each of the three following seasons. Sadly, Geoffrion would die on the very day his number was to be retired.
On September 23, 2006, the Montreal Canadiens announced the retirement of number 18 for Serge Savard, on November 18, 2006, and number 29 for Ken Dryden, on January 29, 2007. On September 5, 2007, the Canadiens announced the retirement of number 19 for Larry Robinson, on November 19, 2007, and number 23 for Bob Gainey, on February 23, 2008. The Canadiens also announced ambitious plans for their Centennial year of 2008-09, including plans to bid on hosting the World Junior Hockey Championships (which were since awarded to Ottawa), the NHL All-Star Game (which they were awarded) and the NHL Draft. On January 23, 2007, it was announced that the 2009 NHL All-Star Game would indeed be held in Montreal. The team's management has pledged to be a Stanley Cup contender in time for 2009.


**WWW.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

Minnesota Wild

The Minnesota Wild is a professional men's ice hockey team based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Their symbol is a bear made to look like the wilderness. They are members of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). The team's inaugural season was in 2000. As of December 13, 2007, the Wild have sold out every home game in franchise history.

Franchise history

1997 — The National Hockey League announced that Minnesota had been awarded an expansion franchise to begin play in the 2000-2001 season. The six finalist teamnames for the new NHL franchise were: Minnesota Blue Ox, Minnesota Freeze, Minnesota Northern Lights, Minnesota Voyageurs, Minnesota White Bears and Minnesota Wild. Jac Sperling was named Chief Executive Officer of the Minnesota Wild and Brian Skluzacek was named Chief Financial Officer.
1998 — The new NHL team is officially named the Minnesota Wild. The unveiling occurred in front at Aldrich Arena. The Minnesota Wild announce its first major sponsorship agreement with the Minnesota Wild Mastercard card from First USA. It was the earliest that First USA has ever signed an agreement in advance of a team beginning play (31 months). The State of Minnesota agreed in legislation to fund $65 million of the $130 million project costs for Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. the Saint Paul Civic Center deconstruction began soon thereafter and the Xcel Energy Center design was announced. a Groundbreaking Ceremony for the Xcel Energy Center was hosted in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
1999 — The Minnesota Wild announce a 26-year partnership agreement with the Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission (MASC). The Minnesota Wild-MASC partnership is the first partnership of its kind between a private professional sports team and a public amateur sports organization. Doug Risebrough was named executive vice president/general manager of Minnesota Wild and The Xcel Energy Center is completed and ready for use.
2000-01 — The Minnesota Wild First Season Officially starts, The Wild name Jacques Lemaire the first-ever head coach and the team picks Marian Gaborik third overall in Round 1 of the 2000 NHL Entry Draft. The team wasn't very successful on the ice, but showed promise for future seasons. The most notable game of the year, however, was the first visit of the Dallas Stars, formerly the Minnesota North Stars. The Wild rode an emotional record crowd of over 18,000 to a six to zero shutout in Dallas' first regular season game in Minnesota since 1993.
2001-02 — The Wild would get off to a strong start by getting at least 1 point in their first 7 games. However the Wild would finish in last place again with a record of 26-35-12-9. Along the way there were signs the Wild were improving as second-year speedster Gaborik had a solid season with 30 goals, no sophomore slump, and Andrew Brunette led the team in scoring with 69 points.
2002-03 — Gaborik spends much of the season vying for the league scoring crown, and the Wild, in their first ever playoff appearance, make it all the way to the Western Conference Finals before being swept 4-0 by the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. Previously, the Wild had beaten the favored and third-seeded Colorado Avalanche in the first round in seven games, coming back from a 3-1 series deficit and winning both Game 6 and 7 in overtime. Andrew Brunette scored the series clinching goal. In the Western Conference Semi-Finals, the Wild beat the fourth-seeded Vancouver Canucks, again in seven games, and again after being down 3-1 in the series. In the process, the Wild became the first team in playoff history to capture a seven-game series twice after facing elimination during Game 5.
2003-04 — When this season started the Wild were short-handed with both Pascal Dupuis and Gaborik holding out. After struggling in the first month the Wild finally got their two young star left-wingers signed but both struggled to get back into game shape as the Wild struggled through much of November. In a deep hole the Wild could not climb back into the playoffs despite finishing the season strong with wins in 5 of their last 6 games as they finished last in the competitive Northwest Division with a record of 30-29-20-3. Along the way the Wild began to gear up for the future trading away several of their older players that were a part of the franchise from the beginning including Brad Bombardir and Jim Dowd.
2004-05 — Season cancelled due to lockout. Former Wild player Sergei Zholtok dies from a heart condition during a game played in Europe. Zholtok died in the arms of Minnesotan and former Wild player Darby Hendrickson.
2005-06 — Finished in last place in Northwest Division, eight points behind Vancouver; along the way Gaborik set a new franchise record for goals in a season (38) and Brian Rolston set a new highest point total by a Wild player in a season (79). The goaltender controversy between Manny Fernandez and Dwayne Roloson ended when Roloson was traded to Edmonton for a first round pick in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft.
2006-07 — Signed veteran Free Agents, Kim Johnsson, Mark Parrish, Branko Radivojevic, and Keith Carney. On the day of the NHL Entry Draft, they traded the 17th overall pick and prospect Patrick O'Sullivan to the Los Angeles Kings for veteran Slovakian Pavol Demitra. Niklas Bäckström has been the Starting goalie for the Wild since starter Manny Fernandez initially sprained his knee on Jan. 20. Fernandez played for the first time since the sprain on Tuesday, March 6th and was removed after allowing three goals in two periods in the Wild's 3-0 loss to San Jose. Josh Harding, was brought up from the Wild's minor-league affiliate, the Houston Aeros, when Fernandez was hurt, and remained on Minnesota's roster for the rest of the season as the backup goalie. All-Star winger Marian Gaborik returned from a groin injury in January of 2007 and made an immediate impact, bringing a new spark to a lacking offense.
The Wild made the playoffs in 2007 for the second time in team history but were eliminated by the Stanley Cup Champion Anaheim Ducks in the opening round. Coincidentally, the same Anaheim franchise eliminated the Wild in their first playoff year, in the conference finals, in 2003.

**WWW.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

Los Angeles Kings

The Los Angeles Kings are a professional ice hockey team based in Los Angeles, California. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). Founded on February 9, 1966, when Jack Kent Cooke was awarded an expansion franchise in Los Angeles, the Kings called the The Forum in Inglewood, California, a suburb of the Los Angeles area, their home for thirty-two years until they moved to Staples Center in Downtown Los Angeles to start the 1999–2000 season.
The Kings have not had a great deal of success in their history, winning their division just once in 1990–91, and failing to get out of the first round of the playoffs twelve times in the twenty-four seasons when they qualified for post-season play and advancing past the second round just once. Indeed, the high point in Kings franchise history was when they won their conference championship for the first and only time in their history, advancing to the Stanley Cup Finals in the 1992–93 season, only to lose the series to the Montreal Canadiens in five games.
The Kings' closest rival is the Anaheim Ducks, who play approximately thirty-five miles (56.3 km) to the south in Anaheim.

Franchise history

The "Forum Blue and Gold" years (1967–68 to 1987–88)
Prior to the Kings arrival in the Los Angeles area, both the Pacific Coast Hockey League (PCHL) and the Western Hockey League (WHL) had several teams in California, including the PCHL's Los Angeles Monarchs of the 1930s and the WHL's Los Angeles Blades of the 1960s. When the NHL decided to expand for the 1967–68 season amid rumblings that the WHL was proposing to turn itself into a major league and compete for the Stanley Cup, Canadian entrepreneur Jack Kent Cooke paid the NHL $2 million to place one of the six expansion teams in Los Angeles. Los Angeles has a large number of expatriates from both the Northeastern United States and Canada, which Cooke saw as a natural fan base.

Cooke was officially awarded one of the six new NHL franchises joining the NHL in the 1967–68 season, which included the California Seals, Minnesota North Stars, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins and the St. Louis Blues. He named his team the Kings, and picked the original team colors of purple (or "Forum Blue," as it was later officially called) and gold because they were colors traditionally associated with royalty. Ironically, these were the same colors worn by one of Cooke's other teams, the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association.
Cooke wanted his new NHL team to play in the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, home of the Lakers. But the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission, which manages the Sports Arena and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to the present day, had already entered into an agreement with the Blades (whose owners had also tried to land the NHL expansion franchise in Los Angeles) to play their games at the Sports Arena. Frustrated by his dealings with the Coliseum Commission, Cooke said, "I am going to build my own arena...I've had enough of this balderdash."
Construction on Cooke's new arena, the Forum, was not yet complete when the 1967-68 NHL season began, so the Kings opened their first season at the Long Beach Arena in the neighboring city of Long Beach on October 14, 1967, defeating the Philadelphia Flyers 4–2. For the next two months, the Kings played their home games at Long Beach and at the Sports Arena. The Fabulous Forum opened its doors on December 30, 1967, with the Kings being shut out by the Flyers, 2–0.

The Kings made the Forum their home for the next 32 seasons. Players like Bill "Cowboy" Flett, Eddie "The Jet" Joyal, Eddie "The Entertainer" Shack, and Real "Frenchy" Lemieux helped introduce the Los Angeles area to the NHL in the team's first few seasons. Such player nicknames were the brainchild of none other than Cooke himself.
In their first season, the Kings finished in second place in the Western Division, just one point behind the Flyers. The Kings were the only expansion team that had a winning record at home, but were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the Minnesota North Stars, losing the seventh game at The Forum on April 18, 1968, 9–4. In their second season behind head coach Red Kelly, the Kings finished fourth in the West Division—the final playoff berth. But after eliminating the Oakland Seals in the first round of the playoffs in seven games, the Kings were swept out of post-season play in the second round by the St. Louis Blues.
After two fairly successful seasons, the Kings hit upon hard times, mostly due to poor management. Kings general managers established a history of trading away first-round draft picks, usually for veteran players, many of them NHL stars on the downside of their careers, a problem that would hinder the franchise for years to come. The Kings' attendance also suffered during this time, leading Cooke to muse that the reason so many Northeasterners and Canadians moved to Southern California was that "they hated hockey."
In 1972, the Kings moved to bring some credibility back to the franchise when they hired former Toronto Maple Leafs winger Bob Pulford as their head coach. It took him just two seasons to lead the Kings back into the playoffs and in 1974, they faced the Chicago Blackhawks, only to be eliminated in five games. Pulford eventually led the team to three of the most successful seasons in franchise history, including a 105-point season in 1974-75 that is still a franchise record.

In 1973, the Kings hired Bob Miller as the team's play-by-play announcer, and he has held that post continuously since that time. Miller, considered to be one of the best hockey play-by-play announcers in the NHL, is often referred to as the "Voice of the Kings." He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on November13, 2000 and his first book, Bob Miller's Tales of the Los Angeles Kings, was published in 2006.
After being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in both 1973–74 and 1974-75, the Kings moved to significantly upgrade their offensive firepower when they acquired center Marcel Dionne on June 23, 1975, in a trade with the Detroit Red Wings. Dionne was already a superstar in the NHL and he made an immediate impact in the 1975–76 season, scoring 40 goals and adding 54 assists for 94 points in 80 regular season games. He led the Kings to a 38–33–9 record (85 points), earning them a second place finish in the Norris Division.
Behind Dionne's offensive prowess, the strong goaltending of Rogie Vachon, and the speed and scoring touch of forward Butch Goring, the Kings swept the Atlanta Flames out of the first round of the playoffs, but were eliminated in the second round by the Boston Bruins in seven games. The Kings would defeat the Flames and lose to the Bruins in the following year's playoffs as well.
On January 13, 1979, Dionne found himself on a new line with two young, mostly unknown players: second-year right winger Dave Taylor, and left winger Charlie Simmer, who had been a career minor-leaguer. But this line combination, known as the "Triple Crown Line," would go on to become one of the highest-scoring line combinations in NHL history.
After that first season that the Triple Crown Line played together, Dr. Jerry Buss purchased the Kings, the Lakers, and the Forum for $67.5 million, but the Simmer-Dionne-Taylor combination remained intact. The next season, the Triple Crown Line dominated the NHL, scoring 146 goals and 182 assists, good for 328 points. The entire line, along with goalie Mario Lessard, was selected to play in the NHL All-Star Game that season, which was played at the Forum. In that 1979–80 season, Dionne won the Art Ross Memorial Trophy for winning an NHL scoring title that season with 137 points on 53 goals and 84 assists. But even with the Triple Crown Line's ability to dominate, the Kings still could not get out of the first round of the playoffs until 1982.
That year, the Kings opened the playoffs against the Edmonton Oilers, who were led by a young, but fast-rising star by the name of Wayne Gretzky. Gretzky was only in his third year in the league, but he dominated the NHL like no other had before, from the moment he stepped onto NHL ice in his rookie season. And by the 1981–82 NHL season, he was already the most dominant player in the league, and had made the Oilers one of the elite teams in the NHL, on their way to winning four Stanley Cup championships in the 1980s. The Oilers finished with 111 points, the second-best record in the league, while the Kings barely made the playoffs with only 63 points. The Kings won Game 1 in Edmonton on April 7, 1982, 10–8, in the highest scoring Stanley Cup Playoff game ever.The Oilers recovered to win in overtime in Game 2, and the teams headed to Los Angeles for Games 3 and 4.
Game 3 would be one of the most amazing in hockey history and was later dubbed the "Miracle on Manchester" (the Kings arena, the Forum, was on Manchester Boulevard). In that game, played on April 10, 1982, Gretzky led the Oilers to a commanding 5-0 lead after two periods and it seemed like the Kings were headed for a blowout loss. But the Kings began an unbelievable comeback in the third period, tying the game on a goal by left wing Steve Bozek at 19:55 of the third period, sending the game into overtime.
Bozek's goal set the stage for what was to come. At 2:35 of the overtime period, Kings left wing Daryl Evans fired a slap shot off a face-off in the right circle of the Edmonton zone, beating Oilers goaltender Grant Fuhr over his right shoulder to give the Kings an incredible come-from-behind, overtime victory, 6-5. The Miracle on Manchester, the greatest comeback in NHL playoff history, is also the greatest moment in Kings franchise history as of 2007. Not only did the Kings complete a miraculous comeback against the vaunted Oilers, but they also went on to eliminate them from the playoffs in five games.
Despite Dionne's leadership, the Kings missed the playoffs in the next two seasons, and were quickly swept out of the playoffs by the Oilers in the 1985, when the Oilers won their second straight Stanley Cup championship. Dionne's time with the Kings ended on March 10, 1987, when he was traded to the New York Rangers. But by this time, the Kings had new skaters to help lead them into the next decade, including star forwards Bernie Nicholls, Jimmy Carson, Luc Robitaille, and defenseman Steve Duchesne.
Even before the Dionne trade the Kings were sent reeling when coach Pat Quinn signed a contract to become coach and general manager of the Vancouver Canucks with just months left on his Kings contract. NHL President John Ziegler suspended Quinn for the rest of the season and barred him from taking over Vancouver's hockey operations until June. Ziegler also barred him from coaching anywhere in the NHL until the 1990-91 season. In Ziegler's view, Quinn's actions created a serious conflict of interest that could only be resolved by having Quinn removed as coach.
Despite these shocks the Kings made the playoffs in the next two seasons, but they were unable to get out of the first round. Part of the problem was that the way the playoffs were structured made it very likely that they would have to get past either the powerful Oilers or Calgary Flames (or both) to make it to the conference finals. In fact, the Kings faced either the Oilers or Flames in the playoffs four times during the 1980s.
However, the 1988-89 season would be a big turning point for the franchise.

Black and silver era (1988–89 to 1997–98)
In 1987, coin collector Bruce McNall purchased the Kings from Buss, and he turned the team into a Stanley Cup contender almost overnight on August 9, 1988, when he acquired the league's best player, Gretzky himself, in a blockbuster trade with the Oilers that rocked the hockey world, especially north of the border, where Canadians mourned the loss of a player they considered a national treasure. McNall also changed the team colors to black and silver.
In Gretzky's first season with the Kings, he led the team in scoring with 168 points on 54 goals and 114 assists, and won his ninth Hart Memorial Trophy as the league's Most Valuable Player. He led the Kings to a second-place finish in the Smythe Division with a 42-31-7 record (91 points), and they ranked fourth in the NHL overall
The Kings faced Gretzky's old team, the Oilers, in the first round of the 1989 playoffs. They fell behind 3 games to 1, but rallied to take the series in seven games, helped in no small part by nine goals from Chris Kontos, a little-known player who had just recently been called up from the minor leagues. However, the Kings were quickly swept out of the playoffs in the second round by the eventual Stanley Cup champion Flames. Over the next three seasons, Gretzky would lead the way, only to see his team bounced out of the playoffs each time by his former team, the Oilers, who won the Stanley Cup in 1990. Despite their eventual second-round loss to Edmonton, Gretzky spearheaded the Kings to their first (and at present, only) regular-season division title in franchise history in the 1990–91 season with a 46-24-10 record (102 points, the second best point total in franchise history). Notably, it was the first time in 10 years that a team from Alberta hadn't finished first in the Smythe. That season, however, would not be the pinnacle of Gretzky's career in Los Angeles.
The Kings would reach new heights in the 1992–93 season, but the campaign started badly when it was learned that Gretzky had suffered a career-threatening herniated thoracic disk before the season began. The concern was not mainly whether Gretzky would be able to play that season, but if he would ever be able to play again. But even without their captain and leading scorer, the Kings got off to a blistering 20-8-3 start, with left-winger Luc Robitaille, who won the Calder Memorial Trophy as the 1986–87's NHL Rookie of the Year, filling in as captain for the ailing Gretzky. Robitaille led the team until Gretzky returned after missing the first 39 games. Robitaille would go on to retire at the end of the 2005–06 season as the highest-scoring left winger in National Hockey League history.
Robitaille and Gretzky, along with former Oilers' winger Jari Kurri, forwards Tony Granato and Tomas Sandstrom, defensemen Rob Blake, Marty McSorley, and Alexei Zhitnik, and goalie Kelly Hrudey, guided the Kings through a rough middle portion of the season until they found their game once again in the last three months of the season to qualify for post-season action. Although Gretzky came back to score 16 goals and 49 assists (65 points) in just 45 games, it was Robitaille who was the Kings' impact player that season, leading the team in scoring with 63 goals and 62 assists (125 points) in 84 regular season games, setting new NHL all-time records for goals and points scored by a left winger in a single season. The Kings finished with a 39-35-10 record (88 points), clinching third place in the Smythe Division.
First-year head coach Barry Melrose had his team's offense running on all cylinders when the 1993 playoffs began, and they scored an amazing 33 goals in their first-round series against the Calgary Flames. In the second round, the Kings faced the heavily-favored Vancouver Canucks, a team that had beaten the Kings rather handily five times in seven games during the regular season, and had not lost to the Kings in their four meetings in Vancouver. But the Kings would go on to eliminate the Canucks in six games, with the pivotal victory coming in Game 5 at Vancouver, which was tied 3-3 at the end of regulation play. The teams were still tied after the first overtime period, but winger Gary Shuchuk scored at 6:31 of the second overtime period, giving the Kings a 3-2 series lead, and dealing the Canucks an emotional and, as it turned out, fatal blow.
In the Campbell Conference Finals, the Kings were even more of an underdog against the Doug Gilmour-led Toronto Maple Leafs. But with Gretzky at the helm, the Kings eliminated the Leafs in a hard-fought seven-game series that included two overtime games and a Game 6 win for the Kings, who were facing elimination after losing Game 5 in overtime—they trailed the Leafs in the series, 3-2. In Game 6, Toronto scored two third period goals and tied the game at 4-4 at the end of regulation play. But in overtime, Luc Robitaille fed Gretzky a perfect pass and Gretzky scored to give his team a dramatic 5-4 victory and send the teams back to Toronto for a Game 7. In the final contest, Gretzky scored a hat trick (three goals) and had an assist to lead the Kings to a 5-4 win and a berth in the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in franchise history.
In the Stanley Cup Finals, the Kings faced the Montreal Canadiens, who had breezed through the playoffs and were well-rested. The Kings defeated the Canadiens in Game 1, 4-1. Game 2 proved to be the turning point in the series. Late in the contest, with the Kings leading by a score of 2-1, the Canadiens coach, Jacques Demers, requested a measurement of Kings defenseman Marty McSorley's stick blade. Demers' suspicions proved to be correct, as the curve of blade was too great, and McSorley was penalized. The Canadiens pulled their goalie, giving them two-man advantage, and scored on the resulting power play. They went on to win the game in overtime, and the Kings never recovered. The Kings lost the next two games in overtime, and were shelled 4-1 in Game 5 as the Canadiens won their 24th Stanley Cup in franchise history.
Despite the stinging defeat at the hands of the Canadiens in the finals, Gretzky and the Kings had generated excitement about hockey and the NHL that had never been seen before in Southern California. As soon as Gretzky donned a Kings jersey, the Forum was sold out for every game — virtually overnight, a Kings game became the hottest ticket in town. The popularity of Gretzky and the Kings also led to the NHL awarding an expansion team to Anaheim, California; in 1993 the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim (who became the Anaheim Ducks on June 22, 2006) would become the Kings nearest rival, just 35 miles to the south. Gretzky's popularity in Southern California also led to the NHL expanding or moving into other Sun Belt cities such as Phoenix, Dallas, Tampa, Miami, and Nashville.
McNall's profile also rose during this time. In 1992, he was elected chairman of the NHL's Board of Governors, the second-most powerful post in the league. His support of Gary Bettman tipped the scales in favor of Bettman's election as the league's first Commissioner. However, only two years later, McNall was forced to sell the team to IDB Communications founder Jeffrey Sudikoff and former Madison Square Garden president Joseph Cohen in the wake of a federal investigation into his financial practices. He ultimately pled guilty to five counts of conspiracy and fraud, and admitted to obtaining $236 million in fraudulent loans from six banks over 10 years.
It later emerged that McNall had grossly mismanaged the Kings' business affairs. At one point, Cohen and Sudikoff were even unable to meet player payroll, and were ultimately forced into bankruptcy in 1995. They were forced to trade many of their stronger players, resulting in a roster comprised of Gretzky, Blake and little else. The Kings missed the playoffs for four seasons, from 1993–94 to 1996–97.

Staples Center era (1998–present)
Phillip Anschutz and Edward Roski bought the Kings out of bankruptcy court in October 1995 and began a rebuilding phase. Meanwhile, Gretzky, who was by this time on the downside of his career, stated publicly that he wanted the team to acquire a forward capable of scoring fifty goals per season and an offensive defenseman. If they failed to do that, he wanted to be traded to a team that was a legitimate Stanley Cup contender.
After all he had done for the game by that time, Gretzky wanted another chance to win an elusive fifth Stanley Cup before retirement. But his public statements forced the Kings' hand, since no team would now give them equal value in a trade because of his demands — the Kings would be at a huge disadvantage in any trade, and this would badly hurt their rebuilding program.
On February 27, 1996, Gretzky was traded, this time to the St. Louis Blues, for forwards Craig Johnson, Patrice Tardif, Roman Vopat, a first-round pick in the 1997 draft (Matt Zultek) and a fifth-round choice in the 1996 draft (Peter Hogan). None became stars for the Kings, although Gretzky himself was an unrestricted free agent by season's end, and only played 18 regular season games for the Blues. Like Marcel Dionne before him, Gretzky ended up with the New York Rangers.
Shortly after Gretzky was traded, the often-maligned general manager Sam McMaster was fired and was replaced by former Kings winger Dave Taylor. But the rebuilding phase for Taylor was a tough one, as the Kings continued to flounder—they failed to make the playoffs until the 1997–98 season.
But Taylor was not finished dealing that summer. Shortly after hiring Murray, Taylor acquired star right-wing Zigmund Palffy and veteran center Bryan Smolinski on June 20, 1999, in exchange for center prospect Olli Jokinen, winger prospect Josh Green, defenseman prospect Mathieu Biron and the Kings' first-round pick in the 1999 NHL Entry Draft.
The Kings also made an even bigger move in 1999, as they left the Great Western Forum and moved to Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, which was built by Anschutz and Roski. Staples Center was a state-of-the-art arena, complete with luxury suites and all the modern amenities that fans and athletes would want in a brand-new facility.
With a new home, a new coach, a potential 50-goal scorer in the fold and players such as Rob Blake, Luc Robitaille, Glen Murray, Jozef Stumpel, Donald Audette, Ian Laperriere, and Mattias Norstrom, the Kings improved dramatically, finishing the season the 1999–2000 season with a 39-31-12-4 record (94 points), good for second place in the Pacific Division. But in the 2000 playoffs, the Kings were once again eliminated in the first round, this time by the mighty Detroit Red Wings in a four-game sweep.
The 2000–01 season was a controversial one, as fans began to question AEG's commitment to the success of the Kings because they failed to significantly improve the team during the off-season. Adding fuel to the fire was the February 21, 2001 trade of star defenseman Rob Blake, who had won the James Norris Memorial Trophy as the NHL's best defenseman in 1998.
In that deal, the Kings sent Blake and center Steven Reinprecht, to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for right wing Adam Deadmarsh, defenseman Aaron Miller, center prospect Jared Aulin and a first-round pick in the 2001 NHL Entry Draft (Dave Steckel). Deadmarsh and Miller became impact players for the Kings, who finished the 2000–01 season with a 38-28-13-3 record (92 points), good for a third place finish in the Pacific Division and another first-round playoff date with the still-mighty Detroit Red Wings.
The heavily-favored Red Wings — many predicted another four-game sweep — made easy work of the Kings in Games 1 and 2 at the Joe Louis Arena, but the Kings got back in the series with a 2-1 win in Game 3 at Staples Center.
That amazing win took all the wind out of the Red Wings' sails, and the Kings eliminated them in Game 6 in Los Angeles, having won four straight games after going down 2-0 in the series. It was the Kings' first playoff series win since 1993.
In the second round, the Kings went up against another elite team, the Colorado Avalanche, led by superstars like Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Patrick Roy, Ray Bourque, and of course, Rob Blake. The Kings took the eventual champions to seven games but lost the series, 4-3. while still fighting for a playoff spot in which they clinched seventh place in the Western Conference where they were matched with the heavily-favored Avalanche. After being bounced out of the playoffs in the first round by the Avalanche, the next two seasons would be major disappointments, as the team failed to make the playoffs in both seasons.
Even though the Kings refused to use it as an excuse, injuries were the primary reason for the team's failures. In 2002–03, the Kings just missed breaking the unofficial NHL record for the most man-games lost to injury in a season with 536. But they would easily surpass the record in 2003–04 with 629 man-games lost.
The Kings' 2004–05 NHL season was lost due to labor strife between the NHL and the NHL Players' Association.
League play resumed for the 2005–06 season and saw the Kings acquire Valeri Bure, Jeremy Roenick and Pavol Demitra. Los Angeles began the new season strongly challenging for the Western Conference title. However, the second half of the season saw the Kings once again stumble badly, freefalling from second in the Western Conference in early January to tenth place.
At the trade deadline, the Kings added another goal scorer in the New York Islanders' Mark Parrish, along with defenseman Brent Sopel, and they fired head coach Andy Murray on March 21, 2006, replacing him with interim head coach John Torchetti, but the moves failed to jumpstart the team, as they continued their losing ways. With three games left in the season, Luc Robitaille, the team's all-time leading scorer and the NHL's all-time highest-scoring left winger, announced that, at the end of the year, he would be retiring from pro hockey.
Just one day after the end of the Kings' 2005-06 regular season, AEG decided to clean house on April 18, 2006, and they relieved President/Hockey Operations and General Manager Dave Taylor of his duties, along with Director of Player Personnel Bill O'Flaherty. Interim head coach John Torchetti and assistant coaches Mark Hardy and Ray Bennett, along with goaltending consultant Andy Nowicki, were also fired, and Vice President and Assistant General Manager Kevin Gilmore was re-assigned to other duties within AEG. Kings CEO Tim Leiweke also announced that he will no longer be the team's Chief Executive Officer.
On April 21, 2006, the Kings signed Philadelphia Flyers scout and former San Jose Sharks general manager Dean Lombardi as their new President and General Manager. He was signed to a five-year contract, signaling big changes in the near future for the franchise. Soon after he was hired, Lombardi quickly began to revamp the Kings' hockey operations and just barely over one month into his tenure as President and General Manager, he hired Marc Crawford to be the Kings' 21st head coach on May 22, 2006.
On January 13, 2007, hockey history was made when the Kings put Yutaka Fukufuji in goal for the 3rd period of their game with the St. Louis Blues. This marked the first time in hockey history that a Japanese-born player played in an NHL regular season game. The Kings lost the game and Fukufuji was assessed the loss.
On January 20, 2007, the Kings retired Luc Robitaille's jersey in an hour-long ceremony prior to the game with the Phoenix Coyotes. It was the fifth Kings jersey to be retired by the team.
The Kings and the NHL announced on February 28, 2007 that the Los Angeles Kings will open the 2007-08 National Hockey League regular season at the new O2 Arena (also owned by AEG) in London, England, with two games against the Anaheim Ducks on September 29 and 30, 2007. The special “NHL Premiere 2007” series were the Kings’ first games ever outside of North America and the first NHL regular season games to be played in Europe.
In the 2007–2008 off-season, the Kings signed six unrestricted free agents, including center Michal Handzus, left wings Ladislav Nagy and Kyle Calder, and defensemen Tom Preissing, Brad Stuart and Jon Klemm.
Like all NHL teams for the 2007-08 season, the Kings changed jerseys to new Rbk Edge jerseys. The Kings kept their logo, and only made two minor changes to the striping; the shoulder trim was curved to fit the new style and the bottom stripe was removed, with "Los Angeles" remaining on the sweaters (purple font on the road jerseys, and silver font on the home jerseys).

**WIKIPEDIA.ORG