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2003-04 NHL season

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The 2003-04 NHL season was the 87th regular season of the National Hockey League. Thirty teams each played 82 games. The Stanley Cup winners were the Tampa Bay Lightning, who won the best of seven series 4–3 against the Calgary Flames.

This was the final season that ABC and ESPN televised NHL games. It was also the final NHL season before the 2004-05 NHL lockout.

Contents

Regular season

The 2003-04 season was one overhung by concern over the expiry of the NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement. It would lead to a shuttering of the league for the entirety of the next season. During the entire season, Commissioner Gary Bettman and Players Association head Bob Goodenow waged a war of words with no agreement being signed.

On September 29, just before the season was to begin, the young Atlanta Thrashers star Dany Heatley crashed his Ferrari in suburban Atlanta. The passenger, Thrashers workhorse Dan Snyder, was killed. Heatley himself was badly injured and eventually charged with vehicular homicide. The entire NHL thus began the season in mourning.

Going into the season the two favourites were the Ottawa Senators in the east, who had won the Presidents' Trophy and come within a goal of the Stanley Cup finals the year before; and the Colorado Avalanche in the west, who despite losing legendary goaltender Patrick Roy to retirement, added both Teemu Selänne and Paul Kariya to an already star-studded lineup. Neither of these teams was as successful as expected with Ottawa finishing fifth in the conference and Colorado finishing fourth, losing the Northwest Division title for the first time in a decade.

The greatest disappointments were the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, who, despite making it to game seven of the Stanley Cup Finals the year before and adding Sergei Fedorov and Vaclav Prospal, failed to make the playoffs. In the East the star-studded New York Rangers again failed to make the playoffs. The Washington Capitals, who were regarded as a contender, also stumbled early and never recovered. The end of the season saw two of the most extensive housecleanings in league history as the Rangers and Capitals traded away most of their stars and entered rebuilding mode. The Capitals traded Jaromir Jagr, Peter Bondra, Sergei Gonchar, Robert Lang, Steve Konowalchuk, and Anson Carter. The Rangers moved Petr Nedved, Brian Leetch, Anson Carter, and Alexei Kovalev.

The most surprising teams were the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference and San Jose Sharks in the Western Conference. The Lightning, who had a remarkable season with only 20 man-games lost to injury, finished atop the Eastern Conference. The Sharks, who were firmly in rebuilding mode after a disastrous campaign the last season, came second in the Western Conference and won the Pacific Division.

Two others teams that did better than expected were carried by surprising young goaltenders. The Calgary Flames ended an eight-year playoff drought backed by the surprising play of Miikka Kiprusoff. The Boston Bruins won the Northeast Division by a whisker with the help of Calder Trophy candidate Andrew Raycroft.

Goaltending was also the story of the Presidents Trophy wining Detroit Red Wings as the return from retirement of legend Dominik Hasek bumped Curtis Joseph to the minor leagues. At the same time long time back up Manny Legace put up better numbers than both veterans and won the starting job in the playoffs.

Of note is the fact that the Nashville Predators made the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. They put up a valiant effort but were unable to overcome the hall of fame bound roster of the Detroit Red Wings in the first round.

Final standings

Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime Losses, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, Pts = Points

Atlantic Division W L T OTL GF GA PTS
Philadelphia Flyers 40 21 15 6 229 186 101
New Jersey Devils 43 25 12 2 213 164 100
New York Islanders 38 29 11 4 237 211 91
New York Rangers 27 40 7 8 206 250 69
Pittsburgh Penguins 23 47 8 4 190 303 58

Northeast Division W L T OTL GF GA PTS
Boston Bruins 41 19 15 7 209 188 104
Toronto Maple Leafs 45 24 10 3 242 204 103
Ottawa Senators 43 23 10 6 262 189 102
Montreal Canadiens 41 30 7 4 208 192 93
Buffalo Sabres 37 34 7 4 220 221 85

Southeast Division W L T OTL GF GA PTS
Tampa Bay Lightning 46 22 8 6 245 192 106
Atlanta Thrashers 33 37 8 4 214 243 78
Carolina Hurricanes 28 34 14 6 172 209 76
Florida Panthers 28 35 15 4 188 221 75
Washington Capitals 23 46 10 3 186 253 59

Central Division W L T OTL GF GA PTS
Detroit Red Wings 48 21 11 2 255 189 109
St. Louis Blues 39 30 11 2 191 198 91
Nashville Predators 38 29 11 4 216 217 91
Columbus Blue Jackets 25 45 8 4 177 238 62
Chicago Blackhawks 20 43 11 8 188 259 59

Northwest Division W L T OTL GF GA PTS
Vancouver Canucks 43 24 10 5 235 194 101
Colorado Avalanche 40 22 13 7 236 198 100
Calgary Flames 42 30 7 3 200 176 94
Edmonton Oilers 36 29 12 5 221 208 89
Minnesota Wild 30 29 20 3 188 183 83

Pacific Division W L T OTL GF GA PTS
San Jose Sharks 43 21 12 6 219 183 104
Dallas Stars 41 26 13 2 194 175 97
Los Angeles Kings 28 29 16 9 205 217 81
Mighty Ducks of Anaheim 29 35 10 8 184 213 76
Phoenix Coyotes 22 36 18 6 188 245 68

Scoring leaders

Note: GP = Games Played, G = Goals, A = Assists, Pts = Points
Player Team GP G A Pts
Martin St. Louis Tampa Bay 82 38 56 94
Ilya Kovalchuk Atlanta 81 41 46 87
Joe Sakic Colorado 81 33 54 87
Markus Näslund Vancouver 78 35 49 84
Marian Hossa Ottawa 81 36 46 82
Patrick Elias New Jersey 82 38 43 81
Daniel Alfredsson Ottawa 77 32 48 80
Cory Stillman Tampa Bay 81 25 55 80
Robert Lang Washington / Detroit 69 30 49 79
Brad Richards Tampa Bay 82 26 53 79

Leading goaltenders

Note: GP = Games Played; Mins = Minutes Played; W = Wins; L = Losses: OT = Overtime Losses; GA = Goals Allowed; SO = Shutouts; GAA = Goals Against Average
Player Team GP Mins W L T GA SO SV GAA
Martin Brodeur New Jersey 75 4554 38 26 11 154 11 .917 2.03
Marty Turco Dallas 73 4359 37 21 13 144 9 .913 1.98
Ed Belfour Toronto 59 3444 34 19 6 122 10 .918 2.13
Tomas Vokoun Nashville 73 4221 34 29 10 178 3 .909 2.53
Dan Cloutier Vancouver 60 3539 33 21 6 134 5 .914 2.27

Stanley Cup Playoffs

The Stanley Cup
Enlarge
The Stanley Cup

Note: All dates in 2004.

The 2004 playoffs were considered to be wide open with no clear favourite. All of the top teams had weaknesses. Tampa Bay and Boston were both young teams with no history of recent postseason success. Detroit, Ottawa, Colorado, and Philadelphia all had major questions in goal. New Jersey was marred by injuries to Scott Stevens and Brian Rafalski, while Vancouver was missing the suspended Todd Bertuzzi.

The first-round Eastern Conference matchups were notable for the number of heated rivalries. The Ottawa Senators met their Ontario neighbours Toronto Maple Leafs for the fourth time in five years in the always passion-filled Battle of Ontario. The Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens met in a resumption of the most common of all NHL playoff series, and one which the Canadiens have thoroughly dominated, including an upset win two years ago. The Philadelphia Flyers played a hated division rival in the New Jersey Devils. The only non-rivalry was the Tampa Bay-New York Islanders series.

The West saw the resumption of the Vancouver-Calgary rivalry, which had been somewhat dormant as the Flames had missed the playoffs for seven years in a row. In a less passionate but still interesting matchup, Detroit played division rival Nashville, whom they had struggled against during the regular season in Nashville's first ever franchise visit to the playoffs. San Jose met the St. Louis Blues, while the always difficult four-five matchup saw Colorado and Dallas meet.

The Calgary Flames, a sixth seed, defeated three straight division champions, the Canucks, the Red Wings and the Sharks to become the first Canadian team to reach the Stanley Cup Finals in ten years, since the Canucks lost to the Rangers in the Finals in 1994. They faced the Tampa Bay Lightning, who defeated the Islanders in five, swept the Canadiens and defeated the Flyers in seven games.

The Flames and the Lightning battled hard in the Stanley Cup Finals, eventually pushing the series to seven games. By game 5, the Flames took the 3-2 series lead back to Calgary, but the Lightning battled back to win games 6 and 7 to win the Stanley Cup on their home ice. Brad Richards, with a team-high 25 points in the playoffs, was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy.

Conference Quarterfinals

Eastern Conference Quarterfinals

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Western Conference Quarterfinals

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Conference Semifinals

Eastern Conference Semifinals

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Western Conference Semifinals

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Conference Finals

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Stanley Cup Finals

Scoring leaders

''Note: GP = Games Played, G = Goals, A = Assists, Pts = Points

NHL awards

The NHL Awards presentation took place in Toronto.

See also

References

National Hockey League 1917 to present
Current teams : Anaheim | Atlanta | Boston | Buffalo | Calgary | Carolina | Chicago | Colorado | Columbus | Dallas | Detroit | Edmonton | Florida | Los Angeles | Minnesota | Montreal | Nashville | New Jersey | NY Islanders | NY Rangers | Ottawa | Philadelphia | Phoenix | Pittsburgh | San Jose | St. Louis | Tampa Bay | Toronto | Vancouver | Washington
Trophies and awards: Stanley Cup | Prince of Wales | Clarence S. Campbell | Presidents' Trophy | Adams | Art Ross | Calder | Conn Smythe | Crozier | Hart | Jennings | King Clancy | Lady Byng | Masterton | Norris | Patrick | Pearson | Plus/Minus | Rocket Richard | Selke | Vezina

 

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