The Carolina Hurricanes and History

An epic playoff year ends with a very good (though not quite epic) game, and a very deserving champion. The 2006 Stanley Cup Final was not just a showdown for the ages, but a fine lesson in the near impossibility of analyzing a close playoff series.

After Saturday night, it was widely written that Carolina had little left, they were running out of gas. Change a few names and particulars in either article, and you could recycle it today as an obit for the Oilers, their last, desperate third-period surge notwithstanding.

But of course none of us were surprised to see the Carolina Hurricanes win the Stanley Cup. We all knew the Oilers were done after game four, right? Sure we did.

Upsets in the Stanley Cup Playoffs are commonplace, so we're often told that regular season results don't count for much at playoff time. But when it comes down to the final two teams, the October-through-April grind is an almost infallible predictor. In 13 of the last 15 Stanley Cup Finals, the team with the better regular season record has prevailed. The exceptions: Detroit (94 points) swept Philadelphia (103) in 1997; New Jersey (52) swept Detroit (70) in the lockout-shortened 1995 season.

Which is to say, the Hurricanes were the best team in the final game primarily because they're better than the Oilers. By 17 points. It's right there in the final standings. How's that for analysis?

In honor of Carolina's first Stanley Cup, we offer a nod to the pioneers, along with the greatest Whaler and the greatest 'Cane.