Back-to-back matchups a rarity in Stanley Cup history

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Mathematical odds and hockey’s gods would suggest that consecutive, identical matchups for the Stanley Cup are rare and wondrous happenstance.

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Given that one of 16 teams emerges from each National Hockey League conference to contest the final every year, the chances of a consecutive, repeat matchup currently are one in 4,096.

It had happened just 11 times since 1927 — and not at all since Detroit and Pittsburgh went back-to-back in 2008 and ‘09 — before the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers made it an even dozen and will face off again, with the Panthers looking to defend their Cup title from 2024.

Montreal has appeared in the most back-to-back Cup match-ups with six, followed by Detroit (five), Toronto (four) and Boston (two). St. Louis, the New York Rangers, the Islanders, Oilers and Penguins each appeared in one.

Just four of the 11 back-to-backs were split by the two teams, while Montreal swept four of its six repeat finals, Toronto swept two and Detroit one.

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Here then is a look back at some of hockey’s most unlikely Stanley Cup finals in history.

1932 and ’33 – New York Rangers vs. Toronto Maple Leafs

This was the OG, the first consecutive, repeat matchup for Lord Stanley’s Cup in modern NHL history. The Leafs took the title in 1932, before the Rangers won the 1933 Final by a count of three games to one. Bill Cook, the Rangers captain and first player signed by the New York franchise, scored the Cup-clinching goal at 7:33 of overtime, with Leafs Bill Thoms and Alex Levinsky in the penalty box at Maple Leaf Gardens. It was the first power-play OT goal scored in NHL playoff history. In a delightful interview conducted in the Rangers dressing room between the second and third periods, Cook was asked by radio and TV play-by-play man extraordinaire Foster Hewitt to offer goal-scoring advice for youngsters.

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https://www.cbssports.com/nhl/news/video-footage-of-the-1933-stanley-cup-final/

Cook, who won the 1932-33 scoring title with 50 points in 48 games, said: “Put the puck where the goaltender isn’t.”

He did exactly that in OT, taking a centring pass from Butch Keeling and beating Toronto netminder Lorne Chabot low on the stick side to give the Rangers their second Stanley Cup title.

The series featured 15 eventual Hockey Hall of Famers, including Cook, King Clancy and Red Horner, who played defence for the Leafs with his broken right arm in a cast during that playoff season.

1954, ’55 and ’56 – Detroit Red Wings vs. Montreal Canadiens

At various points in NHL history, the Canadiens made it a rite of spring to appear in the Cup final and, for an unprecedented three straight years in the 1950s, their dance partners were the Red Wings. In 1954 and ’55, the Wings’ dynastic teams came out on top, powered by the likes of Gordie Howe, Ted Lindsay, Norm Ullman, Alex Delvecchio and goalie Glenn Hall.

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But in 1956, the Habs beat the Wings in five games, back-stopped by the stingy goaltending of Jacques Plante, who held Detroit to nine goals and was eventually named winner of the Vezina Trophy. It was the first of 11 career Cup wins for Canadiens’ centre Henri Richard, who capped his rookie season that spring by scoring eight points in 10 playoff games. Montreal’s rookie head coach Toe Blake won the first of eight Cups as a bench boss, to accompany the two he won with the Canadiens as a player.

The Habs appeared in 10 straight finals between 1951 and 1960, five straight between 1965 and ’69, and four straight from 1976 to ’79.

1968 and ’69 – Montreal Canadiens vs. St. Louis Blues

With goalie Glenn Hall performing miracles in the St. Louis net and coach Scotty Bowman doing the same behind the bench, the fledgling Blues gave the powerhouse Habs a decent run for their money in 1968, but still lost the Cup final in four straight games, two of which went to overtime.

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It was the first Cup awarded after the league’s major expansion from six to 12 teams. By reconfiguring the playoff format, the NHL had guaranteed an expansion team would advance to the final. The Habs were the cream of the crop in the east, finishing first with 94 points, while the Blues finished third in the west division with 70, but got past Philadelphia and Minnesota in seven-game series en route to the final.

A year later, the Blues finished atop the west with 88 points, but were nothing more than a speed bump as the Habs rolled to a 16^th Stanley Cup title, outscoring St. Louis 12-3 in four straight wins.

The fourth and deciding game was the closest of the bunch. After Terry Gray gave the hometown Blues a 1-0 lead, Habs defenceman Ted Harris picked a fine time to score the only goal of his 100-game playoff career, tying it 1-1. Montreal tough guy John Ferguson would score the Cup-clincher and the Habs finished off a 2-1 win. Immediately following the victory, coach Toe Blake announced his retirement.

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The Habs’ roster was chock full of Hall of Famers, including Jean Beliveau, Yvan Cournoyer, Henri Richard, Jacques Lemaire and Jacques Laperriere.

1977 and ’78 – Montreal Canadiens vs. Boston Bruins

The Bruins didn’t know it, but their run of futility against the Habs came to a merciful end in the spring of 1978, with Montreal carting off yet another Stanley Cup at their expense.

It was the seventh and final Cup meeting of the two Original Six franchises, every one of them won by Montreal. In fact, Boston won just six of the 32 Stanley Cup final games contested by the two teams and never took the Habs to a seventh and deciding game in any of those series.

In 1978, the Bruins were only good enough to take the Habs to six games, the deepest they had ever gone against Montreal in a Cup final.

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In the sixth game, held at Boston Garden, defenceman Brad Park gave the Bruins a 1-0 first-period lead, but the Habs stormed back with four unanswered goals, two by Mario Tremblay, to wrap up the franchise’s 21^st Stanley Cup title.

Montreal’s Larry Robinson won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP, becoming just the third defenceman to be so honoured, after fellow Hab Serge Savard (1969) and Boston’s Bobby Orr (1970 and ’72).

1983 and ’84 – Edmonton Oilers vs. New York Islanders

The Oilers learned a hard, painful lesson in 1983. Swept in four straight Cup final games by New York, Oilers’ Kevin Lowe and Wayne Gretzky were struck by how low-key the Islanders’ dressing room celebration was following their fourth consecutive Cup win.

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Turns out the Isles were an exhausted, experienced, disciplined playoff team and almost to a man they were covered in ice bags soothing wounds picked up along the playoff trail that had seen them dispatch Washington, New York Rangers and Boston in a combined 16 games. The Isles had more than paid the price, it was important that the Oilers paid attention.

And one year later the tide had turned. The Oilers finished first overall in the NHL with 57 wins and 119 points, the Isles won 50 games and finished with 104 points. The Oilers were an offensive juggernaut, leading the league with 464 goals, while the Isles put up 357.

Strangely enough, Edmonton won Game 1 of the final on Long Island on an unlikely third-period goal from grinder Kevin McClelland, then suffered a stunning 6-1 defeat in Game 2.

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With the series format at 2-3-2, the Oilers came home to Edmonton and scored in bunches to beat the Isles 7-2, 7-2 and 5-2 for a five-game series and Cup win in front of their fans at Northlands Coliseum.

Mark Messier, who scored three times in the final, won the Conn Smythe Trophy.

2008 and ’09 – Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Detroit Red Wings

Maxime Talbot had a fine, workmanlike NHL career, scoring 91 goals in 704 regular-season games for four teams (Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Colorado and Boston) over 13 seasons. He scored just 12 goals in 75 games during the 2008-09 campaign, but erupted for eight more in 24 playoff games, including both goals in a 2-1 Game 7 win that gave the Penguins the 2009 Stanley Cup over Detroit, avenging their defeat at the hands of the Wings a year earlier.

Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin led all playoff scorers with 36 points and won the Conn Smythe Trophy.

This was the only back-to-back matchup in NHL history that did not feature at least one Canadian team.

The other back-to-backs featured Toronto vs. Detroit (1963 and ’64), Montreal vs. Toronto (1959 and ’60), Montreal vs. Boston (1957 and ’58) and Toronto vs. Detroit (1948 and ’49).

dbarnes@postmedia.com

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