Thanks for sharing, that would be an interesting stat. Any idea of where you saw that?
here I did the research again. These are the years before his hiring as the Hawks head coach. And I threw in my own fodder about those seasons just for fun. I think it's more interesting if one examines those teams instead of claiming they were loaded with talent and they should have been cup winners. If you look closely into some of those teams they did have some holes and some other issues which impacted the team as a whole. Can't really say it was all coaching.
96/97 lost to detroit in the first round = cup winner - Detroit (was a good Blues team if you don't count Fuhr as a goalie who was getting past his prime and in a league where goalkeeping was changing (he still played well though). McInnis and Pronger as your top 2 blueliners should help that and they did. Did I mention their next top blueliner was Igor Kravchuk then nothing after that..not a deep blueline I don't care who your top 2 guys are). Detroit exploited that defensive hole.
97/98 lost to detroit in the second round = cup winner - Detroit (A Blues team that was still riding Grant Fuhr who was still decent and a team if I remember correctly had some injury issues through the season Hull, Turgeon and Dimtra missed a 1/4 of the season and were not healthy during the playoffs. Duchesne was brought in and helped the blueline big time (I believe he was their best blueliner that year).
98/99 lost to Dalls in the second round = cup winner - Dallas Hull gone from the team and back to mcInnis and Pronger logging all the blueline minutes with no one at all in the depth..next best blueliner was Ricard Persson...who? Upfront with Hull gone the depth was starting to fall. Guys like Scott Young and Scott Pellerin were the depth wingers and there were no centers after Pierre Turgeon. Craig Conroy was a decent second liner but wasn't having a great season. Not a team without major holes all through it. Fuhr and McLennan were swapping time as it looked like Fuhr was starting to fade.
99/00 lost to San Jose first round (I dont remember this series at all ) Blues still had no defense depth past Pronger and McInnis. Todd Reirden was okay but not enough to help the depth. Turek was now the #1 goalie and had a good year in net. Up front turgeon missed half the year and wasn't healthy in the playoffs adding a big problem to center depth which did get a helping hand from Handzus and to a lesser extent Mike Eastwood. But still a team with limited to zero defensive depth past the first pairing.
00 /01 lost to Colorado in Conference Final = cup winner - Colorado Still no defensive depth. McInnis and Pronger going strong but no support. #3 blueliner is now Alexander Khavanov who isn't horrible but not great either. Center depth is starting to look stronger...oh wait this season Handzus is riddled with injuries missing more than half the season and missing the playoffs. Dimitra is also hurt for half the season effecting the wing depth. Tkachuk is brought in and has a decent playoffs. Yet no help on the blueline and no interest in filling those holes (a blues all time favorite of things they dont like doing). Turek and Johnson fight for the starting spot through the season. Turek ends up taking it and has a decent playoffs also. But having one healthy center in turgeon just doesn't seem enough to go that deep in the playoffs. Marty Reasoner becomes the #2 center.
01/02 lost to Detroit in the 2nd round = cup winner - Detroit (the one hit wonder Brent Johnson is now the #1 goalie and is annointed a future superstar. Still no help on the blueline for Al and Chris. Dimitra and Tkatchuk have great seasons. Doug Wieght the now #1 center has a bellow average season and a horrible playoffs and there is still no center depth at all. What do the Blues do to try and solve center depth issues? They bring in 80 year old Ray Ferraro.
02/03 lost in first round to Vancouver (should be fired just for that but I remember that series and it was tight and the Blues flat out blew a 3-1 series lead)
03/04 = (fired..the Blues never recovered after blowing that opening series to the Canucks the year before and have been shit ever since although Hitch has them back) They still made the playoffs that year even though Q was fired after a slow start. Wasn't a good Blues team despite what people think only has 2 players who score more than 20 goals. Doug Weight was the only centerman and he was near the end of his career and Pronger was their only real blueliner).
05/06 - Lost in second round to the Ducks (that was the year the Oilers went from 8th to the cup final and almost won it all) The age of goalie shit in Colorado. Aebischer and Budaj completely shit the bed this season and the Avs were lucky to even make the playoffs with these horrible regular season goalkeepers. On defense it was a good depth team. Blake, Liles, Brisebois and Clark were a solid top 4. Better than anything Q had in St Louis as far as defensive depth. Up front also a good depth team. Sakic, Tanguey, Brunnette (when he was good), Hejduk, Svatos, Turgeon, Laperriere, Mclean. Such a good depth to work with. And a healthy depth. Look who comes into save the day for the Avs inbetween the pipes. Its Jose Theodore and he shits it in the playoffs just as bad as the horrible tandom did in the regular season. Q should have won a cup with this team..this was the year...but he didn't get goalkeeping. Didn't help that Theodore was in the middle of that silly drug shit and was just coming off a major injury when he went to the Avs.
06/07 - didn't make the playoffs (and that was NOT a good Avs team and also a new GM stepped in that year which rarely makes a contender right away. Rob Blake left the team as did Tanguay. Still had fire power up front but a very thin blueline Clarke and Lilles were their best and that's not good for anyone. Budaj and Theodore were garbage. Hard to pin this one on Q.
07/08 - lost in the second round to Detroit = cup winner - Detroit Sakic has an impressive season yet again even though it is injury riddled and he plays injured during the playoffs. Goalie fiasco continues and now we have Theodore and Budaj fighting for the job which is a distraction. Ryan Smyth is added to the lineup which helps with depth (Avs didn't have an issue with forward depth). Blueline is depthless yet again. Not a Stanley Cup contending team.
Anyways just some foder. I don't think it's always fair to say Q had great teams and could never get them to produce in the playoffs. Take it for what it is but out of the 9 times he took his team into the playoffs 6 of those times he lost to the team which would eventually win the cup. 4 times it was the Redwings..ugh!! That could be disected as a coach who couldn't get his team to the next level or a coach who was just beat out by the better teams the majority of times he was in the playoffs (or both..I don't care). 6 out of 9 is a pretty amazing stat. Seeing 4 were to the team some say was or is the best ran franchise in hockey then it makes you step back a little somewhat.
I really don't think those Blues teams were that good. Lacked defensive depth every year. I know Pronger and McInnis were unreal together and logged redicula minutes. But that's also a recipe for playoff burn out. Blues never had solid center dpeth either and were rampid with injuries in some of the seasons they did have center depth. A team that always had strong wingers and a top defensive pairing is what those Blues teams were. Nothing more and nothing less. Goalkeeping was good enough but not outstanding although Fuhr def kept his critics quiet including myself.
That one Avs team was Q's bread and butter. It would have helped if he had goalkeeping that season. Bet it would have been a cup year had he had it.
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