I'm obviously biased, but the Stanley Cup Finals has to be one of the greatest things in sports. Fast, loud and always dramatic, we were gifted with some of the best Finals series in NHL history this past decade. From the overtime winner that nobody saw to teams claiming their first championship in franchise history, we had a bit of everything. Here's all 10 Stanley Cup Finals this decade, ranked from best to worst.
#1 - 2011: Bruins 4, Canucks 3
To wit: Alex Burrows bit Patrice Bergeron and didn't get suspended, only to score the OT winner in Game 2. The series moved to Boston for Game 3 and thne everything went topsy-turvy; the Canucks were outclassed 8-1, 145 penalty minutes were doled out and Nathan Horton was knocked out. Game 4 was another Canucks loss, but more demoralizing was conceding that the Bruins' starter, Tim Thomas, was better than the Canucks' Jennings-winning tandem. Game 5 in Vancouver was another nail-biter, but a 1-0 win wasn't enough to breed any confidence. Game 6 felt like the Canucks had become too comfortable with the idea that Game 7 would be played at home, and had conceded the loss before the puck was even dropped with the Bruins scoring four times in four minutes. Game 7, of course, saw the road team win for the first time in the series. The Canucks' core lasted one more season before going through a retool slow death, while the Bruins would capture
I'm obviously biased, but the Stanley Cup Finals has to be one of the greatest things in sports. Fast, loud and always dramatic, we were gifted with some of the best Finals series in NHL history this past decade. From the overtime winner that nobody saw to teams claiming their first championship in franchise history, we had a bit of everything. Here's all 10 Stanley Cup Finals this decade, ranked from best to worst.
#1 - 2011: Bruins 4, Canucks 3
To wit: Alex Burrows bit Patrice Bergeron and didn't get suspended, only to score the OT winner in Game 2. The series moved to Boston for Game 3 and thne everything went topsy-turvy; the Canucks were outclassed 8-1, 145 penalty minutes were doled out and Nathan Horton was knocked out. Game 4 was another Canucks loss, but more demoralizing was conceding that the Bruins' starter, Tim Thomas, was better than the Canucks' Jennings-winning tandem. Game 5 in Vancouver was another nail-biter, but a 1-0 win wasn't enough to breed any confidence. Game 6 felt like the Canucks had become too comfortable with the idea that Game 7 would be played at home, and had conceded the loss before the puck was even dropped with the Bruins scoring four times in four minutes. Game 7, of course, saw the road team win for the first time in the series. The Canucks' core lasted one more season before going through a retool slow death, while the Bruins would capture another title before the decade was over.
This series had literally everything. A classic matchup between skill vs. strength while both teams were facing championship droughts that were on the verge of lasting four decades. No series was as divisive as this one this decade, and you either thought the Bruins were mean bullies running amok or the Canucks were a smug and arrogant team that got what they deserved.
#2 - 2019: Blues 4, Bruins 3
It says something about the Stanley Cup Finals when the decade's most meme-able series – a 1970 rematch, the Blues' first ever title, Gloria! and Laila Anderson becoming the heart and soul of the team – isn't at the top. It was the first series to go the full seven since 2011, and thanks to some help from America's favorite couple, Jim and Pam, set a new viewership record in the final game. The highlight may have been watching the Blues claim their first ever Cup, but their path to the playoffs was arguably the bigger story – they were in last place in January and 300-to-1 odds to win the Cup, becoming one of the best underdog triumphs in sports history thanks to Jordan Binnington's heroics.
#3 - 2013: Blackhawks 4, Bruins 2
It's easy to lose yourself in the excitement. Just ask Dave Bolland, who threw his gloves in the air after scoring the Blackhawks' second goal in just 17 seconds and taking a 3-2 lead even though there were still a minute left on the clock. It was the first time two Original Six teams had met since 1979, and also the first time the two historic franchises had met in the Finals. Game 1 needed triple OT, two of the next three games also required overtime and the deciding game was decided by just one goal in one of the closest series of the past decade.
#4 - 2014: Kings 4, Rangers 1
Oh, the drama! Alec Martinez's double-overtime winner in Game 5 clinched the Kings' second Cup in three seasons and put an emphatic exclamation point between rival cities L.A. and N.Y. Despite lasting just five games, it was a close series with three overtimes, including two double-overtimes, and another game that was decided by just one goal. This was as close as Henrik Lundqvist, the best goalie this decade, ever got to winning. He did, however, give us an everlasting image of him sprawled out on his stomach, crushed to the core, unable to move for the first few minutes before getting to his knees and tilting his head towards the side as if all life had left him.
#5 - 2010: Blackhawks 4, Flyers 2
This one's truly bizarre because for a few seconds nobody in the world except Patrick Kane knew what was going on. Part of the appeal of the Finals is being able to live in the moment, but in this particular series the biggest moment passed everyone by, so I'm taking points off for its anti-climactic finish. I'm inclined to think that the red lamp never went off out because it's in Philly and the goal judge was probably spiteful and/or in denial, but it bookended the ending of the league's longest championship drought with an overtime finish that laid the foundations for the Hawks' dominance in the first half of the decade. There is little doubt that the NHL's record-breaking viewership and increasing popularity – thank you Winter Classic – coincided with the Madhouse on Madison going mad again after years of local TV blackouts.
#6 - 2018: Capitals 4, Golden Knights 1
It was the year anyone who ever doubted Alex Ovechkin's commitment and leadership had to shut up, and it was the year that a "non-traditional hockey market" such as Vegas proved it could sell the sport. The series wasn't very close, needing just five games, though with two hockey-mad cities it was the highest-rated Final that didn't feature an Original Six team. The Seattle expansion was approved later that year in December, and there's no doubt that Vegas' exciting inaugural season made the $650-million price tag much more palatable, provided, of course, that the expansion rules that helped Vegas build such a good team right out of the gate remained intact.
#7 - 2015: Blackhawks 4, Lightning 2
On paper, this series looked good and the numbers showed that; average TV viewership jumped 6.7% from the previous season and, to this day, the 2015 Finals has the second-highest average number of viewers. The Blackhawks' national popularity reached its peak with their second Finals appearance in three seasons, and it potentially had huge implications for the Lightning's future – Steven Stamkos was going to be an UFA the following summer, and a Cup title could sway his decision. But, even though five of the six games were decided by just one goal, there were few everlasting moments other than seeing Chicago win on home ice for the first time since 1938, and this Alex Killorn tip from a near-impossible angle. Cynics will call this series the one where everyone got tired of seeing the Blackhawks on national TV.
#8 - 2012: Kings 4, Devils 2
If we had to pinpoint an exact moment the "blog boyz" took hockey by storm, this was it. The Blackhawks had the highest SAT% in 2010 when they won their first Cup, but the narrative snapped back to muscle-over-skill when the Bruins beat up the Canucks, so when the Kings' elite SAT% led to their first ever title, it suddenly gave more credence to these weird things they called Corsi and Fenwick. Oh, the actual hockey itself? It barely registered, with the eighth-ranked Kings dominating the sixth-ranked Devils for much of the series in a matchup few had predicted. It did, however, have huge repercussions for the Devils franchise: Zach Parise, on a one-year deal, left that summer even after being named captain; Martin Brodeur, who looked gassed by the end of the series, ended up playing just 68 more games as a Devil; and Ilya Kovalchuk, sensing the team's downward spiral, began plotting his escape.
#9 - 2017: Penguins 4, Predators 2
Just about everybody outside of Pittsburgh was on the Smashville bandwagon, so it was like watching Mola Ram pull out our hearts and watch it burst into flames. For the second straight season, a team that had never been to the Finals had reached hockey's greatest stage, and there was real interest in seeing a brand-new winner. The Preds gave us a glimmer of hope, outplaying the Pens in Games 1 and 2, but they ended up losing both games. That's about as exciting as it got; the Pens won Games 5 and 6 by a combined 8-0 score and not a single game was decided by one goal. Sidney Crosby solidified his case as one of the greatest ever and Matt Murray's second Cup title vindicated a bittersweet goodbye to Marc-Andre Fleury. Perhaps the biggest takeaway for Nashville was their new tradition of bringing in A-list singers and making the anthems must-watch television, but it wasn't without controversy, because they had to shoo regular-season anthem singer Dennis K. Morgan offstage, ending a 17-year relationship.
#10 - 2016: Penguins 4, Sharks 2
The Sharks are going to go down as one of the best teams of the decade to never win the big prize, and the only California team to still have not won a Cup title despite having one of the most stable ownership and front offices in the league. But, the Pens were a likeable team, trading for Phil Kessel and signing veteran Matt Cullen. There were two overtimes but the series was never really close; the Pens won Games 1 and 2 and registered more than 40 shots in three games, outshooting the Sharks by a margin of 67 in the series.
