With every run of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, there’s a share of teams with high expectations surrounding them. Some of those teams live up to those expectations, while others fall just short or fail to impress at all. This discussion will focus on the teams that didn’t live up to their expectations in the 2024 postseason. These are three of the most disappointing teams of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.Â
Winnipeg Jets
The Winnipeg Jets had a resounding regular season. They picked up 52 wins, a total that tied their franchise-high and solidified them as a top five team in the league. They did so as one of the best defensive teams in the league. The Jets were tied for the league-low in goals allowed per game, with Connor Hellebuyck having a Vezina-caliber season in goal. Given all of these factors, the results of their first round series were rather shocking.
Defeating a 50-win Colorado Avalanche team was never going to be an easy task. But in this series, the Jets were flat out dominated. For all of their work preventing goals in the regular season, they allowed five or more goals in every game of the series. Additionally, they lost four straight games after winning game one. Lastly, they were the only top five team in the NHL not to win at least one round in the playoffs. Not many had the Jets winning the Stanley Cup, however, their playoff performance left a lot to be desired.Â
Carolina Hurricanes
After falling just short of the Eastern Conference crown last season, the Carolina Hurricanes entered this year with a lot of hype surrounding them. That hype was bolstered by some offseason additions and the trade deadline acquisition of Jake Guentzel. After finishing in third place in the NHL, they opened the postseason as betting odds favorites to win the Stanley Cup.
Their postseason got off to a promising start, as they defeated the New York Islanders in five games. However, when faced with the New York Rangers, everything fell apart. The Hurricanes couldn’t win in several close games and fell to a 3-0 series deficit. And just as they started to turn things around, they blew a 3-1 third period lead at home to lose the series in six games. For a second straight postseason, the Hurricanes struggled to pull away in a series of tightly knit games. With all of their new additions, failing to even reach the conference finals was a disappointing outcome.
New York Rangers
This year’s New York Rangers team looked like they were going to be something special. They had the best season in franchise history in regards to wins (55) and points (114). In addition, the team broke a record for combined comeback wins in the regular season and postseason at 34 total. Per Arda Ocal, the previous record holders, the 1984 Oilers and 2006 Hurricanes, both won the Stanley Cup. The icing on the cake of all of this was the 7-0 postseason start and the spectacular play of goaltender Igor Shesterkin.
Yet despite all of these factors, the Rangers couldn’t even reach the Stanley Cup Finals. They were pretty handily defeated at the hands of the Florida Panthers in six games. For a record-shattering team that bore comparisons to the 1994 championship club, this result was nothing short of a disappointment. It was a year where even star player Artemi Panarin declared, “We have to win the Stanley Cup,” right before the team’s run started. Their window is far from shut, but one has to wonder if this year’s iteration of the Rangers couldn’t break the championship drought, which one can?
Featured image courtesy of NHL.com
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