Another One Bites the Dust

Yesterday the Anaheim Ducks were eliminated from the playoffs by the Dallas Stars. The last defending Stanley Cup champ to advance in the playoffs the following year was the Colorado Avalanche in 2002. The last two defending champs, before the Ducks, didn't even make the playoffs the following year. Is this a trend that will continue in a salary cap NHL? Will we ever see a Dynasty again?

The Pittsburgh Penguins appear to be the brightest candidate to become a Dynasty. The problem for them and any other team is if they can afford to keep their stars together. Crosby and Malkin alone will command about 16 million per year alone and that doesn't include their other budding stars and prospects such as Jordan Staal, Marc-Andre Fleury and Ryan Whitney. The Tampa Bay Lightning finally had to move Brad Richards and his salary, although their core players haven't been successful enough to even mumble the words "Dynasty caliber" with their name.

The Ducks will likely lose Selanne and Niedermayer this offseason. Who knows how they would have done if they didn't hold out so long though. A higher seed and better conditioning from those players could have made a world of difference. They might not even have traded McDonald if he continued his chemistry with Selanne. In fact, a case could be made that Selanne and Niedermayer returning when they did could have hurt the team even more if they didn't even come back. One will never know of course. I sure hope they don't drag out their decisions on retirement too long into the summer. Hopefully they learned their lesson.

Currently there is no clear cut favorite to win the Stanley Cup. There are a bunch of good teams but none I would put my money on. The Ducks could have been that team but now their season is over. Hopefully the next Stanley Cup winner will finally learn from their predecessor's mistakes and prepare themselves well enough to make a quality run for the cup once again.