Looking at the Habs this year is... well, pain.
And I'm starting to wonder, will they hit the 'Worst record for a team that was a Stanley cup finalist the year prior' record.
So what is that record in the NHL since it's start?
7
-
The NHL part of this is a good question; are you able to restrict/refine the "other sports" bit somewhat - I'm sure I can find some relatively obscure sport somewhere where a team was useless the next year. A similar issue applies to "finalist", especially when you move outside US sports into ones which don't have playoffs to determine the champion. That all said, 1998 Marlins.– Philip Kendall ♦Oct 27, 2021 at 17:02
-
Yes - please be very specific what you want to compare to, or this is simply too broad. Also consider time - there are cases of "American Football champions" that went defunct the next year, and probably the same for baseball, in the "pre modern era" for those. If you want a useful answer, you should probably define specific sports and what you consider their specific "modern era" (either Superbowl era or post-merger era for NFL, post-merger probably for NBA, MLB you could use a few different cutoffs, NHL probably post-original-six era?)– Joe ♦Oct 27, 2021 at 18:06
-
Guess the right comparative data point would be win%. But yeah I had the impression i was stretching on a limb with my 'same record in other sports' part.– Fredy31Oct 28, 2021 at 1:17
-
@Fredy31 Just clarify what sports you mean and what time period, it's not all that hard to answer, but I don't want to spend time writing an answer that doesn't fit your particulars. :)– Joe ♦Oct 28, 2021 at 5:32
-
2Closing this as needs details; please feel free to edit in the requested details and it can be reopened.– Joe ♦Oct 29, 2021 at 19:01
|
Show 2 more comments
1 Answer
In the NHL's "modern era", The 2006-7 Hurricanes (40-35-7 OTLs, or 40-42) had the worst record by a defending champion if you count the OTLs as losses (which the NHL doesn't exactly). If you count OTLs as ties (or just count "points"), then the 1995-96 NJ Devils had a slightly worse winning percentage if you count ties as half-wins (but still over .500), and the 1990-91 Edmonton Oilers won only half their games exactly (37-37-6) - but made the playoffs and advanced to the conference finals, so I'm not sure that is quite the same.
To find a team that was in the class of the other three leagues (the other 3 major leagues have a team around .333), you have to go all the way back before the original six era to the 1938-39 Chicago Blackhawks, who at 12-28-8 had a .300 winning percentage of non-tied games, or a .333 winning percentage if you count ties as half-wins. However, they're sort of a special case: the 1937-1938 Hawks won the championship with a record of only 14-25-9 - a .385 winning percentage counting ties as half wins!
