Fansided

Luckiest jerseys in the NHL’s long and storied history

By Bruin Belisle

DENVER, COLORADO - JUNE 9: Ray Bourque #77 of the Colorado Avalanche lifts the cup with Joe Sakic #19 after the Colorado Avalanche defeated the New Jersey Devils 3-1 in game seven of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals at Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado. The Avalanche take the series 4-3. (Photo by B Bennett/Getty Images)
DENVER, COLORADO - JUNE 9: Ray Bourque #77 of the Colorado Avalanche lifts the cup with Joe Sakic #19 after the Colorado Avalanche defeated the New Jersey Devils 3-1 in game seven of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals at Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado. The Avalanche take the series 4-3. (Photo by B Bennett/Getty Images) /
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Dec 26, 2006; Raleigh, NC, USA; Florida Panthers against the Carolina Hurricanes JUSTIN WILLIAMS Dec. 26, 2006, at the RBC Center in Raleigh, NC. The Hurricanes won 4-2. (Photo by Bob Leverone/Sporting News via Getty Images)
Dec 26, 2006; Raleigh, NC, USA; Florida Panthers against the Carolina Hurricanes JUSTIN WILLIAMS Dec. 26, 2006, at the RBC Center in Raleigh, NC. The Hurricanes won 4-2. (Photo by Bob Leverone/Sporting News via Getty Images) /

5. 2006 Carolina Hurricanes

The Carolina Hurricanes won a Stanley Cup in 2006. That should be enough to complete this section, but we’ll go into a little more detail to hit the word count (and explain why they won, of course). While the team itself was obviously decent, they ran into a bit of luck along the way.

2006 was the height of Saku Koivu’s career as a Montreal Canadien. Koivu led the stacked Habs team that season with 75 points. Koivu was the leader of that team, and while the Hurricanes won the series in six games, three of them were played without Koivu in the Montreal line up. He went down with an eye injury in game 3 after taking a high stick from ‘Canes forward Justin Williams. That’s not saying that the ‘Canes only won because Koivu was out, but it surely helped.

Luck in the form of another player getting injured isn’t necessarily something that can be valued or used to decide a series, but this wasn’t the only time it happened in the Hurricanes’ favor in 2006. When Carolina made it to the finals and squared up with the Edmonton Oilers, the injury bug struck again.

The Oilers lost their red-hot star goaltender Dwayne Roloson in game 1 of the finals. He would miss the entire series after suffering a knee injury on the play above. It wasn’t the fault of Andrew Ladd, who was pushed into him, but it did have a huge impact on the outcome of the series. Until that point, Roloson was having himself an incredible playoff run. One indicative of Stanley Cup success (if you’ve noticed a trend here, it’s that hot goalies often win Cups).

The 2006 Carolina Hurricanes earned their right to hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup, but they definitely benefited from several key injuries along the way. While it isn’t really fair to call that “luck,” sometimes there’s no other way to put it. I don’t believe the Hurricanes would have won the Cup if Roloson was in net.

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