June 10, 1996: Krupp for the Cup

Joe Sakic

June 11, 1996: The Stanley Cup is won by a team that, in a manner of speaking, didn't even exist the last time the Cup was awarded.

The Quebec Nordiques had won the World Hockey Association Championship in 1977, but after 16 seasons in the NHL, they never won the Stanley Cup. They moved to Denver, and in their 1st season as the Colorado Avalanche, they won it.

It helped that they had acquired 2 players that, as the Nordiques, they would never have been able to get: Goaltender Patrick Roy and right wing Mike Keane were traded by the Montreal Canadiens, who would never have sent them to their Provincial rivals before the move, even though Roy was from Quebec City.

Keane joined an attack led by team Captain Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Valery Kamensky, Adam Deadmarsh, and Claude Lemieux, who had won the Cup the year before with the New Jersey Devils, and in 1986 with the Canadiens. Roy was backed by a defense that included Sylvain Lefebvre, Uwe Krupp, Alexei Gusarov, Curtis Leschyshyn, Sandis Ozolinsh and Adam Foote. They survived a nasty Western Conference Finals with the Detroit Red Wings, which included an ugly brawl after Lemieux's excessive hit on Darren McCarty.

They would play the Florida Panthers, then playing in downtown Miami, but moving in 1998 to an arena closer to Fort Lauderdale. They had begun play in 1993, and had reached the Finals in only their 3rd season.

Earlier in the season, the Panthers' Scott Mellanby saw a rat in the locker room, and killed it with his stick. That night, he scored 2 goals. The story got out, and afterward, any time a Panther player scored 2 goals, it became known as "The Florida Rat Trick," and the fans threw rubber rats onto the ice. They began doing it after wins, too. They also began showing up in masks, not of panthers, but of rats. This was reminiscent of Washington Redskins fans showing up in pig masks, or at least rubber snouts on their noses, in honor of the team's offensive line, the Hogs.

In Game 1 at McNichols Arena in Denver, the Panthers scored first, but that would be the highlight of the Finals for them, as the Avs won, 3-1. It was a rough game, with 8 penalties assessed to the Panthers, 5 to the Avs.

The Avs unloaded in Game 2, winning 8-1. Forsberg had a hat trick, while Rene Corbet and Jon Klemm each scored 2 goals. This game was even rougher, with 9 penalties for Colorado, 7 for Florida.

The series moved to the Miami Arena for Game 3. The Panthers took a 2-1 lead halfway through the game, but the Avs won, 3-2. This game was much cleaner: The Avs only got 2 penalties, the Panthers 1.

Game 4 was tight, as the Panthers refused to simply pack it in. It was scoreless at the end of regulation, and remained so through 2 overtimes. Many more penalties: 8 for the Avs, 7 for the Panthers. At 4:31 of the 3rd overtime, Krupp, a "defensive defenseman" with only 69 goals in 15 NHL seasons, hit a long shot past John Vanbiesbrouck, to give the Avs the 1-0 win, and the sweep. Captain Sakic was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as Most Valuable Player of the Playoffs.

Uwe Krupp

Since this was the Miami fans' last chance to do it -- they knew it would be banned in the off-season -- they unloaded with the rubber rats.

The Avs won the Cup again in 2001 and 2022 The Panthers mostly struggled over the next quarter-century.

UPDATE: The Panthers reached the Stanley Cup Finals in 2023, and won them in 2024 and 2025.

The Avalanche don't have a team Hall of Fame, but they do retire uniform numbers. From their 1996 Stanley Cup winners: 19, center Joe Sakic; 21, center Peter Forsberg; 33, goaltender Patrick Roy; and 52, defenseman Adam Foote. From their 2001 Stanley Cup winners: Sakic, Roy, Foote; 23, right wing Milan Hejduk; and 77, defenseman Ray Bourque. (Forsberg was injured, and missed the Playoffs.) Sakic, Forsberg, Roy, Foote, Hejduk and general manager Pierre Lacroix have been elected to the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame.

The Panthers don't have a team Hall of Fame, either, but they do retire numbers: 37, for founding owner Wayne Huizenga; 93, for founding general manager Bill Torrey; and 1, for 2000s and 2010s goaltender Roberto Luongo. So far, they have not retired any numbers for players from their 1996 Stanley Cup Finalists. Huizenga, Luongo, and 1996 goaltender John Vanbiesbrouck have been elected to the Florida Sports Hall of Fame.

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June 10, 1996 was a Monday. Football was out of season. The NBA Finals were between Games 3 and 4, and the Chicago Bulls went on to beat the Seattle SuperSonics in 6 games.

And these Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 5-3 at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) in Toronto. Tino Martinez hit a home run. Wade Boggs went 4-for-4 with a walk. Rookie Derek Jeter went 1-for-4.

* The New York Mets beat the Atlanta Braves, 8-3 at Shea Stadium. Todd Hundley hit 2 home runs in support of Bobby Jones.

* The Florida Marlins beat the Montreal Expos, 5-2 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Oakland Athletics, 5-4 at Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field) in Cleveland.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Baltimore Orioles, 8-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Tony Clark hit a home run for the Tigers, Cal Ripken Jr. and Bobby Bonilla hit them for the O's.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Boston Red Sox, 8-2 at the new Comiskey Park (now Rate Field) in Chicago.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Seattle Mariners, 13-6 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. The Twins got 2 home runs from Greg Myers, and also got homers from Ron Coomer, Scott Stahoviak, and Paul Molitor, a Hall-of-Famer-in-waiting from nearby St. Paul. For the M's, Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez each went 1-for-4 with a walk, and Griffey had 2 RBIs.

* The California Angels beat the Kansas City Royals, 7-5 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. The Angels scored 3 runs in the top of the 10th, thanks to home runs by Chili Davis and J.T. Snow. The Royals pulled 1 back in the bottom of the 10th, but it wasn't enough.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 8-3 at The Ballpark (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* The Houston Astros beat the Colorado Rockies, 10-9 at Coors Field in Denver.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the San Diego Padres, 6-3 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Tony Gwynn, surprisingly, went 0-for-4.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 2-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* And the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the San Francisco Giants, 5-4 at Candlestick Park (then named 3Com Park at Candlestick Point) in San Francisco. Barry Bonds went 3-for-4 against his former team.

February 24, 2002: Canada End Their Hockey Gold Medal Drought

February 24, 2002: Canada wins the Gold Medal in the Winter Olympic hockey tournament, defeating the U.S. team, 5-2 at the E Center (now the Maverik Center) in the Salt Lake City suburb of West Valley City, Utah.

Jarome Iginla and Joe Sakic each score 2 goals. Herb Brooks, the coach who took the U.S. team to the Gold Medal in Lake Placid in 1980, was brought back, but could only lead them to the Silver Medal this time.

Canada's amateur players had fallen short against the "amateur" players of Eastern Europe, especially the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia, since their last Gold Medal in 1952. And the efforts of NHL teams to sign the best amateur players before they could reach the Olympic team prevented the best players from leading them to Gold Medals.

Bobby Orr and Bobby Clarke in 1964; Guy Lafleur, Ken Dryden and Denis Potvin in 1968; Mike Bossy in 1972; Wayne Gretzky in 1976; Mario Lemieux, Patrick Roy and Steve Yzerman in 1980; Martin Brodeur and Eric Lindros in 1988 -- they weren't ready. Orr and Clarke in 1968; Lafleur, Dryden and Potvin in 1972; Bossy in 1976; Gretzky in 1980; Lemieux, Roy and Yzerman in 1984; Brodeur and Lindros in 1992 -- they were already professionals, and thus ineligible for the Olympics under the rules of the time.

In for Nagano, Japan in 1998, professionals were allowed to play. Canada put together perhaps the most talented group of hockey players ever assembled: Centers Gretzky, Yzerman, Lindros, Joe Nieuwendyk, Keith Primeau, Rod Brind'Amour; left wings Joe Sakic, Brendan Shanahan, Shayne Corson and Rob Zamuner; right wings Theoren Fleury, Trevor Linden and Mark Recchi; defensemen Ray Bourque, Scott Stevens, Al MacInnis, Éric Desjardins, Chris Pronger, Rob Blake, Adam Foote; and goaltenders Roy, Martin Brodeur and Curtis Joseph.

And it was a disaster. After eliminating the United States in the Quarterfinals -- and the American team, also loaded, were badly behaved, including trashing their hotel rooms -- Canada lost the Semifinal to the Czech Republic, which then beat Russia for the Gold Medal.

Gretzky retired as an active player in 1999, and was named general manager for the 2002 team. This team was younger on the average, but also better-coached: Pat Quinn had taken the Philadelphia Flyers and the Vancouver Canucks to the Stanley Cup Finals; Wayne Fleming and Jacques Martin had been assistants to Quinn; and assistant Ken Hitchcock had coached the Dallas Stars to the 1999 Stanley Cup.

The team they assembled to end a half-century's Gold drought was a mixture of '98 players and newcomers: Centers Lemieux, Yzerman, Lindros, Nieuwendyk, Michael Peca and Ryan Smyth; left wings Sakic, Shanahan, Paul Kariya and Simon Gagné; right wings Fleury, Owen Nolan and Jarome Iginla; defensemen MacInnis, Blake, Pronger, Foote, Scott Niedermayer, Eric Brewer and Ed Jovanovski; and goaltenders Brodeur, Joseph and Ed Belfour.

This time, the letdown came in the 1st game, when they were beaten 5-2 by Sweden. They beat Germany 3-2, and were held to a 3-3 tie by the Czech Republic, qualifying for the knockout stage by the skin of their teeth. Then they got serious, beating Finland 2-1 in the Quarterfinal, and Belarus 7-1 in the Semifinal. The Final would have them face a U.S. team, coming off a win over Russia on home ice that had their fans thinking it was 1980 all over again.

It was a weird situation for me. There were Martin Brodeur and Scott Niedermayer of the New Jersey Devils, wearing red and white; and Brian Leetch and Mike Richter of the New York Rangers, wearing red, white and blue. Both what I was used to. And yet, this was international hockey, so my usual rooting was reversed: I had to root for the American Rangers against the Canadian Devils.

Tony Amonte opened the scoring at 8:49 of the 1st period. But it was mostly Canada from then onward. Kariya scored at 14:50, and Iginla gave Canada the lead at 18:33.

Brian Rafalski, the only Devils player on the U.S. team, tied the game at 15:30 of the 2nd period, but Sakic gave Canada the lead back at 18:19. It was still only 3-2 Canada with 4 minutes left in regulation, but Iginla put the game away. With 1:20 left, Sakic put the cherry on the sundae.

Canada won, 5-2. It was their 1st Gold Medal in the sport they invented in 50 years. And it was the happiest moment for Canadian hockey since the 1972 Summit Series against the Soviet Union.

Canada beat the U.S. in the Final again in 2010, on home ice in Vancouver; and beat Sweden in the Final in Sochi, Russia in 2014.

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February 24, 2002 was a Sunday. Baseball and football were out of season. The NHL had, naturally, suspended play for the length of the Olympic Games.

There were 8 games in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Los Angeles Lakers, 107-91 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Charlotte Hornets, 95-93 at the Continental Airlines Arena at the Meadowlands.

* The Miami Heat beat the Washington Wizards, 92-80 at the American Airlines Arena (now the Kaseya Center) in Miami.

* The Seattle SuperSonics beat the Toronto Raptors, 101-92 at the Air Canada Centre (now the Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Orlando Magic, 111-96 at the Gund Arena (now the Rocket Arena) in Cleveland.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Detroit Pistons, 89-82 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Denver Nuggets, 89-84 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver.

* And the Phoenix Suns beat the San Antonio Spurs, 92-83 at the America West Arena (now the Mortgage Matchup Center) in Phoenix. Stephon Marbury of the Suns led all scorers on the day with 36 points.