The Stanley Cup Playoffs are rarely lacking in big score lines, even between two closely-matched teams vying to become champions.
After a gruelling regular season and the massive increase in intensity for the postseason, it’s only logical that even the best of teams will stutter at some point and suffer a heavy defeat against the odds.
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Still, if you’re going to lose, you’d want to lose well. Here, we’ve got results pointing to the opposite.
These are the biggest blowouts in Stanley Cup history, ranging from demolitions in the knockout stages to blowouts in the Finals.
1987 Division Semifinals: Kings 3-13 Oilers (Game 2)
After shocking the Oilers 5-2 win in the opening game, and the Kings boasting some recent playoff bragging rights, Edmonton decided that enough was enough in Game 2 of this opening series.
It started with three unanswered goals in the first six minutes and 30 seconds. LA answered, but the first period ended 6-1 to the road team.
The second period may have ended 3-2, but the Oilers perked up again for the third, adding another four to the scoreline.
Jari Kurri ended the night with four goals, and Wayne Gretzky tied his own record in the NHL playoffs with seven points.
Even though the Kings managed to net three times, the ten-goal deficit marks this game as the biggest blowout in Stanley Cup Playoffs history, and all while Oilers goalie Andy Moog only had to face 14 shots.
This season, the Kings and Oilers could meet early in the playoffs again. Given that the Oilers have scored 40 more goals than LA through 77 games and only conceded 12 more, the betting online could swing in favour of some big wins for the Connor McDavid-led side.
1991 Stanley Cup Finals: Penguins 8-0 North Stars (Game 6)
In the biggest blowout in Stanley Cup Finals history, the Cinderella Story of the Minnesota North Stars was essentially destroyed by the end of the first period in Game 6.
The series stood at 3-2 in favour of the Penguins after losing Games 1 and 3. Following back-to-back wins of 5-3 and 6-4, the Pens were flying and ready to take the crown.
Exactly two minutes into the opening frame, Ulf Samuelsson put Pittsburgh 1-0 up, followed by goals from Mario Lemieux and Joe Mullen well before the end of the period.
In the second, Bob Errey and Ron Francis joined the party at the Met Center before Joe Mullen added his second.
Well and truly over already, the third didn’t let up. Jim Paek scored 89 seconds in, and Larry Murphy wrapped it up with the game’s eighth goal at 13:45.
The scoring was emphatic and the Penguins were relentless, but perhaps the less discussed story of the night was Tom Barrasso in goal for Pittsburgh, who had to stop 39 shots to keep his shutout.
The triumph was portrayed as the Pittsburgh Penguins finally exercising their ever-torturous demons, staging one of the biggest Stanley Cup blowouts to clinch the trophy for the first time.
1990 Division Semifinals: Flames 4-12 Kings (Game 4)
Just three years before, the Los Angeles Kings suffered a historic defeat at this same stage to another Canadian outfit, but against the Calgary Flames, the Kings would earn some vindication.
After a 5-3 win and 5-8 loss to get the series all heated up, the calm before the storm came in Game 3 through the Kings snatching the 1-1 game in overtime.
At the Great Western Forum in California, the Flames didn’t appear to turn up until the 29th minute, with Tony Granato, Tomas Sandstrom, and Dave Taylor twice netting to breeze to a 4-0 lead in the first frame.
The Flames came out swinging, eventually, in the second, but not before Granato, Jay Miller, and Sandstrom pumped the lead to 7-0. Two from Calgary were answered by Gretzky.
Another from the Flames in the second was set back again by the Kings – this time via Todd Elik – but Calgary would have the last word to end the period 9-4.
Seemingly unhappy at conceding four in one period, the Kings continued to drill into the Flames in the final stanza, putting three more into the back of the net to finish as the 12-4 victors on home ice.
2011 Stanley Cup Finals: Canucks 1-8 Bruins (Game 3)
As Presidents’ Trophy winners and the first Canadian team to hold home advantage in the Finals since the 1993 Montréal Canadiens, there was a lot of pressure on the Vancouver Canucks to bring Lord Stanley back north.
It started well in the Stanley Cup Finals, winning 1-0 and 3-2 after overtime in the opening legs at Rogers Arena, but then, the Orcas had to swim into the bear pit of TD Garden.
Game 3 opened to a fairly cagey affair, but a nasty hit to the head of Nathan Horton that saw the skater stretchered out of the stadium would eventually prove to be the catalyst for a Boston onslaught.
The Bruins didn’t score in the five-minute powerplay that ensued from Aaron Rome’s major, but it’s clear that head coach Claude Julien got the Bs fired up in the interval.
Just 11 seconds from the puck drop to open the second stanza, Andrew Ference put only the third puck past Roberto Luongo’s coverage in as many games, with a little help from a broken Canucks stick.
Momentum was with the Bruins, and the mauling began. They surged to a 4-0 lead by the close of the second period, courtesy of goals from Mark Recchi, Brad Marchand, and David Krejci.
It took until 13:53 of the third for Vancouver to get on the board, at which point, it was already 5-1. Recchi’s second and Chris Kelly’s first of the night quickly quelled any fleeting hopes for the Canucks.
Following a powerplay goal in the final minute of play, the Bruins celebrated with their fans one of the biggest Stanley Cup blowouts that would spur them on to eventually hoist the trophy.
This season, it’ll be the Bruins entering the playoffs as the top seed. In the leading odds of sport betting Canada has to offer, they’re the natural favourites at +350, but Presidents’ Trophy winners rarely go all the way.
1996 Stanley Cup Finals: Panthers 1-8 Avalanche (Game 2)
It was the first time that either team had ever made it to the Stanley Cup Finals, but it was also the first season that the Colorado Avalanche had been competing since relocating from Québec City.
One would prove to be far better suited to the occasion, with Game 2 of the eventual four-game series proving that the Florida Panthers weren’t quite ready for the last hurdle.
Unassisted, Peter Forsberg got the Avs flying out of the traps at 4:11, but the Panthers managed to level it up a few minutes later via Stu Barnes on the powerplay. That’d be the last time that Florida celebrated in Game 2.
Before the end of the first, Rene Corbert restored the lead and Forsberg completed his hat-trick, while Joe Sakic had a hand in each of those three unanswered goals – all of which were scored with a man advantage.
Three more were added for the Avs in the second period, all at even strength, via Corbert, Valeri Kamensky, and Jon Klemm.
Already 7-0 up going into the final frame at home, Klemm added another powerplay goal with 2:32 left on the clock.
None of the biggest blowouts in the Stanley Cup Playoffs were pretty for those on the receiving end of the thrashings, but particularly the games in 2011 and 1991 made for some grand stories for the NHL history books.
*Credit for all images in this article belongs to AP Photo*
FIRST PUBLISHED: 5th April 2023
