2002 Stanley Cup Final

The 2002 Stanley Cup Final was the championship series of the National Hockey League's (NHL) 2001–02 season, and the culmination of the 2002 Stanley Cup playoffs. It was contested by the Western Conference champion Detroit Red Wings and the Eastern Conference champion Carolina Hurricanes. It was Detroit's twenty-second appearance in the Finals, their previous appearance being a win in 1998. It was Carolina's first appearance in the Finals in franchise history. The Red Wings defeated the Hurricanes in five games to win their tenth Stanley Cup championship in franchise history. The Red Wings became the third team in NHL history to win 10 or more Stanley Cup titles, joining the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens.

The Red Wings became the first team in NHL history to win the Cup after starting the playoffs with two losses at home. After losing the first two games in the Conference Quarterfinals to the Vancouver Canucks, the Red Wings won 16 of their next 21 games en route to win their third Cup since 1997 for coach Scotty Bowman. Bowman won his ninth Cup as a head coach (he had previously won it in that capacity with the Montreal Canadiens in 1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, and 1979, with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1992, and with Detroit in 1997 and 1998), surpassing the mark he held jointly with Montreal coach Toe Blake. It was his final game as a head coach, as he announced his retirement immediately after the Game 5 victory. It was the last Detroit championship to feature members of the Russian Five, as Sergei Fedorov and Igor Larionov were still with the team.

The Hurricanes finished the regular season with 91 points, clinching the Southeast Division and the third seed in the Eastern Conference. In the first round, the Hurricanes defeated the two-time defending Eastern Conference champion New Jersey Devils in six games. In the second round, the Hurricanes dispatched the eighth seeded Montreal Canadiens in six games to reach their first Eastern Conference Final since moving from Hartford. In the Eastern Conference Finals, the Hurricanes defeated the fourth seeded Toronto Maple Leafs in six games apiece to advance to the Finals for the first time in franchise history, becoming the first team from North Carolina to ever play for a major professional sports championship.

After a surprise upset at the hands of the Los Angeles Kings in the first round of the playoffs the previous season, the Red Wings bolstered their roster in the offseason by signing forwards Luc Robitaille and Brett Hull, goaltender Dominik Hasek (the defending Vezina Trophy winner), and Russian prospect Pavel Datsyuk.

Strengthened by their new signings, the Red Wings finished with the league’s best record at 116 points, clinching the Presidents' Trophy and the overall #1 seed in the playoffs.

In the first round, the Red Wings survived an early scare against the eighth-seeded Vancouver Canucks as they lost the first two games at home, but recovered to win four straight games and advance to the next round, where they defeated the fourth seed St. Louis Blues in five quick games. In the Western Conference Finals, the Red Wings faced the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche. After dropping Game 5 at home in overtime, it was felt that the Red Wings would be eliminated headed to Denver for Game 6. However, Hasek posted two shutouts in Games 6 and 7, including a 7-0 blowout win in Game 7 at home, to return to the Stanley Cup Final for the fourth time in eight years.

This was the first appearance in the Stanley Cup Final for the Hurricanes (formerly the Hartford Whalers), who made an unlikely run to the Cup. While they were seeded third as a division winner, they actually had the second-lowest point total (91) for a playoff team not only in the Eastern Conference, but also the whole NHL (ahead of only Montreal). In their whole NHL history, they had only won one playoff series prior to this season (as the Whalers in 1986) and had streaks of five and six seasons in which they did not make the playoffs. As the Red Wings won the Presidents' Trophy with 116 points, the 25-point differential was the largest between two teams in a Stanley Cup Final since 1994 when there were 27 points between the New York Rangers (112) and the Canucks (85).^[1]

The Hurricanes stunned the Red Wings in the first game on the strength of Ron Francis's overtime goal. It was the first time the team had won a game in Detroit since 1989.^[2] That would be Carolina's only win in the series as the Red Wings won four straight, including a triple overtime win in game three. The Cup win was the first for many veterans on the team, including goaltender Dominik Hasek, forward Luc Robitaille, and defencemen Steve Duchesne (who retired after this season) and Fredrik Olausson. It was the second Cup win for Chris Chelios, sixteen years after he first won the Cup as a member of the Montreal Canadiens in 1986.

The 2002 Stanley Cup was presented to Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman following the Red Wings 3–1 win over the Hurricanes in game five.

The following Red Wings players and staff had their names engraved on the Stanley Cup

2001–02 Detroit Red Wings

• * Played both centre and wing.
  
• † Played both centre and wing regularly, and occasionally played defence due to emergencies.

• Manny Legace's name was misspelled MANNY LEGECE with an "E" instead of an "A". An "A" was stamped over the second "E" twice to correct this mistake.
• Steve Yzerman and Brendan Shanahan became the second and third players to win the Olympic Gold Medal in hockey (with team Canada) and the Stanley Cup (with Detroit) in the same year (See 1980 Ken Morrow)
• Chris Chelios and Brett Hull became the first players to win an Olympic Silver medal (with team United States) and the Stanley Cup (with Detroit) in the same year.
• 10 Players (Steve Yzerman, Igor Larionov, Sergei Fedorov, Brendan Shanahan, Kris Draper, Kirk Maltby, Darren McCarty, Tomas Holmstrom, Nicklas Lidstrom, & Mathieu Dandenault) won their third Stanley Cup with Detroit.

• The players listed below were on the roster during the Finals, but left off the Stanley Cup engraving due to not qualifying (41 regular season games or 1 Finals game for Detroit).
  • #32 Maxim Kuznetsov played in 39 games (2 less than the minimum), but was not dressed in the playoffs. He spent whole season with Detroit.
  • #4 Uwe Krupp (D) – missed 60 games injured, played 8 regular season games, and 2 playoff games
  • #42 Sean Avery (C) – 36 games in minors, 36 games for Detroit
  • #3 Jesse Wallin (D) – 5 games in minors, 15 games for Detroit, missed most of the season injured
  • #15 Ladislav Kohn (RW) – 4 games played, 40 games played in Europe
  • #37 Jason Elliott (G) – was called up from the minors to serve as a practice goalie for Detroit, during the playoffs. Jason Elliot never played a game in the NHL. He retired after 2006-07 season while playing in Germany.
• Detroit wanted to include 30 non players, while still leaving many more non players off. Each NHL team is to dress 20 out a 23 team roster for each games. In 2002 only 22 players' names were added to the Stanley Cup.
• Tim Abbott (Asst. Equipment Manager), Sergei Tchekmarev (Masseur), Rick Szuber (Equipment Assistant) John Remejes (Dressing Room Asst.)
• All 10 players and non-playing personnel in the team picture were awarded the Stanley Cup Rings.

In Canada, the series was televised in English on CBC. This would end up being the last finals broadcast by SRC, as RDS would pick up the French-language broadcast for the next season.

In the United States, ESPN aired the first two games while ABC broadcast the rest of the series.

• Diamond, Dan (2008). Total Stanley Cup (PDF). Dan Diamond & Associates, Inc. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 26, 2009. Retrieved October 20, 2008.
• Podnieks, Andrew; Hockey Hall of Fame (2004). Lord Stanley's Cup. Triumph Books. ISBN 978-1-55168-261-7.