List of NHL Stanley Cup Champions that Won Less than Half their Regular Season Games

I have to admit that I'm not the world's biggest hockey fan. I love the Tampa Bay Lightning, but as soon as they were out of the playoff hunt, I tuned out hockey and into baseball. However, I did start to watch the Stanley Cup Finals between the New Jersey NJ Devils and Los Angeles LA Kings. I thought it was pretty cool that the Kings became the first eighth seeded team to win the Finals. When I looked at their final regular season record of 40-27-15 I thought, "Hey, they played 82 games and only one 40 of them? This has got to be the first time an NHL team has won the Stanley Cup Finals while winning less than half their games. Right?" WRONG!!

So I'm not the biggest hockey fan in the world, but I was a History major in college, so I decided to do a little research. Here's what I found:

The Stanley Cup Trophy originated in the late 1800's. The National Hockey League was founded in 1917 and after 10 years of completing with other hockey leagues, the NHL took over all the rights to the Cup in 1927. Since that time, there have been actually been 18 NHL teams that have won the Stanley Cup, despite winning less that half their games. Two teams even had losing records. So here they are, "The Worst of the Best."


2011 - 2012 Los Angeles LA Kings      40-27-15     95 Points  (82 Games)

1996 - 1997 Detroit Red Wings            38-26-18     94 Points  (82 Games)

1994 - 1995 New Jersey Devils            22-18-8       52 Points  (48 Games)

1991 - 1992 Pittsburgh Penguins           39-32-9       87 Points  (80 Games)

1989 - 1990 Edmonton Oilers              38-28-14      90 Points  (80 Games)

1979 - 1980 New York Islanders         39-28-13      91 Points  (80 Games)

1966 - 1967 Toronto Maple Leafs        32-27-11      75 Points  (70 games)

1963 - 1964 Toronto Maple Leafs        33-25-12      78 Points  (70 Games)

1960 - 1961 Chicago Black Hawks      29-24-17      75 Points   (70 games)

1952 - 1953 Montreal Canadiens         28-23-19       75 Points   (70 Games)

1948 - 1949 Toronto Maple Leafs       22-25-13       57 Points   (60 Games)

1944 - 1945 Toronto Maple Leafs       24-22-4         52 Points   (50 Games)

1937 - 1938 Chicago Blackhawks       14-25-9          37 Points  (48 Games)

1933 - 1934 Chicago Blackhawks       20-17-11        51 Points  (48 Games)

1932 - 1933 New York NY Rangers   23-17-8          54 Points  (48 Games)

1931-1932 Toronto Maple Leafs         23-18-7          53 Points  (48 Games)

1929 - 1930 Montreal Canadiens         21-14-9          51 Points  (44 Games)

1927 - 1928 New York NY Rangers   19-16-9          47 Points  (44 Games)