2002–03 NHL season

The 2002–03 NHL season was the 86th regular season of the National Hockey League. Thirty teams each played 82 games. The Stanley Cup winners were the New Jersey Devils, who won the best of seven series 4–3 against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. This was the last season before the NHL switched home and away jerseys.

Regular season

As always the regular season saw several surprises. The San Jose Sharks, who many felt would be one of the elite teams in the West, stumbled early and badly and disassembled much of the team. The two-year-old Minnesota Wild, on the other hand, got out to an early start and held onto their first ever playoff berth throughout the season, winning coach Jacques Lemaire the Jack Adams Award.

The elite teams of previous years such as the Detroit Red Wings, St. Louis Blues, Colorado Avalanche and New Jersey Devils, were joined by two younger Canadian teams, the Ottawa Senators and Vancouver Canucks. The Dallas Stars, which had missed the playoffs the year before, returned as a major power, backed by the record-setting goaltending of Marty Turco.

The most surprising team was probably the Tampa Bay Lightning, which many had predicted to finish last, contesting for the Southeast Division title and making the playoffs for the first time in seven years. The most disappointing teams, other than the Sharks, were the New York Rangers, who finished out of the playoffs again despite bearing the league's leading payroll, and the Carolina Hurricanes, who finished last overall after a surprise run to the Stanley Cup Finals the year before.

At the midpoint of the season the Canucks lead the Western Conference, and Ottawa lead the East. Vancouver stumbled somewhat over the stretch and lost the Northwest Division title to Colorado and the Western Conference one to Dallas. Ottawa continued to dominate, having the best season in franchise history and winning both the Eastern Conference and the Presidents' Trophy.

The season was also marred by financial difficulties. Despite their success the Ottawa Senators were in bankruptcy protection for almost all of 2003, and at one point could not pay the players. Owner Rod Bryden tried a variety of innovative financing strategies, but these all failed and the team was purchased by billionaire Eugene Melnyk. The Buffalo Sabres also entered bankruptcy protection before being saved by New York businessman Tom Golisano. The financial struggles of the Pittsburgh Penguins continued as the team continued to unload its most expensive players.

The season was marked by a great number of coaches being fired, from Bob Hartley in Colorado to Darryl Sutter in San Jose and Bryan Trottier of the New York Rangers.

Worries over the decline in scoring and the neutral zone trap continued. The season began with an attempted crack down on obstruction and interference, but by the midpoint of the season this effort had petered out. The expansion teams in the southern United States began to suffer financially, with many empty seats to be found in each arena. Most teams lost money on the season. The one bright spot was the increasing value of the Canadian dollar, which made the six Canadian teams more competitive than they had been in years.

Final standings

"Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime Losses, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, Pts = Points"

=Eastern Conference=

=Western Conference=

coring leaders

"Note: GP = Games Played, G = Goals, A = Assists, Pts = Points"
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¹As of 2008, this playoff game is the 19th longest NHL overtime game ever. 53 minutes and 34 seconds of overtime were played before Mark Recchi scored the game-winning goal.

Western Conference Quarterfinals

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Conference Semifinals

Eastern Conference Semifinals

Western Conference Semifinals

²As of 2006, this playoff game is the 4th longest NHL overtime game. 80 minutes and 48 seconds of overtime were played before Petr Sykora scored the game-winning goal.

Conference Finals

Finals

All-Star teams

Debuts

The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 2002–03 (listed with their first team):
*Martin Gerber, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim
*Tim Thomas, Boston Bruins
*Ryan Miller, Buffalo Sabres
*Jordan Leopold, Calgary Flames
*Rick Nash, Columbus Blue Jackets
*Steve Ott, Dallas Stars
*Henrik Zetterberg, Detroit Red Wings
*Ales Hemsky, Edmonton Oilers
*Fernando Pisani, Edmonton Oilers
*Jarret Stoll, Edmonton Oilers
*Marc-Andre Bergeron, Edmonton Oilers
*Jay Bouwmeester, Florida Panthers
*Alexander Frolov, Los Angeles Kings
*Cristobal Huet, Los Angeles Kings
*Joe Corvo, Los Angeles Kings
*Mike Cammalleri, Los Angeles Kings
*Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Minnesota Wild
*Francois Beauchemin, Montreal Canadiens
*Vernon Fiddler, Nashville Predators
*Anton Volchenkov, Ottawa Senators
*Jason Spezza, Ottawa Senators
*Ray Emery, Ottawa Senators
*Jonathan Cheechoo, San Jose Sharks
*Christian Backman, St. Louis Blues
*Petr Cajanek, St. Louis Blues

Last games

The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 2002–03 (listed with their last team):
*Fredrik Olausson, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim
*Uwe Krupp, Atlanta Thrashers
*Craig Berube, Calgary Flames
*Theoren Fleury, Chicago Blackhawks
*Todd Gill, Chicago Blackhawks
*Patrick Roy, Colorado Avalanche
*Kevin Dineen, Columbus Blue Jackets
*Kirk Muller, Dallas Stars
*Ulf Dahlen, Dallas Stars
*Claude Lemieux, Dallas Stars
*Adam Deadmarsh, Los Angeles Kings
*Randy McKay, Montreal Canadiens
*Ken Daneyko, New Jersey Devils
*Mike Richter, New York Rangers
*Pavel Bure, New York Rangers
*Paul Ranheim, Phoenix Coyotes
*Adam Graves, San Jose Sharks
*Tom Barrasso, St. Louis Blues
*Jyrki Lumme, Toronto Maple Leafs
*Robert Svehla, Toronto Maple Leafs
*Phil Housley, Toronto Maple Leafs
*Doug Gilmour, Toronto Maple Leafs
*Craig Billington, Washington Capitals
*Sylvain Cote, Washington Capitals

2003 trading deadline

Trading deadline: March 11, 2003. [ [http://www.habsinsideout.com/main/3969 NHL trade deadline: Deals since 1980 | Habs Inside/Out ] ]
*March 11, 2003: Anaheim traded D Mike Commodore and G Jean-Francois Damphousse to Calgary for C Rob Niedermayer.
*March 11, 2003: Calgary traded D Micki DuPont and C Mathias Johansson to Pittsburgh for RW Shean Donovan.
*March 11, 2003: Carolina traded LW Bates Battaglia to Colorado for RW Radim Vrbata.
*March 11, 2003: Chicago traded C Peter White to Philadelphia for future considerations.
*March 11, 2003: Chicago traded D Phil Housley to Toronto for Calgary’s 4th-round pick in the 2003 Entry Draft (if acquired) or Toronto’s 9th-round pick in 2003 and 4th-round pick in 2004.
*March 11, 2003: Chicago traded LW Sergei Berezin to Washington for Washington's 4th-round pick in the 2004 Entry Draft.
*March 11, 2003 - Chicago Blackhawks trade Steve Thomas to Mighty Ducks of Anaheim for 2003 5th round draft pick (Alexei Ivanov).
*March 11, 2003 - Anaheim acquired C Rob Niedermayer from Calgary for Mike Commodore and Jean-Francois Damphousse.
*March 11, 2003: Colorado traded D Alexander Riazantsev to Nashville for Nashville's 7th-round pick in the 2003 Entry Draft.
*March 11, 2003: Colorado traded C Dean McAmmond to Calgary for Calgary's 5th-round pick in the 2003 Entry Draft (if available) or Calgary's 5th-round pick in 2004.
*March 11, 2003: Dallas traded the rights to RW Anthony Aquino to Atlanta for Dallas’ 6th-round pick in the 2003 Entry Draft (previously acquired) and a conditional pick in the 2006 Entry Draft.
*March 11, 2003: Edmonton traded RW Anson Carter and D Ales Pisa to NY Rangers for RW Radek Dvorak and D Cory Cross.
*March 11, 2003: Edmonton traded D Janne Niinimaa and a conditional 2nd-round pick in the 2003 Entry Draft to NY Islanders for LW Brad Isbister and LW Raffi Torres.
*March 11, 2003: Florida traded RW Valeri Bure and a conditional pick in the 2004 Entry Draft to St. Louis for D Mike Van Ryn.
*March 11, 2003: Los Angeles traded D Mathieu Schneider to Detroit for C Sean Avery, D Maxim Kuznetsov, Detroit's 1st-round pick in the 2003 Entry Draft and 2nd-round pick in 2004.
*March 11, 2003: Los Angeles traded C Bryan Smolinski to Ottawa for the rights to D Tim Gleason and future considerations.
*March 11, 2003: Minnesota traded D Lawrence Nycholat to NY Rangers for G Johan Holmqvist.
*March 11, 2003: Montreal traded C Doug Gilmour to Toronto for Toronto's 6th-round pick in the 2003 Entry Draft.
*March 11, 2003: NY Islanders traded G Chris Osgood and the Islanders' 3rd-round pick in the 2003 Entry Draft to St. Louis for C Justin Papineau and St. Louis' 2nd-round pick in the 2003 Entry Draft.
*March 11, 2003: Phoenix traded LW Brad May to Vancouver for a conditional pick in the 2003 Entry Draft.
*March 11, 2003: Phoenix traded LW Ramzi Abid, D Dan Focht and LW Guillaume Lefebvre to Pittsburgh for C Jan Hrdina and D Francois Leroux.
*March 11, 2003: Pittsburgh traded C Wayne Primeau to San Jose for RW Matt Bradley.
*March 11, 2003: Pittsburgh traded D Marc Bergevin to Tampa Bay for C Brian Holzinger.
*March 11, 2003: Pittsburgh traded D Ian Moran to Boston for Boston's 4th-round pick in the 2003 Entry Draft.
*March 11, 2003: San Jose traded D Dan McGillis to Boston for Boston's 2nd-round pick in the 2003 Entry Draft.

See also

* List of Stanley Cup champions
* 2003 Stanley Cup Playoffs
* 2002 NHL Entry Draft
* 53rd National Hockey League All-Star Game
* NHL All-Star Game
* NHL All-Rookie Team
* 2002 in sports
* 2003 in sports

References

* [http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/leagues/nhl1927.html Hockey Database]
* [http://www.nhl.com/ NHL Official Website]