1993–94 NHL season

The 1993–94 NHL season was the 77th regular season of the National Hockey League. Twenty-six teams each played 84 games. The New York Rangers were the Stanley Cup champions. It was the Rangers' fourth championship. In addition, the final game started the 1994 Stanley Cup riots in Downtown Vancouver.

The spectacular play of Martin Brodeur of the New Jersey Devils and Dominik Hasek of the Buffalo Sabres ushered in a new era of goaltending dominance in the NHL. Only three teams reached the 300-goal plateau, and only one team, the Detroit Red Wings, averaged more than four goals scored per game. Goaltenders combined for 99 shutouts during the regular season.

League business

For this season, the names of the conferences were changed from Campbell and Wales to Western and Eastern respectively, and the divisions' names were changed from Adams, Patrick, Norris, and Smythe to Northeast, Atlantic, Central, and Pacific respectively. New league commissioner Gary Bettman, who had previously worked in the National Basketball Association (NBA), thought the old names could be confusing to non-traditional fans and believed that a change to geographically-named divisions, as used in the NBA and most other North American professional sports, would be more easily understandable to new fans.

In addition, the playoff format was slightly altered to resemble that of the NBA. Whereas the playoffs had previously been bracketed and seeded by division, they were now broken down only by conference: the division winners were seeded one-two by order of point finish, then the top six remaining teams in the conference were seeded three through eight. However, unlike the NBA, the NHL matches the highest-seeded winners against the lowest-seeded winners in the second round. In order to reduce the number of long trips to and from the West Coast, whenever a Central Division team played a Pacific Division team in the playoffs, the format was 2–3–2 rather than the traditional 2–2–1–1–1, a format which lasted only for the 1993–94 season.

This season was the first for two expansion teams, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and the Florida Panthers.

For this season, the Minnesota North Stars relocated to Dallas, Texas to become the Dallas Stars. It was the first franchise relocation for the NHL since the Colorado Rockies became the New Jersey Devils in 1982–83.

This was the first year that the San Jose Sharks actually played in San Jose, moving into the new San Jose Arena (now HP Pavilion at San Jose) after spending their first two years at the Cow Palace in Daly City. 1993-94 was also the final year that the Chicago Blackhawks played at Chicago Stadium and the St. Louis Blues played at the St. Louis Arena.

Regular season

This was the first and only season (as of the 2007-08 season) that all 4 former WHA teams (Edmonton, Hartford, Quebec, Winnipeg) missed the playoffs since joining in 1979.

Final standings

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

Eastern Conference

Western Conference

"Note: x = clinched playoff berth, y = clinched division title, z = won Presidents' Trophy"

Head Coaches of the Eastern Conference

tanley Cup Playoffs

Playoff bracket

NHLBracket
RD1=Conference Quarterfinals
RD2=Conference Semifinals
RD3=Conference Finals
RD4=Stanley Cup Finals
group1=Eastern Conference
group2=Western Conference
RD1-seed01=1
RD1-team01=New York Rangers
RD1-score01=4
RD1-seed02=8
RD1-team02=New York Islanders
RD1-score02=0
RD1-seed03=2
RD1-team03=Pittsburgh Penguins
RD1-score03=2
RD1-seed04=7
RD1-team04=Washington Capitals
RD1-score04=4
RD1-seed05=3
RD1-team05=New Jersey Devils
RD1-score05=4
RD1-seed06=6
RD1-team06=Buffalo Sabres
RD1-score06=3
RD1-seed07=4
RD1-team07=Boston Bruins
RD1-score07=4
RD1-seed08=5
RD1-team08=Montreal Canadiens
RD1-score08=3
RD1-seed13=3
RD1-team13=Toronto Maple Leafs
RD1-score13=4
RD1-seed14=6
RD1-team14=Chicago Blackhawks
RD1-score14=2
RD1-seed09=1
RD1-team09=Detroit Red Wings
RD1-score09=3
RD1-seed10=8
RD1-team10=San Jose Sharks
RD1-score10=4
RD1-seed15=4
RD1-team15=Dallas Stars
RD1-score15=4
RD1-seed16=5
RD1-team16=St. Louis Blues
RD1-score16=0
RD1-seed11=2
RD1-team11=Calgary Flames
RD1-score11=3
RD1-seed12=7
RD1-team12=Vancouver Canucks
RD1-score12=4
RD2-seed01=1
RD2-team01=New York Rangers
RD2-score01=4
RD2-seed02=7
RD2-team02=Washington Capitals
RD2-score02=1
RD2-seed03=3
RD2-team03=New Jersey Devils
RD2-score03=4
RD2-seed04=4
RD2-team04=Boston Bruins
RD2-score04=2
RD2-seed07=4
RD2-team07=Dallas Stars"'
RD2-score07=1
RD2-seed08=7
RD2-team08=Vancouver Canucks
RD2-score08=4
RD2-seed05=3
RD2-team05=Toronto Maple Leafs
RD2-score05=4
RD2-seed06=8
RD2-team06=San Jose Sharks
RD2-score06=3
RD3-seed01=1
RD3-team01=New York Rangers
RD3-score01=4
RD3-seed02=3
RD3-team02=New Jersey Devils
RD3-score02=3
RD3-seed03=3
RD3-team03=Toronto Maple Leafs
RD3-score03=1
RD3-seed04=7
RD3-team04=Vancouver Canucks
RD3-score04=4
RD4-seed01=E1
RD4-team01=New York Rangers
RD4-score01=4
RD4-seed02=W7
RD4-team02=Vancouver Canucks
RD4-score02=3

Conference Quarterfinals

Eastern Conference

Western Conference

Conference Semifinals

Conference Finals

Finals

NHL Awards

The NHL Awards presentation took place on June 16, 1994.

ee also

*List of Stanley Cup champions
*1993 NHL Entry Draft
*1993 NHL Expansion Draft
*1993 NHL Supplemental Draft
*45th National Hockey League All-Star Game
*National Hockey League All-Star Game
*NHL All-Rookie Team
*Ice hockey at the 1994 Winter Olympics
*1993 in sports
*1994 in sports

References

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