And the 10 best teams to NOT win the Stanley Cup are...

The 2013-14 San Jose Sharks had a tough go. They racked up 111 points in a tough, tough division, they took a stacked roster into the playoffs, they took a 3-0 series lead...and lost. In the first round.

In the other Conference, the Boston Bruins won the President’s Trophy with 117 points before losing at the hands of the inferior Montreal Canadiens in round two.

The best teams don’t always win, which is actually a pretty good reason to like sports. You’ve always got hope. But some teams are so good, it’s baffling when they don’t win.

Without further ado, here’s one man’s opinion of the 10 best teams never to win a Stanley Cup, complete with all the recency bias you’d expect.

1975 Buffalo Sabres

The ‘75 Sabres were led by some large-to-huge names on the French Connection Line. Gilbert Perreault, Rick Martin, and Rene Robert scored at will (is 132 goals good for a line?) and led the team to a 49-16-15 record.

They made the Final before running into the defending Cup champion Flyers, who beat them in six.

1984 New York Islanders

Coming off four (4) straight Cups (like, in a row), the New York Islanders brought the vast majority of their successful team into the Final after a Conference-leading 104 point regular season. Unfortunately, they ran into the growing juggernaut that was the Edmonton Oilers.

The real reason the Isles didn’t complete the drive for five, however, was that four long, long seasons of constant winning had worn them down, and also a knee injury left them without the tremendous Bob Bourne.

And in no way is that a biased take. Please ignore the byline.

1989 Montreal Canadiens

While these days it’s tough to comprehend a truly great team being upended by the Calgary Flames (sorry Flames fans), it used to be a possible thing. The ‘89 Canadiens went 53-18-9 under Pat Burns for a total of 115 points, and made the Stanley Cup Final.

Stefan Richer, Guy Carboneau, Claude Lemieux, Shayne Corson, Mike Keane, Mats Naslund...that was a pretty good team that fell just short.

1996 Detroit Red Wings

Between the 1995-96 season and the year 2000, the Detroit Red Wings seasons ended as follows:

95-95: Lost to the Colorado Avalanche

96-97: Won Stanley Cup (swept final)

97-98: Won Stanley Cup (swept final)

98-99: Lost to the Colorado Avalanche

99-00: Lost to the Colorado Avalanche

Detroit did not care for the Avs, nor should they have, because DAMN, were they great (and the Avs were a thorn in their side):

13 losses in 82 games, ho-hum. It was the Conference Finals where they ran into the Avs, who had the second most points during the regular season (104, not even close).

Sergei Fedorov, Steve Yzerman, Paul Coffey, Nick Lidstrom, Viacheslav Fetisov, Vyacheslav Kozlov, Igor Larionov, Keith Primeau, Dino Ciccarelli, and more grit than you could shake sandpaper at farther down the lineup...and they didn’t win the Cup. Somehow. Holy smokes.

2001 New Jersey Devils

The 1999-2000 version of the Devils had won the Stanley Cup, and proceeded to have the type of regular season that made you think they’d repeat. They put up 111 points en route to winning the East.

If you think of the career arcs of some of the players on that roster, their peaks were pretty amazing: Patrik Elias, Alexander Mogilny, Petr Sykora, Scott Gomez, Jason Arnott, Brian Rafalski, Scott Niedermayer, Scott Stevens...even a guy like John Madden.

They made the Final, but it was the collective hearts of hockey fans sending positive vibes out to the universe that finally brought Ray Bourque his Stanley Cup with Colorado, and squashed their repeat.

2003 Ottawa Senators

If you just ignore the whole “filing for bankruptcy” thing, it was a great year for the Senators. They won the President’s Trophy with 114 points, making it the first time a Canadian team had won it since 1989, and the first time an Eastern Conference team had won it since 1994.

Their roster was kinda shiny: Marian Hossa (the guy is all over this list, stay tuned), Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza, Martin Havlat, Radek Bonk(!), Zdeno Chara, Wade Redden, Mike Fisher...they were good.

The team that ended the dream: the eventual Stanley Cup champion New Jersey Devils.

2008 Pittsburgh Penguins

The 2008 Detroit Red Wings weren’t exactly handed the Stanley Cup. They ran into a Sidney Crosby-led team on the rise (and one that would win it all the next year), full of energy, desperate to get it done.

Sidney Crosby was joined by Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal, Sergei Gonchar, Marian Hossa, Ryan Malone, Gary Roberts, Petr Sykora, Darryl Sydor and Kris Letang (along with a good list of quality depth names).

The Red Wings took them down in six, but the Pens would be back the next year.

2009 Detroit Red Wings

Marian Hossa made a terrible choice. Well, not terrible, but it didn’t pan out - he left the Penguins to join the Red Wings. That made him 0-2 in the Cup Final (he’s won two since - how many playoff series has this guy won, like, 1000? It’s incredible).

A year removed from hoisting the Cup, a Wings lineup featuring stars Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Nick Lidstrom, Hossa, Johan Franzen, Brian Rafalski and more couldn’t go back-to-back. Crosby got his ring.

2010 Washington Capitals

Goaltending and blocked shots, man. Jaroslav Halak and the Montreal Canadiens will forever haunt the dreams of Caps fans.

This Capitals team won the President’s Trophy by a full nine points on the backs of a stacked roster. Alex Ovechkin (50 and 59 that year for 109), Nicklas Backstrom, Alex Semin, and Mike Green led the offensive charge, while guys like Brooks Laich, Tomas Fleischmann and Mike Knuble filled in with quality seasons of their own.

That year the Philadelphia Flyers, who put up 88 points in the regular season (33 shy of the Capitals), represented the East in the Cup Final. If they get by Montreal, the Caps almost certainly take their place.

2011 Vancouver Canucks

The Canucks plowed the competition in the regular season en route to winning the President’s Trophy, and damned if they didn’t just have mental issues with the Bruins in the final.

The Sedins were one/two in Canucks scoring, with Ryan Kesler slotting in behind them. They had a rock solid d-corps with Christian Erhoff, Alex Edler, Dan Hamhuis, Sami Salo and more. They were in front of one of the game’s best goalies in Roberto Luongo.

Seven games later, Vancouver rioted. They believed it was theirs for the taking. They could taste it. Then Boston snatched it away.

***

Notable omissions: 1971 Bruins ('74 and '79 as well), 1986 Oilers, 1992 Rangers, 1993 Penguins