Summary

Actually, this could be called the 1995 season, because no games were played in 1994. On Oct. 1, NHL owners locked out the players, who had gone through the previous season without a collective bargaining agreeement. A new agreement was finally reached in January of 1995 and the season, which began on Jan. 20, was shortened to 48 games.

Jaromir Jagr of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Eric Lindros of the Philadelphia Flyers tied for the league scoring lead with 70 points each, but Jagr won the Ross Trophy because he had more goals, 32 to Lindros' 29. Lindros, though, won the Hart Trophy as the league's MVP. Philadelphia finished ahead of the New Jersey Devils in the Atlantic Division, while the Quebec Nordiques edged the Penguins for the Northeast Division lead.

The top team in the league was the Detroit Red Wings, who had 70 points to win the Central Division. The Calgary Flames led the Pacific Division with just 55 points. The Montreal Canadiens failed to make the playoffs for the first time in 25 years, and the defending Stanley Cup champion New York Rangers just barely made it, finishing in the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

However, the Rangers upset the Nordiques in the first round, then were eliminated by the Philadelphia Flyers. New Jersey, meanwhile, beat Pittsburgh in the second round and knocked off the Flyers in the conference championship series.

The Red Wings cruised through the Western Conference playoffs, winning 12 of 14 games before coming up against the Devils in the Stanley Cup finals. In the course of the season, New Jersey had been gaining proficiency in Coach Jacques Lemaire's "neutral zone trap" defense, and they had it pretty well fine-tuned for the playoffs.

Many analysts figured that Detroit's high-powered offense would beat the trap, but the Red Wings found themselves just as frustrated by it as lesser teams had been. They scored only 7 goals in four games as the Devils swept the series in the first appearance in the Stanley Cup final. Claude Lemieux, who had scored only 6 goals during the regular season, had 13 in the playoffs and was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the post-season MVP.

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