Сезон НХЛ 1997–98: "Детройт" – чемпион, расширение лиги и новые вехи

National Hockey League season

The 1997–98 NHL season was the 81st regular season of the National Hockey League. The Stanley Cup champions were the Detroit Red Wings, who swept the Washington Capitals in four games.

On June 25, 1997, the National Hockey League approved of four expansion franchises for Nashville, Atlanta, Columbus, and Saint Paul expanding the league to 30 teams by 2000. These franchises became the Nashville Predators in 1998, the Atlanta Thrashers in 1999, and the Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild in 2000. This was the first season for the Carolina Hurricanes, who were previously known as the Hartford Whalers. The Hurricanes played their home games at the Greensboro Coliseum Complex, a temporary home while awaiting the construction of their permanent home arena in Raleigh. They would remain in the Northeast Division until realignment the following season. It would be another 14 years before another NHL team would relocate. This was the first season for Buffalo Sabres coach Lindy Ruff, who until the 2012–13 season was the longest tenured NHL coach. The controversial "FoxTrax" puck system was last used this season as well. In August 1998, the NHL signed a five year, $600 million rights agreement with ABC Sports/ESPN. FOX elected not to use the system in the subsequent "lame duck" season. This was the last season the Toronto Maple Leafs were a member of the Western Conference. This was the last season of the four division quasi geographic alignment inherited from the traditional Adams/Patrick/Norris/Smythe set. The league would change the following season to a six division, more purely geographic alignment. For the first time since 1968–69 season, the Chicago Blackhawks missed the playoffs. Due to the retirement of Craig MacTavish after the 1996–97 season, this was the first season in the League's history in which there were no helmetless players.

1997 98 National Hockey League Division Team City Arena Capacity Atlantic Florida Panthers Miami, Florida Miami Arena 14,703 New Jersey Devils East Rutherford, New Jersey Continental Airlines Arena 19,040 New York Islanders Uniondale, New York Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum 16,297 New York Rangers New York, New York Madison Square Garden 18,200 Philadelphia Flyers Philadelphia, Pennsylvania CoreStates Center 19,511 Tampa Bay Lightning Tampa, Florida Ice Palace 19,092 Washington Capitals Landover, Maryland Washington, D. C. US Airways Arena MCI Center 18,130 18,573 Northeast Boston Bruins Boston, Massachusetts FleetCenter 17,850 Buffalo Sabres Buffalo, New York Marine Midland Arena 18,595 Carolina Hurricanes Greensboro, North Carolina Greensboro Coliseum 22,000 Montreal Canadiens Montreal, Quebec Molson Centre 21,273 Ottawa Senators Kanata, Ontario Corel Centre 18,500 Pittsburgh Penguins Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Civic Arena 16,958 Central Chicago Blackhawks Chicago, Illinois United Center 20,500 Dallas Stars Dallas, Texas Reunion Arena 16,928 Detroit Red Wings Detroit, Michigan Joe Louis Arena 19,983 Phoenix Coyotes Phoenix, Arizona America West Arena 16,210 St. Louis Blues St. Louis, Missouri Kiel Center 19,260 Toronto Maple Leafs Toronto, Ontario Maple Leaf Gardens 15,726 Pacific Calgary Flames Calgary, Alberta Canadian Airlines Saddledome 19,289 Colorado Avalanche Denver, Colorado McNichols Sports Arena 16,061 Edmonton Oilers Edmonton, Alberta Edmonton Coliseum 17,100 Los Angeles Kings Inglewood, California Great Western Forum 16,005 Mighty Ducks of Anaheim Anaheim, California Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim 17,174 San Jose Sharks San Jose, California San Jose Arena 17,190 Vancouver Canucks Vancouver, British Columbia General Motors Place 18,422

The all time record for most shutouts in a season, set at 127 just a year earlier, was broken again as 160 shutouts were recorded, 13 of which were earned by Dominik Hasek, who set a League record with 11 teams shut out. He zeroed the New York Rangers three times, and Los Angeles, Anaheim, Tampa Bay, Boston, Calgary, Washington, Montreal, Ottawa, Pittsburgh and Edmonton once each. Only two teams, the St. Louis Blues and the Detroit Red Wings, averaged more than three goals scored per game. In addition, only one player, Jaromir Jagr, reached the 100 point plateau during the regular season.

Jari Kurri reached 600 goals in his career, finishing with 601. The Vancouver Canucks and Mighty Ducks of Anaheim opened the season with a two game series in Tokyo, Japan, the first time the NHL played regular games outside of North America.

First Team   Position   Second TeamDominik Hasek, Buffalo Sabres GMartin Brodeur, New Jersey DevilsNicklas Lidstrom, Detroit Red Wings DChris Pronger, St. Louis BluesRob Blake, Los Angeles Kings DScott Niedermayer, New Jersey DevilsPeter Forsberg, Colorado Avalanche CWayne Gretzky, New York RangersJaromir Jagr, Pittsburgh Penguins RWTeemu Selanne, Mighty Ducks of AnaheimJohn LeClair, Philadelphia Flyers LWKeith Tkachuk, Phoenix Coyotes

This was the tenth and final season that the league's Canadian national broadcast rights were split between TSN and Hockey Night in Canada on CBC. During the regular season, Saturday night games aired on CBC, while TSN primarily had Monday and Thursday night games. Coverage of the Stanley Cup playoffs was primarily on CBC, with TSN airing first round all U. S. series. The league then signed a new deal with the fledgling CTV Sportsnet, replacing TSN as the national cable television partner.

This was the fourth season of the league's five year U. S. national broadcast rights deals with Fox and ESPN. Both ESPN and ESPN2 aired weeknight games throughout the regular season. Fox had the All Star Game, and the network's weekly regional telecasts then expanded from six to 11 weekend afternoons between January and April. During the first two rounds of the playoffs, ESPN and ESPN2 aired selected games, while Fox had Sunday regional telecasts. Each U. S. team's regional broadcaster produced local coverage of first and second round games (except for those games on Fox). Fox's Sunday telecasts continued into the Conference Finals, while ESPN had the rest of the third round games. The Stanley Cup Finals were also split between Fox and ESPN.