Сезон НХЛ 1998–99: Расширение и триумф «Даллас Старз»

National Hockey League season

The 1998–99 NHL season was the 82nd regular season of the National Hockey League. The league expanded to 27 teams with the addition of the Nashville Predators. The Dallas Stars finished first in regular season play, and won the Stanley Cup championship over the Buffalo Sabres on a controversial triple overtime goal by Brett Hull.

With the addition of the expansion Nashville Predators, the NHL realigned this year to a strictly geographic six division structure (three per conference), erasing the last vestiges of the traditional Adams/Patrick/Norris/Smythe four division structure abandoned in 1993–94. Other than the reassignment of Colorado to the Western Conference in 1995 due to its move from Quebec, the divisions' membership had remained static for five years although several franchises had relocated. As part of this realignment, the Toronto Maple Leafs moved from the Western Conference to the Eastern Conference. This put three of the Original Six teams in the Northeast Division (Boston, Montreal, and Toronto), and the three original cities of the NHL in the Northeast (Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto). The Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy for the most goals by a player in a season made its debut this year. The first winner was Teemu Selanne of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.

1998 99 National Hockey League Division Team City Arena Capacity Atlantic 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 First Union Center 19,519 Pittsburgh Penguins Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Civic Arena 16,958 Northeast Boston Bruins Boston, Massachusetts FleetCenter 17,850 Buffalo Sabres Buffalo, New York Marine Midland Arena 18,595 Montreal Canadiens Montreal, Quebec Molson Centre 21,273 Ottawa Senators Ottawa, Ontario Corel Centre 18,500 Toronto Maple Leafs Toronto, Ontario Maple Leaf Gardens Air Canada Centre 15,726 18,800 Southeast Carolina Hurricanes Greensboro, North Carolina Greensboro Coliseum 22,000 Florida Panthers Sunrise, Florida National Car Rental Center 19,250 Tampa Bay Lightning Tampa, Florida Ice Palace 19,092 Washington Capitals Washington, D. C. MCI Center 18,573 Central Chicago Blackhawks Chicago, Illinois United Center 20,500 Detroit Red Wings Detroit, Michigan Joe Louis Arena 19,983 Nashville Predators Nashville, Tennessee Nashville Arena 17,159 St. Louis Blues St. Louis, Missouri Kiel Center 19,260 Northwest Calgary Flames Calgary, Alberta Canadian Airlines Saddledome 19,289 Colorado Avalanche Denver, Colorado McNichols Sports Arena 16,061 Edmonton Oilers Edmonton, Alberta Skyreach Centre 17,100 Vancouver Canucks Vancouver, British Columbia General Motors Place 18,422 Pacific Dallas Stars Dallas, Texas Reunion Arena 16,928 Los Angeles Kings Inglewood, California Great Western Forum 16,005 Mighty Ducks of Anaheim Anaheim, California Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim 17,174 Phoenix Coyotes Phoenix, Arizona America West Arena 16,210 San Jose Sharks San Jose, California San Jose Arena 17,190

The 1998–99 season marked the retirement of Wayne Gretzky, the NHL's all time leading scorer, who played his final three NHL seasons with the New York Rangers. This was the final season that Fox televised NHL games in the United States. It was also the final season for the Toronto Maple Leafs at Maple Leaf Gardens, before moving to the Air Canada Centre in February and marked Toronto's first post season appearance since the 1995–96 season. 1998–99 was also the final year that the Carolina Hurricanes played at Greensboro Coliseum; they moved to the brand new Raleigh Entertainment and Sports Arena in Raleigh for the next season. The Colorado Avalanche played their fourth and final season at McNichols Sports Arena and would move to Pepsi Center the following season. The Los Angeles Kings played their final season at the Great Western Forum after 32 seasons before subsequently moving to the Staples Center for the next season. In an effort to reduce the number of disallowed goals due to the skate in the crease violation, regulatory reforms were implemented resulting the goal crease shape and size being significantly reduced. In spite of this regulatory change, goaltenders and defensive systems continued to dominate the league, as only two teams, the Toronto Maple Leafs and the New Jersey Devils, averaged more than three goals scored per game. In addition, no player reached the 50 goal plateau. A total of 160 shutouts were recorded for the second straight regular season.

+ 1998–99 NHL awards Award Recipient(s) Presidents' Trophy: Dallas Stars Prince of Wales Trophy: (Eastern Conference playoff champion) Buffalo Sabres Clarence S. Campbell Bowl: (Western Conference playoff champion) Dallas Stars Art Ross Trophy: Jaromir Jagr, Pittsburgh Penguins Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy: John Cullen, Tampa Bay Lightning Calder Memorial Trophy: Chris Drury, Colorado Avalanche Conn Smythe Trophy: Joe Nieuwendyk, Dallas Stars Frank J. Selke Trophy: Jere Lehtinen, Dallas Stars Hart Memorial Trophy: Jaromir Jagr, Pittsburgh Penguins Jack Adams Award: Jacques Martin, Ottawa Senators James Norris Memorial Trophy: Al MacInnis, St. Louis Blues King Clancy Memorial Trophy: Rob Ray, Buffalo Sabres Lady Byng Memorial Trophy: Wayne Gretzky, New York Rangers Lester B. Pearson Award: Jaromir Jagr, Pittsburgh Penguins Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy: Teemu Selanne, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim NHL Plus/Minus Award: John LeClair, Philadelphia Flyers Vezina Trophy: Dominik Hasek, Buffalo Sabres William M. Jennings Trophy: Ed Belfour and Roman Turek, Dallas Stars Lester Patrick Trophy: Harry Sinden

First team   Position   Second teamDominik Hasek, Buffalo Sabres GByron Dafoe, Boston BruinsAl MacInnis, St. Louis Blues DRay Bourque, Boston BruinsNicklas Lidstrom, Detroit Red Wings DEric Desjardins, Philadelphia FlyersPeter Forsberg, Colorado Avalanche CAlexei Yashin, Ottawa SenatorsJaromir Jagr, Pittsburgh Penguins RWTeemu Selanne, Mighty Ducks of AnaheimPaul Kariya, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim LWJohn LeClair, Philadelphia Flyers

This was the first season of the league's Canadian national broadcast rights deals with CBC and CTV Sportsnet. CBC continued to air Saturday night Hockey Night in Canada regular season games. The fledgling CTV Sportsnet replaced TSN as the league's cable broadcaster. Tuesday Night Hockey became CTV Sportsnet's signature weekly regular season telecasts. Coverage of the Stanley Cup playoffs continued to primarily be on CBC, while CTV Sportsnet aired first round all U. S. series.

This was the fifth and final season of the league's U. S. national broadcast rights deals with Fox and ESPN. Both ESPN and ESPN2 aired weeknight games throughout the regular season, and Fox had the All Star Game and weekly regional telecasts on 11 weekend afternoons between February 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. The league then signed a new five year deal with ESPN that also called for sister network ABC to become the new broadcast network partner.