Tournament details | |
---|---|
Dates | May 6–June 24, 1995 |
Teams | 16 |
Defending champions | New York Rangers |
Final positions | |
Champions | New Jersey Devils |
Runner-up | Detroit Red Wings |
Tournament statistics | |
Scoring leader(s) | Sergei Fedorov (Red Wings) (24 points) |
MVP | Claude Lemieux (Devils) |
The 1995 Stanley Cup playoffs, the playoff tournament of the National Hockey League was played between May 6 and June 24, 1995. The 1994–95 NHL regular season was shortened to 48 games, and the playoffs pushed to a later date, due to a lockout. The sixteen teams that qualified, eight from each conference, played best-of-seven series for the conference quarterfinals, semifinals and championships, and then the conference champions played a best-of-seven series for the Stanley Cup. In the Finals, the New Jersey Devils swept the favored Detroit Red Wings in four games to win their first championship.
This was the only time Patrick Roy missed the playoffs in his career. His team, the Montreal Canadiens, missed the playoffs for the first time since 1970. The Canadiens and the Ottawa Senators missed the playoffs this year. Montreal and Ottawa did not miss the playoffs in the same year again until 2016, when all Canadian teams missed the playoffs. The Quebec Nordiques played their last playoff series during this time. They would move to Denver, Colorado during the summer. For the first time since 1980, no league semifinal/conference final games were played in Canada.