The Calgary Flames are season 11's champs after defeating the New York Rangers in a 4 game sweep. Losing only 4 games throughout the playoff drive, the Flames found little opposition that could counter their attack. Marian Gaborik and Patrik Elias were stellar throughout the playoffs putting up 27 points each. Gaborik has to be seen as the favourite for this year's Conn Smythe Award as he finished the playoffs with a 6-game goal scoring streak and a 7-game point streak. In between the pipes, Tim Thomas had a remarkably short leash throughout the playoffs but sported an 11-2-1 record including 3 shutouts. Rarely does a backup play better than a starter and not get the opportunity to take the reigns but that is exactly what happened as Jonas Hiller put up a 5-1 record, a 1.23 GAA and a .935 SV%. It will be interesting to see what happens going forward as Thomas still has $22.5million on his contract and Hiller has 2 more years on his contract.

The Flames' opponent in the finals was a New York Rangers squad that had to have expected to win at least a game in the finals, if not the whole thing. Tim Connolly was head and shoulders the best player on their roster putting up 8 more points than the next closest Ranger forward. Certainly the Rangers would have liked to have seen more scoring from Simon Gagne who only managed a single point (a goal) in the final 5 games of the playoffs and they would have expected Goaltender Henrik Lundqvist to play much better than the 4.25GAA and .847 SV% that he registered.

Can either of these teams make it back to this point? The Flames will be losing a key piece in their puzzle as Marian Hossa will not be resigned, though it looks like Dustin Byfuglien will be making the jump to replace him. In New York, two key names looks as though they are leaving: Kristian Huselius and Steve Sullivan. However, like Calgary, there are reinforcements ready to fill these holes with Tomas Fleischmann and Frans Nielsen expected to make the short move from Hartford to Manhattan. As we saw this year, it is extremely tough to make it back to the finals and both teams will have their work cut out for them as a number of teams that made early exits this year will be hungry for the cup next season.