2003–04 NHL season

2003–04 NHL season
2003–04 NHL season
League	National Hockey League
Sport	Ice hockey
Duration	October 8, 2003 – June 7, 2004
Number of games	82
Number of teams	30
TV partner(s)	CBC, TSN, RDS (Canada); ESPN, ABC (United States)
Draft
Top draft pick	Marc-Andre Fleury
Picked by	Pittsburgh Penguins
Regular season
Presidents' Trophy	Detroit Red Wings
Season MVP	Martin St. Louis (Lightning)
Top scorer	Martin St. Louis (Lightning)
Playoffs
Playoffs MVP	Brad Richards (Lightning)
Stanley Cup
Champions	Tampa Bay Lightning
Runners-up	Calgary Flames
Seasons
	← 2002–03 2004–05 →

The 2003–04 NHL season was the 87th regular season of the National Hockey League. The Stanley Cup champions were the Tampa Bay Lightning, who won the best of seven series four games to three against the Calgary Flames.

For the fourth time in eight years, the all-time record for total shutouts in a season was shattered, as 192 shutouts were recorded.^[1] The 2003–04 regular season was also the first one (excluding the lockout-shortened 1994–95 season) since 1967–68 in which there was neither a 50-goal scorer, nor a 100-point scorer.^[1]^[2] It was also the final NHL season before the 2004–05 NHL lockout with games resuming in the fall of 2005 as part of the 2005–06 season, and the final season in which games could end in ties.

League business

Collective bargaining agreement

The existing NHL collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the league and the players was set to expire in September 2004. During the entire 2003–04 season, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and NHL Players' Association (NHLPA) head Bob Goodenow waged a war of words with no CBA being signed. The dispute eventually led to the 2004–05 NHL lockout and the cancellation of the 2004–05 season.

New scheduling formula

The schedule of 82 games was revamped. The new format increased divisional games from five to six per team (24 total), and decreased inter-conference games to at least one per team, with three extra games (18 in total).

Entry draft

The 2003 NHL Entry Draft was held on June 21–22, 2003 at the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Marc-Andre Fleury was selected first overall by the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Preseason games in Europe

As part of the NHL Challenge, the Toronto Maple Leafs played a three-preseason-game series in Europe against Finnish team Jokerit Helsinki and the Swedish teams Djurgården Stockholm and Färjestad Karlstad.

Uniform changes

The alternating of jerseys was changed. For the first season since the 1969–70 season, teams would now wear their colored jerseys at home and white jerseys away.

Arena changes

The Edmonton Oilers' home arena, Skyreach Centre, was renamed Rexall Place as part of a new naming rights agreement with Rexall that was signed on November 20, 2003.
The Philadelphia Flyers's home arena, the First Union Center, was renamed the Wachovia Center after First Union merged with Wachovia.
The Phoenix Coyotes moved from America West Arena in Phoenix, Arizona to Glendale Arena in Glendale, Arizona on December 27, 2003.

Regular season

First regular season outdoor game

The Heritage Classic, the first NHL regular season game to be played outdoors, was held on November 22, 2003, at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta. The Montreal Canadiens defeated the Edmonton Oilers, 4–3.

All-Star Game

The All-Star Game was played on February 8, 2004, at the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota, the home of the Minnesota Wild.

Highlights

On September 26, just before the season was to begin, young Atlanta Thrashers star Dany Heatley crashed his Ferrari in suburban Atlanta. The passenger, Thrashers teammate Dan Snyder, was killed. Heatley himself was badly injured and eventually charged with vehicular homicide.

Entering the season, the two Stanley Cup favorites were the Ottawa Senators in the Eastern Conference, who had won the Presidents' Trophy and come within a win of the Stanley Cup Finals the year before, and the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference, who, despite losing legendary goaltender Patrick Roy to retirement, added both Teemu Selanne and Paul Kariya to an already star-studded lineup. Neither of these teams, however, were as successful as expected, with Ottawa finishing fifth in their conference and Colorado finishing fourth, losing the Northwest Division title for the first time in a decade when the franchise was still known as the Quebec Nordiques.

The greatest disappointments were the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, who, despite making it to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals the year prior and adding both Sergei Fedorov and Vaclav Prospal, failed to make the playoffs. The Los Angeles Kings failed to make the playoffs in large part due to a season-ending 11-game losing streak. In the East, the star-studded New York Rangers again failed to make the playoffs. The Washington Capitals, who were regarded as a contender, also stumbled early in the season and never recovered. The end of the season saw two of the most extensive housecleanings in League history, as the Rangers and Capitals traded away many of their stars and entered "rebuilding mode." The Capitals traded away Jaromir Jagr, Peter Bondra, Sergei Gonchar, Robert Lang and Anson Carter, while the Rangers moved Petr Nedved, Brian Leetch, Anson Carter and Alexei Kovalev to other NHL teams.

The most surprising teams were the Tampa Bay Lightning in the East and the San Jose Sharks in the West. The Lightning, who had a remarkable season with only 20 man-games lost to injury, finished atop the Eastern Conference, while the Sharks, who were firmly in rebuilding mode after a disastrous 28–37–9–8 campaign the last season, came second in the West and won the Pacific Division.

Two other teams that did better than expected were carried by surprising young goaltenders. The Calgary Flames ended a seven-year playoff drought backed by the solid play of Miikka Kiprusoff, and the Boston Bruins won the Northeast Division by a whisker over the Toronto Maple Leafs with the help of eventual Calder Memorial Trophy-winning goaltender Andrew Raycroft.

Goaltending was also the story of the Presidents' Trophy-winning Detroit Red Wings as the return from retirement of legend Dominik Hasek bumped Curtis Joseph to the minor leagues. At the same time, long-time back up Manny Legace recorded better numbers than both veterans and won the starting job in the playoffs.

Of note is the fact that the Nashville Predators made the playoffs for the first time in franchise history, though they were dispatched by a star-studded Detroit Red Wings team in the first round.

The regular season ended controversially, when in March 2004, the Vancouver Canucks' Todd Bertuzzi infamously attacked and severely injured the Colorado Avalanche's Steve Moore, forcing the latter eventually to retire.

Final standings

Detroit Red Wings won the Presidents' Trophy and home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs.

For rankings in conference, division leaders are automatically ranked 1–3. These three, plus the next five teams in the conference standings, earn playoff berths at the end of the season.