MONTREAL -- This will come as little consolation to the Chicago Blackhawks, who were eliminated in Game 7 of their Western Conference First Round series against the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday. But they are not the first team to have won the Stanley Cup one season and then hastily been shown the door in the opening round the following year.
At least the Blackhawks qualified for the playoffs this spring, something not every defending champion has been able to say.
The first quick exit of a defending champion, in a very different NHL, came in 1928, when the Senators were eliminated by the Montreal Maroons in a Canadian Division quarterfinal.