Make The 2005 Knights The CHL Team Of The Century

The Canadian Hockey League (CHL) is celebrating the 100th edition of the Mastercard Memorial Cup, by selecting a Team of the Century from the first 99 Memorial Cup champions. CHL fans voted for their favourites, and now the 99 is down to four finalists – the 1995 Kamloops Blazers, the 2000 Rimouski Oceanic, the 2005 London Knights, and the 2013 Halifax Mooseheads.

If you live in London, you should make the homer pick anyway. Just know that it’s easy to justify.

Some data for you to consider, for those four teams specifically:

Points In The Regular Season:
1. London Knights – 120
1. Halifax Mooseheads – 120
3. Kamloops Blazers – 110
4. Rimouski Oceanic – 102

Wins in the regular season:
1. London Knights – 59 (68 game season)
2. Halifax Mooseheads – 58 (68 game season)
3. Kamloops Blazers – 52 (72 game season)
4. Rimouski Oceanic – 48 (72 game season)

Winning Percentage:
1. London Knights – 0.882
1. Halifax Mooseheads – 0.882
3. Kamloops Blazers – 0.764
4. Rimouski Oceanic – 0.708

Goals scored:
1. Kamloops Blazers – 375
2. Rimouski Oceanic – 370
3. Halifax Mooseheads – 347
4. London Knights – 310

Fewest Goals Allowed:
1. London Knights – 125
2. Halifax Mooseheads – 176
3. Kamloops Blazers – 202
4. Rimouski Oceanic – 274

Goal Difference:
1. London Knights – 185
2. Kamloops Blazers – 173
3. Halifax Mooseheads – 171
4. Rimouski Oceanic – 96

Playoff record:

16-1: The Halifax Mooseheads dropped just one game in the entire QMJHL playoffs to win the Championship. Saint John, Gatineau, and Rouyn-Noranda were all swept 4-0, before Baie-Comeau, snatched one game in the final to stop the run of perfection.

16-2: The 2005 Knights dropped just two games on their way to the OHL Championship. After demoralizing both Guelph and Windsor with 4-0 sweeps, the Kitchener Rangers stole a victory in the semi-finals, and broke the streak; but just one. Ottawa managed the same one victory in the final, that the Knights took in five games. It was ironic at the time that the Knights were hosting the Memorial Cup for the first time – which granted them a place in the Memorial Cup no matter what – and yet, they secured their first ever berth anyway with their first ever J. Ross Robertson Cup. Corey Perry had 46 points in the playoffs.

12-2: Rimouski steam-rolled their way to the QMJHL final by dismantling Halifax in 4 games after a first round bye, and then Moncton in 5 games, and Hull in 5 games in the final. Brad Richards was the leading scorer of the playoffs with 37 points (13 goals, 24 assists).

12-5: Kamloops had a first round bye, before beating Portland easily in 5 games. But Kamloops got tougher tests from both Tri-Land and Brandon in six-game series en route to their WHL Championship.

Memorial Cup record:

3-1: The Halifax Mooseheads dropped a game in the round robin to the Saskatoon Blades, but made it straight to the finals on the tie-breaker, largely on the strength of their 9-2 drubbing of the Knights. They beat Portland 6-4 in the final.

4-0: A Darcy Tucker led Kamloops Blazers beat Hull fairly convincingly 4-1, but got a tough game from Detroit (5-4) and Brandon (6-4), before hammering Detroit 8-2 in the final at home.

4-0: The Rimouski Oceanic got good games from Kootenay (3-1) and Halifax (5-3), but they pounded a controversial Barrie Colts 7-2 in the round robin, and nearly as badly 6-2 in the final.

4-0: The 2005 Knights got a tough first game in the Cup from Rimouski, and needed overtime to finish them off 4-3; but that only seemed to incite the juggernaut. They beat Kelowna 4-2 and Ottawa 5-2 to earn a trip straight to the final. They pulverized Rimouski 4-0 in the final to the delight of the home crowd, and added its first Memorial Cup, to its first OHL Championship, in the franchise’s 40th season.

Intangibles:

Lasting Impressions:
Two of the just eight players to ever be bestowed the honour of having their London Knights jersey retired, came from that team – Perry (94) and Dave Bolland (91). (The others are: Rob Ramage (5), Dino Ciccarelli (8), Darryl Sittler (9), Brendan Shanahan (19), Brad Marsh (22), and Rick Nash (61)).

The Winning Streak
The 2004/2005 Knights crushed the existing OHL record winning streak of 25 games, by going 31 games without a loss to start their 40th season. That also broke the CHL record of 29 games set by the Brandon Wheat Kings in 1978/79. As a point of fact, the Knights did not lose a game in ’04/05 until they sent captain Danny Syvret and scoring leaders Perry and Rob Scremp, to the World Junior Championships.

The Media Frenzy
Perhaps the biggest intangible to the Knights Team of the Century season, was that the Memorial Cup was the hottest ticket in Canada. The NHL was closed down for the labour dispute, and the eyes of the nation were glued to junior hockey as a stopgap. There has never been more media pressure on any Junior hockey team than the four that were in the ’04/05 Memorial Cup. Additionally, young prospects were able to play for their junior teams instead of playing for their affiliated NHL teams which facilitated an even higher calibre of hockey.

The Added Pressure
The perfect storm of the above things, yielded the largest national TV audience ever recorded for a junior hockey game. Add that London was hosting the Cup for the very first time, AND going for their very first Memorial Cup win, and it’s tough to come up with a scenario where you add more pressure to the young men that have called themselves Junior hockey players, let alone London Knights.

And yet they prevailed.

It was in fact, hockey poetry.

And worthy of your Team Of The Century vote.

Knights Fans, we are in the final four for CHL Team of the Century! Show your support by voting up to 10 times a day

Vote: https://t.co/H7ezdcXHJP pic.twitter.com/UnXhjtNV7Z

— London Knights (@GoLondonKnights) May 3, 2018

Vote now, and up to ten times a day! You could win a trip to the 2019 Mastercard Memorial Cup!