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2007–08 NHL season

The 2007–08 NHL season was the 90th season of the National Hockey League. It began on September 29, 2007, with the regular season ending April 6, 2008. The Stanley Cup Playoffs ended on June 4, with the Detroit Red Wings taking the championship .The 56th NHL All-Star Game was held in Atlanta, Georgia as the Atlanta Thrashers hosted the event at Philips Arena on January 27, 2008. The hosting by Atlanta was rescheduled from 2005, when a lockout cancelled the entire 2004–05 season.

League business

The season featured the debut of Reebok's new Rbk EDGE hockey jerseys. This was the first league-wide uniform innovation in the history of any major North American professional sports league. Six teams (Tampa Bay, Vancouver, Washington, Ottawa, San Jose and Columbus) unveiled new logos prior to the season's beginning.

On March 1, 2007, the NHL announced the regular season would open on September 29, 2007, with the first of back-to-back games in London at The O₂. They were the first NHL regular season games ever played in Europe. Both games featured the defending Stanley Cup Champion Anaheim Ducks, and the Los Angeles Kings (who are owned by Anschutz Entertainment Group, the same company that owns The O₂).

The official average attendance per game was 17,625 per game. However, if the two games played at the O2 Arena are counted, the number is 17,309 per game.

On September 17, 2007, the NHL announced the first outdoor game in over four years would be played between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Buffalo Sabres at Buffalo's Ralph Wilson Stadium, home of the Buffalo Bills football team, on January 1, 2008. The event—known as the AMP Energy NHL Winter Classic—was the first time an NHL regular-season game had been played outdoors in the United States, and it set an NHL attendance record of 71,217 people. The only previous outdoor NHL game was the Heritage Classic played between the Montreal Canadiens and Edmonton Oilers at Commonwealth Stadium on November 22, 2003.

During board of governors meetings held on September 18, 2007 in Chicago, cities including Las Vegas, Kansas City, Houston, Milwaukee, Quebec City, Seattle, and Winnipeg were discussed as possible expansion destinations. The NHL also discussed the current "unbalanced" schedule and voted on a new schedule format at a board meeting in November, so that all teams will play each other at least once and reduce intradivisional play in the 2008–09 season, in essence returning to the scheduling structure that existed in 2003–04, and would have existed in 2004–05. The sale of the Lightning and Predators teams were not completed for board approval.

Rule changes

A number of minor rule changes were introduced for the start of the 2007-08 season. Penalty shots can now be awarded when a player with the puck is hauled down from the centre line on in rather than from the opposition's blue-line as previously was the case. Also, the interference rule was altered to allow for a major penalty and a game misconduct when an injury results. Another change affected faceoff placement: All faceoffs must be conducted at one of the nine dots painted on the rink.

Regular season

The New Jersey Devils began playing in their new arena, the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. However, since the arena was not ready by the beginning of the season, they began their season with a nine-game road trip.

Inter-conference division play had the Northeast visit the Pacific, the Pacific visit the Atlantic, the Atlantic visit the Northwest, the Northwest visit the Southeast, the Southeast visit the Central, and the Central visit the Northeast.

Mike Cammalleri of the Los Angeles Kings scored the first goal of the season against the Anaheim Ducks on September 29 in the opening game played in London, England.

Richard Zednik of the Florida Panthers was severely injured after having his external carotid artery in his neck accidentally cut by the skate of teammate Olli Jokinen in a game against the Buffalo Sabres on February 10. Zednik is expected to fully recover from the injury.

The Anaheim Ducks and Ottawa Senators matched up for the first time since the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals on March 3, 2008 at Anaheim.

The Washington Capitals improved from 14th place in the previous season to 3rd place in 2007-08 and winners of the Southeast Division.

The Detroit Red Wings won the Presidents' Trophy for finishing the regular season with the most points (115).

Final standings

GP = Games Played, W = Wins, L = Losses, OTL = Overtime/Shootout Losses, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, Pts = Points.

Eastern Conference

Western Conference

Conference standings

*-Denotes Division Leader

Tiebreaking procedures

Where two or more clubs are tied in points at the end of the regular season, the standing of the clubs is determined in the following order:

The greater number of games won.
The greater number of points earned in games between the tied clubs.
The greater differential between goals for and against.

Scoring leaders

GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/– = Plus/Minus; PIM = Penalty Minutes

Player	Team	GP	G	A	Pts	+/–	PIM
Alexander Ovechkin	Washington Capitals	82	65	47	112	+28	40
Evgeni Malkin	Pittsburgh Penguins	82	47	59	106	+16	78
Jarome Iginla	Calgary Flames	82	50	48	98	+27	83
Pavel Datsyuk	Detroit Red Wings	82	31	66	97	+41	20
Joe Thornton	San Jose Sharks	82	29	67	96	+18	59
Henrik Zetterberg	Detroit Red Wings	75	43	49	92	+30	34
Vincent Lecavalier	Tampa Bay Lightning	81	40	52	92	-17	89
Jason Spezza	Ottawa Senators	76	34	58	92	+26	66
Daniel Alfredsson	Ottawa Senators	70	40	49	89	+15	34
Ilya Kovalchuk	Atlanta Thrashers	79	52	35	87	-12	52

Leading goaltenders

GP = Games Played; TOI = Time On Ice (minutes); W = Wins; L = Losses; OT = Overtime/Shootout Losses; GA = Goals Against; SO = Shutouts; Sv% = Save Percentage; GAA = Goals Against Average

Player	Team	GP	TOI	W	L	OT	GA	SO	Sv%	GAA
Chris Osgood	Detroit Red Wings	43	2,408	27	9	4	84	4	.914	2.09
Dominik Hasek	Detroit Red Wings	41	2,350	27	10	3	84	5	.902	2.14
Jean-Sebastien Giguere	Anaheim Ducks	58	3,310	35	17	6	117	4	.922	2.12
Martin Brodeur	New Jersey Devils	77	4,635	44	27	6	168	4	.920	2.17
Evgeni Nabokov	San Jose Sharks	77	4,560	46	21	8	163	6	.910	2.14

Stanley Cup Playoffs

Playoff seeds

After the 2007–08 NHL regular season, the standard of 16 teams qualified for the playoffs.

Eastern Conference

Montreal Canadiens - Northeast Division and Eastern Conference regular season champion; 104 points
Pittsburgh Penguins - Atlantic Division champion, 102 points
Washington Capitals - Southeast Division champion, 94 points
New Jersey Devils - 99 points
New York Rangers - 97 points
Philadelphia Flyers - 95 points
Ottawa Senators - 94 points (43 wins)
Boston Bruins - 94 points (41 wins)

Western Conference

Detroit Red Wings - Central Division and Western Conference regular season champion; Presidents' Trophy winner, 115 points
San Jose Sharks - Pacific Division champion, 108 points
Minnesota Wild - Northwest Division champion, 98 points
Anaheim Ducks - 102 points
Dallas Stars - 97 points
Colorado Avalanche - 95 points
Calgary Flames - 94 points
Nashville Predators - 91 points

Playoff bracket

Stanley Cup 2007–08 Winners
Detroit Red Wings Eleventh Title

In each round, the highest remaining seed in each conference is matched against the lowest remaining seed. The higher-seeded team is awarded home ice advantage, which gives them a maximum possible four games on their home ice, with the other team getting a maximum possible three. In the Stanley Cup Finals, home ice is determined based on regular season points; thus, the Detroit Red Wings will have home ice advantage. Each best-of-seven series follows a 2–2–1–1–1 format. This means that the higher-seeded team will have Games 1 and 2, plus 5 and 7 if necessary, played on their home ice, while the lower-seeded team will be at home for the other games. The format ensures that the team with home ice advantage will always have home ice for the "extra" game if there are an odd number of games in a series.

Milestones

On October 3, in his first game with Montreal, Roman Hamrlik played in his 1,000th NHL game.
On October 7, Joe Sakic reached 1,591 points, moving him past Phil Esposito for eighth all-time in scoring.
On October 8, Chris Chelios played in his 1,550th game, moving him past Alex Delvecchio for eighth place on the career list.
On October 11, Mats Sundin scored his 390th goal with the Toronto Maple Leafs and reached his 917th point at Toronto, breaking Darryl Sittler's record as the all-time Maple Leafs scoring leader. On November 27, Sundin became the first player to score 400 goals in a Maple Leafs uniform.
On October 12, Jaromir Jagr scored his 1,533rd career point, passing Paul Coffey for 11th in all-time scoring.
On October 22, Bryan Smolinski played in his 1,000th NHL game.
On October 26, Alexei Kovalev played in his 1,000th NHL game, the third Montreal player to reach this milestone in October.
On November 3, Al Arbour coached his 1,500th game with the New York Islanders and earned his 740th win with the team. Both are NHL records for coaching a single team. At 75 years old, he was the oldest man to coach in an NHL game.
On November 7, Mike Modano broke Phil Housley's all-time career point record for a U.S.-born player.
On November 10, Jeremy Roenick scored his 500th career NHL goal, becoming only the 40th player in the history of the league to do so, and only the 3rd American.
On November 17, Martin Brodeur recorded his 500th career win, becoming only the second goaltender in the history of the league to do so. He now trails Patrick Roy who retired with 551 career wins.
On November 17, Glen Wesley played in his 1,400th NHL game, becoming the 10th defenseman to do so.
On November 29, Jarome Iginla moved ahead of Al Macinnis as the all-time leader in games played for the Calgary Flames with 804 games played.
On December 20, Marian Gaborik scored five goals for the Minnesota Wild in a 6–3 win against the New York Rangers. It is the first time a player has scored five goals in a game since Sergei Fedorov did so on December 26, 1996.
On December 23, New York Rangers captain Jaromir Jagr recorded his 927th assist, passing Stan Mikita for 15th place on the all-time list.
On December 29, St. Louis Blues Paul Kariya recorded his 900th point (377 goals, 523 assists), in a hat trick, to become the 89th player in NHL history to reach that plateau.
On December 31, Boston Bruins defenseman Dennis Wideman scored the 18,000th all-time Bruins goal, in a 5-2 home game defeat of the Atlanta Thrashers, as the first Bruins goal of that game.
On January 17, Markus Naslund played in his 1000th NHL game, becoming only the 2nd player to do it in a Canucks uniform (behind Trevor Linden).
On February 9, San Jose Sharks coach Ron Wilson earned his 500th career win as an NHL head coach, becoming the 11th in league history to do so.
On February 19, the Montreal Canadiens came back from a 0–5 deficit against the New York Rangers to win the game in a shootout 6–5, this marks the first time in the franchise's 99-year history that they have ever come back to win a game after being down 0–5. This game was compared to some of the greatest games in team history.
On February 26, the Edmonton Oilers earned their 13th shootout win, the most shootout wins by any team since the inception of the shootout.
On March 3, Alexander Ovechkin became the first player this season to score 50 goals. He also became the second player in NHL history to score a hat trick in the same game in a 10-2 win over Boston.
On March 10, Jarome Iginla scored his 365th goal, passing Theoren Fleury for the all-time goal-scoring lead in Calgary Flames history.
On March 11, Andrew Cogliano set an NHL record by scoring an overtime winning goal in the third consecutive game.
On March 13, the Detroit Red Wings reached the 100-point mark for the 8th straight season, tying an NHL record set by the Montreal Canadiens from 1975–1982.
On March 21, Alexander Ovechkin became the first player to score 60 goals since the 1995-96 NHL season (Mario Lemieux & Jaromir Jagr).
On March 22, Joe Sakic recorded his 1000th assist on a goal by teammate Tyler Arnason, becoming just the 11th player to reach this mark.
On March 30, Dan Ellis had a 233:39 long shutout streak snapped in a 1–0 OTL to the Detroit Red Wings. This was the fifth longest shutout streak in league history.
On April 3, Alexander Ovechkin scored his 64th and 65th goals of the season, moving him ahead of Luc Robitaille's (1992–93) league record for most goals scored by a left wing in a single season.
On April 6, Keith Tkachuk scored his 500th career goal, becoming the fourth American-born player to do so.
On April 9, Joe Sakic extended his record for playoff overtime goals to eight.
On April 12, Chris Chelios played his 248th career playoff game, moving past Patrick Roy for most career playoff games played.
On April 27, Brad Richards tied the NHL record for most points in one playoff period, with four points (one goal, three assists) in the third period.
On May 4, the San Jose Sharks broke their franchise record for the longest playoff game, losing near the midpoint of the fourth overtime to the Dallas Stars and marking the eighth-longest game in NHL history.
On June 4, the Detroit Red Wings won their 11th Stanley Cup, third most all-time, against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

With this Stanley Cup victory, three members of the team joined the Triple Gold Club: Niklas Kronwall, Mikael Samuelsson and Henrik Zetterberg. All three players won the other two championships together, Olympic Gold and World Championship, both in 2006 for the Sweden national men's ice hockey team.
Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom became the first team captain born and raised in Europe to lead his team to a Stanley Cup title.

NHL awards

Presidents' Trophy: Detroit Red Wings
Prince of Wales Trophy: Pittsburgh Penguins
Clarence S. Campbell Bowl: Detroit Red Wings
Art Ross Trophy: Alexander Ovechkin, Washington Capitals
Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy: Jason Blake, Toronto Maple Leafs
Calder Memorial Trophy: Patrick Kane, Chicago Blackhawks
Conn Smythe Trophy: Henrik Zetterberg, Detroit Red Wings
Frank J. Selke Trophy: Pavel Datsyuk, Detroit Red Wings
Hart Memorial Trophy: Alexander Ovechkin, Washington Capitals
Jack Adams Award: Bruce Boudreau, Washington Capitals
James Norris Memorial Trophy: Nicklas Lidstrom, Detroit Red Wings
King Clancy Memorial Trophy: Vincent Lecavalier, Tampa Bay Lightning
Lady Byng Memorial Trophy: Pavel Datsyuk, Detroit Red Wings
Lester B. Pearson Award: Alexander Ovechkin, Washington Capitals
Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy: Alexander Ovechkin, Washington Capitals
NHL Plus/Minus Award: Pavel Datsyuk, Detroit Red Wings
Roger Crozier Saving Grace Award: Dan Ellis, Nashville Predators
Vezina Trophy: Martin Brodeur, New Jersey Devils
William M. Jennings Trophy: Dominik Hasek and Chris Osgood, Detroit Red Wings
Lester Patrick Trophy:
NHL Lifetime Achievement Award: Gordie Howe