The 2007–08 NHL season was the 91st season of operation (90th season of play) of the National Hockey League (NHL). It began on September 29, 2007, and the regular season ended April 6, 2008. The Stanley Cup playoffs ended on June 4, with the Detroit Red Wings defeating the Pittsburgh Penguins to win the Stanley Cup. 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 Salary cap The league announced that the regular season salary cap would be going up for the third consecutive season. The 2007–08 salary cap is being increased by US$6.3 million per team to bring the salary cap up to US$50.3 million. The salary floor is at US$34.3 million, which is 71.5% higher than the salary floor during the 2005–06 season.
Possible expansion discussions 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 league would eventually not expand until the Vegas Golden Knights began play in the 2017–18 season.
Approval for new schedule format in 2008–09 The NHL 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.
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 had been 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.
Entry draft The 2007 NHL entry draft was held at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, on June 22, 2007. Patrick Kane was selected first overall by the Chicago Blackhawks.
Uniforms 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.
Seven teams (Boston, Tampa Bay, Vancouver, Washington, Ottawa, San Jose and Columbus) unveiled new designs.
Arena changes The Nashville Predators' home arena, Nashville Arena, was renamed the Sommet Center after the Tennessee-based company Sommet Group signed a new naming rights agreement. The New Jersey Devils moved from Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey to Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, with Prudential Financial acquiring the naming rights.
Regular season First international regular season games 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 Arena. 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).
First Winter Classic 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 National Football League's Buffalo Bills, 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 2003 Heritage Classic played between the Montreal Canadiens and Edmonton Oilers at Commonwealth Stadium on November 22, 2003.
All-Star Game The 2008 National Hockey League All-Star Game was held on January 27, 2008 at the Philips Arena in Atlanta, home of the Atlanta Thrashers. Atlanta had originally been scheduled to host what would have been the 55th NHL All-Star Game in 2005, however that game was canceled due to the NHL Lockout of 2004–05.
Highlights 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.
Michael 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, United Kingdom.
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 fully recovered from the injury, but missed the remainder of the season.
The Anaheim Ducks and Ottawa Senators matched up for the first time since the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals on March 3, 2008, in Anaheim.
The Washington Capitals improved from 14th place in the previous season and last in the Eastern Conference during the first third of the 2007–08 season to finish as the third seed in the 2007–08 playoffs and winners of the Southeast Division. The turnaround was attributed mainly to the hiring of then-American Hockey League coach Bruce Boudreau, whose efforts won him the Jack Adams Award for the 2007–08 season.
The Detroit Red Wings won the Presidents' Trophy for finishing the regular season with the most points (115).
Fewer goals were scored in the regular season than in the 2006–07 season, with an average of 5.44 goals scored per game (6,691 goals over 1,230 games). Goaltenders combined for 161 shutouts.
Standings
GP = Games Played, W = Wins, L = Losses, OTL = Overtime/shootout losses, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, Pts = Points.
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.
Playoffs
Bracket In each round, teams competed in a best-of-seven series following a 2–2–1–1–1 format (scores in the bracket indicate the number of games won in each best-of-seven series). The team with home ice advantage played at home for games one and two (and games five and seven, if necessary), and the other team played at home for games three and four (and game six, if necessary). The top eight teams in each conference made the playoffs, with the three division winners seeded 1–3 based on regular season record, and the five remaining teams seeded 4–8.
The NHL used "re-seeding" instead of a fixed bracket playoff system. During the first three rounds, the highest remaining seed in each conference was matched against the lowest remaining seed, the second-highest remaining seed played the second-lowest remaining seed, and so forth. The higher-seeded team was awarded home ice advantage. The two conference winners then advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals, where home ice advantage was awarded to the team that had the better regular season record.
Awards + 2007–08 NHL awards Award Recipient(s) Runner(s)-up/Finalists Presidents' Trophy Detroit Red Wings San Jose Sharks Prince of Wales Trophy Pittsburgh Penguins (Eastern Conference playoff champion) Philadelphia Flyers Clarence S. Campbell Bowl Detroit Red Wings (Western Conference playoff champion) Dallas Stars Art Ross Trophy Alexander Ovechkin, Washington Capitals Evgeni Malkin (Pittsburgh Penguins) Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy Jason Blake, Toronto Maple Leafs Fernando Pisani (Edmonton Oilers)Chris Chelios (Detroit Red Wings) Calder Memorial Trophy Patrick Kane, Chicago Blackhawks Jonathan Toews (Chicago BlackhawksNicklas Backstrom (Washington Capitals) Conn Smythe Trophy Henrik Zetterberg, Detroit Red Wings N/A Frank J. Selke Trophy Pavel Datsyuk, Detroit Red Wings Henrik Zetterberg (Detroit Red Wings)John Madden (New Jersey Devils) Hart Memorial Trophy Alexander Ovechkin, Washington Capitals Jarome Iginla (Calgary Flames)Evgeni Malkin (Pittsburgh Penguins) Jack Adams Award Bruce Boudreau, Washington Capitals Mike Babcock (Detroit Red Wings)Guy Carbonneau (Montreal Canadiens) James Norris Memorial Trophy Nicklas Lidstrom, Detroit Red Wings Zdeno Chara (Boston Bruins)Dion Phaneuf (Calgary Flames) King Clancy Memorial Trophy Vincent Lecavalier, Tampa Bay Lightning N/A Lady Byng Memorial Trophy Pavel Datsyuk, Detroit Red Wings Martin St. Louis (Tampa Bay Lightning)Jason Pominville (Buffalo Sabres) Lester B. Pearson Award Alexander Ovechkin, Washington Capitals Jarome Iginla (Calgary Flames)Evgeni Malkin (Pittsburgh Penguins) Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy Alexander Ovechkin, Washington Capitals Ilya Kovalchuk (Atlanta Thrashers) NHL Foundation Player Award Vincent Lecavalier, Tampa Bay Lightning and Trevor Linden, Vancouver Canucks N/A NHL Plus-Minus Award Pavel Datsyuk, Detroit Red Wings N/A Vezina Trophy Martin Brodeur, New Jersey Devils Henrik Lundqvist (New York Rangers)Evgeni Nabakov (San Jose Sharks) William M. Jennings Trophy Dominik Hasek and Chris Osgood, Detroit Red Wings N/A NHL Lifetime Achievement Award Gordie Howe N/A
All-Star teams First All-Star team Forwards: Alexander Ovechkin • Evgeni Malkin • Jarome Iginla Defencemen: Nicklas Lidstrom • Dion Phaneuf Goaltender: Evgeni Nabokov
Second All-Star team Forwards: Henrik Zetterberg • Joe Thornton • Alexei Kovalev Defencemen: Brian Campbell • Zdeno Chara Goaltender: Martin Brodeur
Player statistics
Scoring leaders
GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/– = Plus/minus; PIM = Penalty minutes
Player Team GP G A Pts +/– PIMAlexander Ovechkin Washington Capitals 82 65 47 112 +28 40Evgeni Malkin Pittsburgh Penguins 82 47 59 106 +16 78Jarome Iginla Calgary Flames 82 50 48 98 +27 83Pavel Datsyuk Detroit Red Wings 82 31 66 97 +41 20Joe Thornton San Jose Sharks 82 29 67 96 +18 59Henrik Zetterberg Detroit Red Wings 75 43 49 92 +30 34Vincent Lecavalier Tampa Bay Lightning 81 40 52 92 –17 89Jason Spezza Ottawa Senators 76 34 58 92 +26 66Daniel Alfredsson Ottawa Senators 70 40 49 89 +15 34Ilya Kovalchuk Atlanta Thrashers 79 52 35 87 –12 52 Source: NHL.
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% GAAChris Osgood Detroit Red Wings 43 2,409
27 9 4 84 4 .914 2.09Dominik Hasek Detroit Red Wings 41 2,350 27 10 3 84 5 .902 2.14Jean-Sebastien Giguere Anaheim Ducks 58 3,310 35 17 6 117 4 .922 2.12Martin Brodeur New Jersey Devils 77 4,635 44 27 6 168 4 .920 2.17Evgeni Nabokov San Jose Sharks 77 4,560 46 21 8 163 6 .910 2.14
Coaches
Eastern Conference Atlanta Thrashers: Don Waddell Boston Bruins: Claude Julien Buffalo Sabres: Lindy Ruff Carolina Hurricanes: Peter Laviolette Florida Panthers: Jacques Martin Montreal Canadiens: Guy Carbonneau New Jersey Devils: Brent Sutter New York Islanders: Ted Nolan and Al Arbour New York Rangers: Tom Renney Ottawa Senators: John Paddock and Bryan Murray Philadelphia Flyers: John Stevens Pittsburgh Penguins: Michel Therrien Tampa Bay Lightning: John Tortorella Toronto Maple Leafs: Paul Maurice Washington Capitals: Bruce Boudreau
Western Conference