1999–2000 NHL season

League business

Expansion

The 1999–2000 season was the inaugural year for the Atlanta Thrashers. They would join the Southeast Division, marking the return of the NHL to Atlanta since the Atlanta Flames moved to Calgary in 1980. The 1999 NHL expansion draft was held on June 25 to fill the new Thrashers roster.

Entry draft

The 1999 NHL entry draft was held on June 26 at the FleetCenter in Boston. Patrik Stefan was selected first overall by the expansion Atlanta Thrashers.

Rule changes

• The rule prohibiting a player from having a skate in the crease was abolished. This was a reaction to the controversial goal scored by Brett Hull in the 1999 Stanley Cup Finals
• Overtime during the regular season will now have four skaters per side, instead of the 5-on-5. Furthermore, teams will earn one point in the standings for an overtime loss instead of none. These changes were intended to discourage teams from playing very defensively during the overtime to guarantee the single point from a tie. The number of ties had been going up for some years, and the league was able to successfully reverse that trend with these changes.
• The four-official system (two referees and two linesmen) continued its phase-in regularly in which teams played 25 home and 25 road games (50 games per team) for a total of 700 games with four officials. The system was also used for all playoff games again.

Uniform changes

• League wide:

  • An "NHL 2000" patch was worn this season to celebrate the turn of the millennium.
  • Wayne Gretzky's jersey number, 99, was retired league-wide on February 6, 2000, at the season's All–Star Game.

• Anaheim: Jade Alternates Retired. Eggplant pants with Jade Stripes are restored.

• Atlanta: White jerseys have the team logo, while the road darks have the alternate mark. The team wore inaugural season patches for their first season.

• Carolina: Shade of red is darkened. In addition to the NHL 2000 Patch, the Hurricanes wore two other patches this season, one celebrated the opening of the Raleigh Entertainment and Sports Arena, and the other was in Memory of Steve Chiasson, who died in a single-vehicle, alcohol-involved crash after the Hurricanes were eliminated in the 1999 Stanley Cup playoffs.

• Chicago: The tan outline on the crest is removed.

• Colorado: Shade of Burgundy is darkened from 1998–1999

• Dallas: The alternates from 1998–1999 become the basis of the team's new home Uniform. the actual 1998–1999 Alternates become the new road uniform.

• Los Angeles: New Purple alternates introduced.

• New York Rangers: Navy Blue Lady Liberty Alternates return.

• Ottawa: The Alternates from the 1998–1999 become the new Road Uniforms

• Phoenix: Crest on the alternates get a sand-colored outline.

• Tampa Bay: the alternate jerseys are dropped.

• Toronto: All-star game patch worn for 2000 NHL All-Star Game. The Alternates worn during the 1998–1999 season for the last year at Maple Leaf Gardens go on a one-year hiatus.

Arena changes

• The expansion Atlanta Thrashers moved into Philips Arena.
• The Buffalo Sabres' home arena, Marine Midland Arena, was renamed HSBC Arena on March 17, 2000, in recognition of Marine Midland Bank's parent company HSBC retiring the Marine Midland brand.
• The Carolina Hurricanes moved from Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina to the Raleigh Entertainment & Sports Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina.
• The Colorado Avalanche moved from McNichols Sports Arena to the Pepsi Center.
• The Los Angeles Kings moved from the Great Western Forum in Inglewood, California to the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles.
• The Pittsburgh Penguins's home arena, Pittsburgh Civic Arena, was renamed Mellon Arena after Mellon Financial purchased the naming rights.

Regular season

All-Star Game

The All-Star Game was held on February 6, 2000, at Air Canada Centre in Toronto, the home to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Final standings

Eastern Conference

Western Conference

Playoffs

Main article: 2000 Stanley Cup 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

The Roger Crozier Saving Grace Award was introduced this season for the goaltender with the best save percentage.

All-Star teams

Player statistics

Scoring leaders

Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points

Leading goaltenders

Note: GP = Games played; Min = Minutes played; GA = Goals against; GAA = Goals against average; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; SO = Shutouts; SV% = Save percentage

Source: 2001 NHL Yearbook

Coaches

Eastern Conference

• Atlanta Thrashers: Curt Fraser
• Boston Bruins: Pat Burns
• Buffalo Sabres: Lindy Ruff
• Carolina Hurricanes: Paul Maurice
• Florida Panthers: Terry Murray
• Montreal Canadiens: Alain Vigneault
• New Jersey Devils: Robbie Ftorek and Larry Robinson
• New York Islanders: Butch Goring
• New York Rangers: John Muckler and John Tortorella
• Ottawa Senators: Jacques Martin
• Philadelphia Flyers: Roger Neilson and Craig Ramsay
• Pittsburgh Penguins: Kevin Constantine and Herb Brooks
• Tampa Bay Lightning: Steve Ludzik
• Toronto Maple Leafs: Pat Quinn
• Washington Capitals: Ron Wilson

Western Conference

• Mighty Ducks of Anaheim: Craig Hartsburg
• Calgary Flames: Brian Sutter
• Chicago Blackhawks: Lorne Molleken and Bob Pulford
• Colorado Avalanche: Bob Hartley
• Dallas Stars: Ken Hitchcock
• Detroit Red Wings: Scotty Bowman
• Edmonton Oilers: Kevin Lowe
• Los Angeles Kings: Andy Murray
• Nashville Predators: Barry Trotz
• Phoenix Coyotes: Bobby Francis
• San Jose Sharks: Darryl Sutter
• St. Louis Blues: Joel Quenneville
• Vancouver Canucks: Marc Crawford

Milestones

Debuts

The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1999–2000 (listed with their first team, an asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):

• Patrik Stefan, Atlanta Thrashers
• Robyn Regehr, Calgary Flames
• Alex Tanguay, Colorado Avalanche
• Martin Skoula, Colorado Avalanche
• Brenden Morrow, Dallas Stars
• Brian Rafalski, New Jersey Devils
• Scott Gomez, New Jersey Devils
• Roberto Luongo, New York Islanders
• Brian Boucher, Philadelphia Flyers
• Simon Gagne, Philadelphia Flyers
• Evgeni Nabokov, San Jose Sharks
• Mike York, New York Rangers

Last games

The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1999–2000 (listed with their last team):

• Marty McSorley, Boston Bruins
• Grant Fuhr, Calgary Flames
• Steve Smith, Calgary Flames
• Ed Olczyk, Chicago Blackhawks
• Brian Skrudland, Dallas Stars
• Guy Carbonneau, Dallas Stars
• Ken Wregget, Detroit Red Wings
• Bill Ranford, Edmonton Oilers
• Ray Sheppard, Florida Panthers
• Darren Turcotte, Nashville Predators
• Ulf Samuelsson, Philadelphia Flyers
• Zarley Zalapski, Philadelphia Flyers
• Rob Brown, Pittsburgh Penguins
• Pat Falloon, Pittsburgh Penguins
• Bob Rouse, San Jose Sharks
• Murray Craven, San Jose Sharks
• Dave Ellett, St. Louis Blues
• Geoff Courtnall, St. Louis Blues
• Derek King, St. Louis Blues
• Daren Puppa, Tampa Bay Lightning
• Shawn Burr, Tampa Bay Lightning
• Wendel Clark, Toronto Maple Leafs
• Doug Bodger, Vancouver Canucks

Broadcasting

Canada

This was the second season of the league's Canadian national broadcast rights deals with CBC and CTV Sportsnet. CBC aired Saturday night Hockey Night in Canada regular season games, while CTV Sportsnet's telecasts included Tuesday Night Hockey and other weeknight games. Coverage of the Stanley Cup playoffs continued to primarily be on CBC, while CTV Sportsnet aired first round all-U.S. series.

United States

This was the first year of the league's five-year U.S. national broadcast rights deal with ESPN and ABC. Much like ABC's initial contract with the NHL in the 1992–93 and 1993–94 seasons, ESPN essentially purchased time on ABC to air selected NHL games on ist sister broadcast network. This was noted in copyright tags at the conclusion of the telecasts (i.e., "The preceding program has been paid for by ESPN, Inc."). ESPN later signed a similar television rights contract with the National Basketball Association in 2002, allowing it to produce and broadcast NBA games on ABC under a similar time buy arrangement on the broadcast network. ABC's terms of this deal included four to five weeks worth of regional games on selected Saturday afternoons, typically between beginning in January or March for the first two seasons. ABC also had the All-Star Game. ESPN and ESPN2 continued to air weeknight games throughout the regular season. During the first two rounds of the playoffs, ESPN and ESPN2 aired selected games, while ABC had weekend regional telecasts. Each U.S. team's regional broadcaster produced local coverage of first and second round games (except for those games on ABC). ABC's weekend telecasts continued into the Conference Finals, while ESPN had the rest of the third round games. ESPN then aired the first two games of the Stanley Cup Finals before the rest of the series shifted to ABC.

References

• {{cite book |last1=Fischler |first1=Stan |last2=Fischler |first2=Shirley ;Notes

References

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2. Wilson, Andrew. (2014-10-28). "Why Changing the NHL Point System is Pointless".
3. Elliott, Helene. (1999-09-30). "ITS ABOUT (OVER)TIME".
4. (2016-07-06). "NHL Overview of Four-Man Officiating System".
5. (1998-11-10). "REF GETS DEVILS IN FIRST STEP".
6. (1999-03-10). "NHL TO USE 2 REFS IN PLAYOFFS".
7. (1999-06-22). "NHL decides to abolish use of video replays League officials argue that review slows up games".
8. (February 6, 2000). "Perfect setting: Gretzky's number retired before All-Star Game". CNN Sports Illustrated.
9. Sandomir, Richard. (June 10, 2015). "Without Showing Games, ESPN Leaves a Mark on the N.B.A. Finals". [[The New York Times]].
10. Gatehouse, Jonathon. (October 2012). "The Instigator: How Gary Bettman Remade the NHL and Changed the Game Forever". Triumph Books.
11. Harris, Cecil. (2007). "Breaking the Ice: The Black Experience in Professional Hockey". Insomniac Press.