List of every Stanley Cup Final sweep in history

A Stanley Cup playoffs sweep is the equivalent of a double-edged sword. If you're the team doing the sweeping, everything is good. If you're the team being swept, well, not so much. It can be agonizing for teams like the Vegas Golden Knights to be at the helm of such a cruel fate. Suddenly, life is sapped from the anticipation at the beginning of the series.

Luckily, Vegas hasn't experienced such a moment yet (although losing two deciding games in a series is arguably worse). The Golden Knights have seen their most embarrassing moment come at the hands of 4-1 defeats twice. The first was a 2018 Stanley Cup Final "gentleman's sweep," where the Washington Capitals won four straight games. The second was in the bubble where the Dallas Stars won... 4-1. However, Vegas swept the Los Angeles Kings in the first round of the 2018 Stanley Cup playoffs.

The Florida Panthers are on the verge of accomplishing a sweep, defeating the Edmonton Oilers in game three, 4-3. Holding off a late Oilers rally on Thursday, the Panthers are avenging their beatdown from the Vegas Golden Knights in last season's Stanley Cup Final. They're also set to extend Canada's Stanley Cup drought another year, going on 31 years strong.

But that leads to another question regarding sweeps in the Stanley Cup Final. With the Panthers going full "Florida Man" on Edmonton, how many times have the brooms been broken out? Who was the last NHL team to win the Stanley Cup in a "sweep-ing" fashion?

The last team to perform a Stanley Cup Final sweep was the 1998 Detroit Red Wings

So you're wondering when the last time a Stanley Cup Final sweep happened? Well, you'd have to go back decades to when the '90s were in full swing. Back in the day, Pokemon was the craze along with professional wrestling (surprisingly, both are also popular now).

As for the sweep in question, the Detroit Red Wings finished off the Washington Capitals in four games in 1998. They went back-to-back, sweeping the Philadelphia Flyers in 1997. It established the Red Wings as a bona fide hockey superpower, led by Sergei Fedorov and Steve Yzerman.

This sweep has a sad backstory to it involving Vladimir Kostantinov. The Russian forward was involved in a devastating limousine crash that severely impaired his motor skills on June 13, 1997. This accident left Konstantinov in a wheelchair permanently, suffering from paralysis and brutal head injuries. Detroit dedicated their season to the Russian star, having his name engraved on the Stanley Cup as a special request and bringing him onto the ice to hold the trophy.

The Vegas Golden Knights have never been swept in the Stanley Cup Final, let alone the Stanley Cup playoffs. However, they did sweep the Los Angeles Kings in the first round of the 2018 playoffs. That's a major part of having an all-time playoff record of 57-38, showcasing how well the franchise has done in its first seven years. By the way, there have been 20 sweeps in the championship round for the NHL.