Before the NHL instituted a salary cap and teams could acquire and hold onto talent for longer periods, the great squads seemed to figure out how to win Stanley Cups and continue to pile them up, as if by inertia. The Montreal Canadiens won four straight Cups to close out the 1970’s, then turned it over to the New York Islanders who won four straight Cups of their own to start the 1980’s. After that came the rise of the Edmonton Oilers who strung together five championships in the following seven years.
The next dynasty was set to be the Pittsburgh Penguins, led by Mario Lemieux.