The 2004 playoffs were considered to be wide open with no clear favourite. All of the top teams had weaknesses. Tampa Bay and Boston were both young teams with no history of recent postseason success. Detroit, Ottawa, Colorado, and Philadelphia all had major questions in goal. New Jersey was marred by injuries to Scott Stevens and Brian Rafalski, while Vancouver was missing the suspended Todd Bertuzzi.
The first-round Eastern Conference matchups were notable for the number of heated rivalries. The Ottawa Senators met the Toronto Maple Leafs for the fourth time in five years in the always passion-filled Battle of Ontario. The Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens met in a resumption of the most common of all NHL playoff series, and one which the Canadiens have thoroughly dominated, including an upset win two years prior. The Philadelphia Flyers also played a hated division rival in the New Jersey Devils. The only non-rivalry was the Tampa Bay-New York Islanders series.
The West saw the resumption of the Vancouver-Calgary rivalry, which had been somewhat dormant as the Flames made the playoffs for the first time since 1996. In a less passionate but still interesting matchup, Detroit played division rival Nashville (whom they had struggled against during the regular season) in Nashville's first ever franchise visit to the playoffs. San Jose met the St. Louis Blues, while the always difficult four-five matchup saw Colorado and Dallas meet.
The Calgary Flames, a sixth seed, defeated three straight division champions, the Canucks, the Red Wings and the Sharks to become the first Canadian team to reach the Stanley Cup Finals in ten years, since the Canucks lost to the Rangers in the Finals in 1994. They faced the Tampa Bay Lightning, who defeated the Islanders in five, swept the Canadiens and defeated the Flyers in seven games.
The Flames and the Lightning battled hard in the Stanley Cup Finals, eventually pushing the series to seven games. By game 5, the Flames took the 3–2 series lead back to Calgary, and in game six, a puck appeared to have gone into the net, which would have made the game 3–2, but the goal light did not go on, the referee did not signal that a goal had been scored, and play went on, no goal counted. Extensive replays showed the play was inconclusive. The Lightning would win the game in double overtime, and go on to win the Stanley Cup with a 2–1 win in game seven, with two goals from Ruslan Fedotenko. Brad Richards, with a team-high 25 points in the playoffs, was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy.
"Note: GP = Games Played, G = Goals, A = Assists, Pts = Points
The NHL Awards presentation took place in Toronto.
The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 2003–04 (listed with their first team):
The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 2003–04 (listed with their last team):
London Stansted Airport
London Stansted Airport is a large passenger airport in the Uttlesford District of the English county of Essex about 30 miles (48 km) northeast of London. It is about outside Bishop's Stortford and outside Harlow.
Stansted is a hub for a number of major European low-cost carriers. It is the fourth busiest airport in the United Kingdom and is the third largest airport serving the London area after Heathrow and Gatwick; and is one of London's five international airports along with Luton and London City Airports. Stansted is owned and operated by Manchester Airports Group, which also owns and operates three other UK airports, including Manchester and Bournemouth.
The airport had to abandon plans for a second runway after the campaign Stop Stansted Expansion succeeded.
London Gatwick Airport
London Gatwick Airport is London's second largest airport and the second busiest airport in the United Kingdom after Heathrow. It is the world's 22nd busiest airport in terms of passengers per year (7th in terms of international passengers). It is also often quoted as the world's busiest single runway airport, although strictly speaking it now has a second 'stand-by' runway, which can only be used when the main runway is out of use.
Gatwick is in Crawley, West Sussex (it used to be Charlwood, Surrey) 5 km (3 miles) north of the town centre, 46 km (28 miles) south of London and 40 km (25 miles) north of Brighton.
Gatwick is owned and operated by a group of companies, led by Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), after it's previous owner BAA was forced to sell the airport by the Competition Commission due to its dominance in London and the South East, also owning Heathrow Airport.
With about 200 destinations, the airport handled over 34 million passengers with 263,363 aircraft movements in 2006. It was said that during 2007 Gatwick broke through the 35 million barrier for the first time in its history.
Usually, Charter airlines do not operate from Heathrow and therefore use Gatwick as their main base for London and the South East.
For the past 30 years, many flights to and from the USA have also used Gatwick because of the restrictions on access to Heathrow that were enshrined in the 1977 Bermuda II bilateral air services agreement between the UK and the US.
The airport is a major operational base for British Airways, easyJet and Virgin Atlantic. The airport is also a major base for a number of charter airlines including First Choice Airways, Thomas Cook Airlines, Thomsonfly and XL Airways. Runway 8L/26R is mostly used as a taxiway.
London Gatwick has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence (Number P528) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction.
2002–03 NHL season
The 2002–03 NHL season was the 86th regular season of the National Hockey League. Thirty teams each played 82 games. The Stanley Cup winners were the New Jersey Devils, who won the best of seven series 4–3 against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. This was the last season before the NHL switched home and away jerseys.
"Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime Losses, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, Pts = Points"
"Note: GP = Games Played, G = Goals, A = Assists, Pts = Points"
"Note: All dates in 2003."
"Note: GP = Games Played, G = Goals, A = Assists, Pts = Points
The NHL Awards presentation took place in Toronto.
The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 2002–03 (listed with their first team):
The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 2002–03 (listed with their last team):
Heathrow Airport
London Heathrow Airport, or Heathrow, is the main, and busiest airport serving the United Kingdom. Heathrow is also Europe's busiest airport for passenger traffic, and handles more international passenger traffic than any other airport in the world.
Heathrow is owned and operated by BAA Limited, which also owns/operates six other UK airports and is itself owned by an international group led by the Spanish Ferrovial Group. Heathrow is the main hub of British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.
Heathrow is in the London Borough of Hillingdon, west of Central London, England, Heathrow has two parallel main runways running east-west and five terminals. The site covers 12.14 square kilometres (4.69 square miles). Terminal 5 was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 14 March 2008 and opened to passengers on 27 March 2008. Terminal 2 opened in 2014, and Terminals 3 and 4 will be refurbished during this period. In November 2007 a consultation process began for the building of a new third runway.
Heathrow Airport has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence (Number P527) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction.
Today, Heathrow airport uses two operation runways. These are: