(De)Constructing Contenders: Stanley Cup Arms Race – Part 2 (1996-2004)

  (Click Here for Full Size Image) If the early 1990s set the groundwork for the 2005 lockout, it was the team building strategies of the late ’90s and early ’00s that cemented it.  The high spending ways of the Rangers and Penguins were nothing in comparison to what the second half of the decade wrought. Although mired in the…