The Stanley Cup playoffs have long been marked by parity. Perhaps more than any other major professional sports league, the NHL routinely sees teams outperform expectations in the regular season, sneak into the playoffs, make a run to the Stanley Cup Final and often even win it.

Few teams embody the spirit of this better than the 2005-06 Carolina Hurricanes, who opened that regular season at 60-1 to win the title -- the longest preseason odds of any Cup winner since at least 1984-85. That squad entered the postseason at +600 and exited with the most famous trophy in North American sports.