The faces, the jerseys, the sites and the sounds may change season after season, yet it is true that all Stanley Cup winning teams share some common traits from year to year. How about clutch, opportunistic scoring and strong goaltending? Yep. Don’t forget about that long and wiry playoff beard. No wonder Dustin Penner was so good in last year’s playoffs. The man’s beard is solid.

But all kidding aside, perhaps one of the most important of these shared traits, or better… tendencies… is the one we often lose track of: every Stanley Cup champion is never the same team it was at the beginning of the season.