Despite his Conn Smythe Trophy in the 1997 playoffs, Mike Vernon had been replaced as the regular Wings goaltender during the season with the younger Chris Osgood.

Despite the advent of a regular television service in the Federal Republic in 1952, cinema attendances continued to grow through much of the 1950s, reaching a peak of 817. 5 million visits in 1956.

Despite the regular holding of relatively free and fair elections to the National Assembly, Kuwait is not a democracy by the usual definition of the term because the prime minister is not responsible to parliament.

Despite his partial recovery, Weber felt that he was unable to resume regular teaching at that time and continued on as a private scholar, helped by an inheritance in 1907.

Despite its favored position, the RTC and its predecessor ( SRC ) experienced regular losses that had to be covered by government appropriations.

Despite the clear collapse of their power, and the decline of their kingdom around them, nobles continued to play kingmakers on a regular basis, with occasional intervention from Ptolemaic Egypt and other outside powers.

Despite not becoming a full-time starter until the tenth game of the regular season, Dorsett led the team in rushing with 1, 007 yards, scored 13 total touchdowns, and was the team's third leading receiver with 29 receptions for another 273 yards.

Despite their defensive flaws, the Dolphins ' powerful offense led the NFL in scoring ( 513 points ) and total yards gained ( 7, 064 ), and helped the team reach an AFC best 14-2 regular season record.

Despite their defensive problems, the Bills finished the season with an AFC best 13-3 regular season record.

Despite Roosevelt's continued decline and loss of over 50 pounds ( 20 kg ) of his original 220, Commander Rondon had been repeatedly slowing down the pace of the expedition in dedication to his commission's mapmaking and other geographical goals that demanded regular stops to fix the expedition's position by sun-based survey.

Despite her years of service, she had never received a regular salary and was for years denied compensation.

Despite his fiancée's protests he decides to help her, but that unfortunately also means that he suddenly ceases to exist for regular people and becomes real only to the denizens of ' London Below ', whose inhabitants are generally invisible and non-existent to the people of ' London Above '.

Despite having over eight million viewers on a regular basis, Crime Traveller was not renewed after its first series, because according to Horowitz, " The show wasn't exactly cut.

Despite their regular season dominance, the Islanders exited the playoffs with a loss to the New York Rangers in the semifinals, after which original team captain and star Ed Westfall-who had surrendered the captaincy to Clark Gillies the season before-retired.

Despite the fact that the Lightning finished first in the conference and the Islanders qualified for the playoffs as the 8th and final seed, a few journalists had picked the Islanders to win based on their strong regular season performance against Tampa Bay.

Despite having coached the Rangers to a regular season first place finish and the Stanley Cup, head coach Mike Keenan left after a dispute with General Manager Neil Smith.

Despite their poor regular season showing in 1968 – 69, they made the playoffs ; however, they were manhandled by St. Louis in a four-game sweep.

Despite their regular season success, an emotionally exhausted Flyers team lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Rangers in five games.

Despite the off-ice difficulties, Pittsburgh finished with a 56 – 21 – 7 record-the franchise's best regular season ever-winning the franchise's first ( and, as of 2012, only ) Presidents ' Trophy.

Despite having the better regular season record, the Heat were absolutely obliterated by the Hornets.

Despite the success during the regular season, the Hornets went down rather meekly to the Knicks in three straight games.

Despite their regular season success, the Spurs were unable to win any NBA championships, losing in the Western Conference playoffs to the Houston Rockets in the first round of the 1981 and the Los Angeles Lakers in in 4 games 1982 and in 6 games in the 1983 Western Finals despite getting both wins at the Forum in the 1983 series.

Despite some off-season legal issues, the Oilers were again the top team in the NHL during the 1985 – 86 regular season, with 56 wins and 119 points.

Despite Detroit's much better regular season record, the Oilers pulled off a six-game upset for their first playoff series win since 1998.

Despite being outscored over the season, the Diamondbacks posted the best record in the NL with 90 wins and 72 losses.

Despite the arguments by the Giants, the league upheld O ' Day's decision and ordered the game replayed at the end of the season, if necessary.

Despite its on-field success, it was one of the four teams contracted out of existence by the National League after the 1899 season.

Despite this, Manager Dave Trembley was re-hired for the 2010 season.

Despite an undefeated season in 1948, only 23, 891 people showed up to see the Browns beat the Buffalo Bills in the championship game.

Despite Kitna's success, Palmer was promoted to starting quarterback the following season.

Despite losing fan favorite Grace to free agency, and the lack of production from newcomer Todd Hundley, skipper Don Baylor's Cubs put together a good season in 2001.

Despite the major changes made to the team in the offseason, the team wound up with its first winning season since 1997.

Despite a fourth straight All-Star season by Helton and 36 homers by outfielder Preston Wilson, the Rockies finished just 74 – 88.

Despite making the race very close, in the 161st game of the season, the Dodgers snapped their five-game losing streak – and the Rockies ' five-game winning streak – to clinch the West title.

Despite no wins, the RCR team finished the season 5th in the final standings.

* Ivan Rodriguez ( 2003 ) — Despite only playing one season with the Marlins, he put up some the of the best offensive and defensive statistics by a Marlins catcher and was a key cog in the 2003 World Championship team.

Despite the step up, his scoring exploits continued and he was runner-up only to Ian Rush in the goalscoring charts the following season and then went one better as he was the First Division's joint top goalscorer in 1984 – 85 with 24 goals.

Despite Lineker's personal performance, Tottenham finished this final pre-Premier League season in 15th place.

Despite recording the most successful home and away season in the game's history, the club went one win short of back-to-back premierships in losing the 2008 AFL Grand Final, but won the 2009 Grand Final against St Kilda.

Despite having just turned 21, Cronje was made captain of Orange Free State for the 1990-91 season.

Despite the good news off the field, and winning four out of five games to start the season, the Wizards just missed out on a playoff berth with a loss to the New York Red Bulls on the final day, finishing with a 10 – 14 – 8 record.

Despite this incident, the 1983 season was also notable for some transitional changes.

Despite a serious injury which ruled Shearer out for half the season, Dalglish achieved fourth position with the team in the first year of the new Premier League.

Despite the success in domestic cups, Liverpool was 17th in the table over the second half of the season to finish the season eighth, their worst showing in the league since 1994, failing to qualify for Europe's Champions League for a third straight season.

Despite finishing fifth in Benítez's first season, Liverpool won the 2004 – 05 UEFA Champions League, beating A. C. Milan 3 – 2 in a penalty shootout after the match ended with a score of 3 – 3.

Despite a second-place finish in 1987 – 88, the club was back in 11th place the following season.