In 1992, the Whalers made the playoffs for the final time, but were bounced in the first round in seven games by the Canadiens.

On the ice, however, the ' Canes were now out of the doldrums ; led by the return of longtime Whalers captain Ron Francis, Keith Primeau's 30 goals, and Gary Roberts ' 178 penalty minutes, they won the new Southeast Division by eight points and made the playoffs for the first time since 1992.

The Whalers would have the WHA's best regular-season record in the 1972 – 73 WHA season, with Webster leading the team in scoring and rampaging through the playoffs, and behind legendary ex-Boston University coach Jack Kelley, would win the inaugural Avco World Trophy, the WHA championship.

Though they never again won the league championship, the New England Whalers were a successful team, never missing the playoffs in the WHA's history, and finishing first in its division three times.

Along with the Edmonton Oilers, the Whalers are the most recent first year expansion franchise to make the playoffs in their inaugural season in the NHL.

In the first round of the playoffs, the Whalers were swept by the Montreal Canadiens three games to none.

As a result, the Whalers struggled through February winning only two games that month and they were soon in danger of missing the playoffs for the sixth year in a row.

The Whalers went on to face the Boston Bruins in the first round of the playoffs.

The Whalers went to the playoffs for the final time in 1992 behind Jimmy Roberts ' coaching, but faced the very heavily favored Montreal Canadiens in the Adams Division Semifinals.

The Whalers lost Game 1 by a score of 2-0 and Game 2 by a score of 5-2 so it looked like the Canadiens would sweep the Whalers out of the first round, as they did in the 1989 playoffs.

Unfortunately, the Whalers played poorly down the stretch, winning only one game in the last seven and missed the playoffs by four points.

Despite the strong finish in the second half of the season, the Whalers were unable to recover from their poor start and they missed the playoffs for the fourth year in a row.

Despite the poor performance down the stretch, the Whalers still had an opportunity to make the playoffs in the final week of the season.

However, the Whalers lost two games on the road to Ottawa and the NY Islanders, which eliminated them from the playoffs before their final regular season game against Tampa Bay.

He spent the entire 1984 – 85 season in Hartford, appearing in all 80 games, scoring seven goals and 19 points, however, the Whalers failed to qualify for the playoffs.

The 1985 – 86 season saw Tippett once again appaer in all 80 games with the Whalers, as he improved his offensive totals to 14 goals and 34 points, helping the team into the playoffs.

* 1998-Jesse Boulerice of the Plymouth Whalers was suspended for the rest of the playoffs after violently swinging his stick at Guelph Storm forward Andrew Long.

During the second half of the season and through the playoffs, the Whalers featured a 23 game winning streak at home, lasting three and a half months, falling at Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals to London.

Also, the Whalers traded to get the Spirit's captain on a run in the playoffs in 2003, and beat the Spirit for the division title in overtime on the last game of the season in 2006.

The Whalers opened the door for the modern Knights ' dominance by losing to them in the first round of the 2002 playoffs, despite Plymouth being ranked # 1 and London being seeded # 8.

The Nordiques were unable to defend their title and fell in the playoffs to the New England Whalers.

They won their first NHL division title in 1985 – 86 ( and as it turned out, one of their two in Quebec, the other 1994-1995 ), but a defensive collapse in the playoffs allowed the Hartford Whalers to sweep the Nordiques in three games.

He spent the playoffs with Rochester, scoring four goals in nine games, as the Americans lost to the Binghamton Whalers in the South Division finals.

They have been to the playoffs six times and have won six playoff games, three of which were victories during their run in the 2008-09 NFL Playoffs.

In 2010, with a regular season record of 13 – 3, their best regular season record since the 1998 Super Bowl season, the Falcons secured a third straight winning season, their fourth overall divisional title, and the top overall seed in the NFC playoffs ; however, the Falcons were overpowered by the eventual Super Bowl XLV champion Green Bay Packers in the NFC Divisional Playoffs 48 – 21.

in 2012, the playoffs were expanded again so that two wild card teams face off in a one game wild card round to determine which team advances to the division series, with the playoffs then continuing as it had before 2012 ( though with the possibilty of a fifth seed being in the playoffs and a fourth seed being out ) after the end of the wild card round.

As a result, they were out of the playoffs.

Decades of mediocrity followed for the White Sox until the 1950s, when perennially competitive teams were blocked from the playoffs by the dynastic New York Yankees, with the exception of the 1959 pennant winners led by Early Wynn, Nellie Fox, Luis Aparicio, and manager Al Lopez.

The Browns were NFL champions again in 1964, but have since been only moderately successful, reaching the league's playoffs 15 times and appearing in the AFC championship game three times.

In both 1996 and 2003, the Panthers were responsible for eliminating the Cowboys in the playoffs which led to the local nickname for the Panthers being the " Cowboy killers ".

The team took a risk by recording and releasing the song before the playoffs had even begun, but were able to avoid embarrassment by going on to win Super Bowl XX by a then-record margin of 46 – 10.

Under his sole leadership Charlton made an appearance in the playoffs in 1996 but were eliminated by Crystal Palace in the semi-finals and the following season brought a disappointing 15th place finish.

Star receiver Michael Irvin was suspended by the league for the first five games of 1996 following a drug-related arrest ; he came back after the Cowboys started the season 2-3 ; they finished 10-6 and won the NFC East title, but were eliminated in the divisional round of the playoffs 26-17 by the second-year Carolina Panthers.

Gailey led the team to two playoff appearances with a 10 – 6 record in 1998 and an NFC East championship, but the Cowboys were defeated in the playoffs by the Arizona Cardinals 20-7 ; after an 8 – 8 season in 1999 ( during which Irvin suffered a career-ending spinal injury in a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles ) ending in another playoff loss ( this time to the Minnesota Vikings 27-10 ), he was fired and became the first Cowboys coach who did not take the team to a Super Bowl.

The Cowboys were eliminated by the ( eventual Super Bowl Champion ) Giants in the divisional round of the playoffs, the first NFC No. 1 seed to do so since the playoff re-alignment.

However, the roots of the curse likely date back earlier to the end of the 1968 season when the blue-shirted Cowboys were upset badly by the Cleveland Browns in the divisional playoffs.

In 1930, the Cougars were renamed the Falcons, but their woes continued, as they usually finished near the bottom of the standings, even though they made the playoffs again in 1932.

In 2001, Detroit, the league's second-best team in the regular season, were upset in the playoffs by the Los Angeles Kings.

More important than Hurst's numbers was his sense of timing: not only did he score the first ( in the home opener against Portland ) and the last ( in the playoffs against Vancouver ) goals of the season, 5 of his 8 goals were game-winners.

There were also five teams which the Texans had never beaten: the Baltimore Ravens ( 0-5 in regular season, 0-1 in playoffs ), Minnesota Vikings ( 0-2 ), New York Jets ( 0-5 ), Philadelphia Eagles ( 0-3 ) and San Diego Chargers ( 0-4 ).

In 2012, the Astros were eliminated from the playoffs before September 5th.

They missed the playoffs with an 8 – 8 record, but there were some positives.

By the turn of 1992 they were top of the Second Division, and then suffered a dip in form before recovering to qualify for the playoffs, during which Dalglish led Blackburn into the new Premier League by beating Leicester City 1 – 0 in the Second Division Play-off final at Wembley.

During Mora's tenure the Saints made the playoffs four times, with teams marked by strong defenses led by the " Dome Patrol " linebacking corps, but they were never able to win a playoff game.

They were out of contention until the 1997 season when they narrowly missed the playoffs.

In 2008, the Giants won the NFC East with a record of 12 – 4 ( and also were the number one seed in the NFC after beating the Carolina Panthers for home field advantage ), but lost 23 – 11 to the Philadelphia Eagles in the divisional round of the playoffs.