The 2001–02 NHL season was the 85th regular season of the National Hockey League. Thirty teams competed in an 82-game regular season. The regular season began on October 3, and the playoffs concluded on June 13, with the Detroit Red Wings defeating the Carolina Hurricanes in the Stanley Cup Finals in five games, winning their tenth Stanley Cup in franchise history. League business The cash-strapped Pittsburgh Penguins, desperate to dump payroll, could no longer afford perennial superstar Jaromir Jagr. He would be traded, along with Frantisek Kucera, to the Washington Capitals in exchange for Kris Beech, Ross Lupaschuk, Michal Sivek, and $4.9 million. Despite Mario Lemieux's return the previous season, the absence of Jagr proved devastating to the Penguins, and they missed the playoffs for the first time since 1990. The Penguins did not return to the playoffs until they drafted Sidney Crosby in 2005. The Dallas Stars moved their home games from Reunion Arena to American Airlines Center. The NHL honored the victims of 9/11 by having all players wear a patch on their jerseys, a ribbon sticker on the back of their helmet, as well as a red, white and blue ribbon painted on the ice behind each net, (with the Canadian teams having a red and white ribbon painted on the ice behind either net). On September 20, 2001, in the middle of a pre-season game between the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Rangers with both teams tied up 2–2, nine days after the attacks, the game was stopped. A message from United States President George W. Bush about the 9/11 attacks was broadcast on the arena video screen. After the message, the game did not resume and was declared a 2–2 tie. Uniform updates The NHL honored the victims of the September 11 attacks by having all players wear a patch on their jerseys, a ribbon sticker on the back of their helmet, as well as a red, white and blue ribbon painted on the ice behind each net, (with the Canadian teams having a red and white ribbon painted on the ice behind either net). Buffalo Sabres: In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Sabres, in a sign of solidarity, took to the ice at Madison Square Garden on October 7 wearing jerseys reading "New York" on the front. Like the New York Rangers, their opponents in that game, the Sabres play their