Under By 36 In 36
The playoffs are a brand new season and as long as your team is amongst the top 16 teams in the league come the close of the regular season, your chances of winning the Stanley Cup are as good as anyone, right? Well, not really, sorry.
I think the chart I have compiled for you this time is probably one that the NHL would rather not disclose. You see, 16 teams make the playoffs each season but the chance that a team seeded between 10 and 16 from regular season point totals goes all the way on to win the Stanley Cup is nil. I shouldn’t say nil because anything can happen. It just never has.
Admittedly, the table below looks quite busy. So let me tell you what I did and then summarize the results for you.
I started by charting the regular season point totals of the top six teams at the end of each season going back to when the NHL expanded from six to twelve teams in 1967-68. The first column next to the NHL season is the abbreviated name of the NHL team that finished first overall in that season. Next to their name is the total regular season points the NHL’s top team accumulated in that season. I repeated this for the top six teams in the league each year.
Then I highlighted in red, the eventual Stanley Cup champion in each season. You will notice a lot of red. That’s because, in the past 36 years, a team having finished in the top six has gone on to win the Cup 33 out of 36 times.
Just to give you an indication of why the stupid leaf has not even been very close since Canada’s 100th celebration of Confederation, I’ve also included the year-by-year regular season results of Canada’s most shameful disgrace, the leaf, over to the right hand side of the table. You’ll soon realize what I mean by “Under by 36 in 36.”
In summary:
 | The team finishing first overall has gone on to win the Stanley Cup in 17 out of the past 36 years |
| A team finishing between 2nd and 6th overall has gone on to win the Cup in 16 out of 36 years. |
| Two of the three years in which a team winning the Stanley Cup did not finish in the top six were 1986 (Canadiens), and 1991, (Penguins). These two teams finished 7th in the regular season. |
| So that leaves one team that has won a Cup after finishing any lower than 7th during the regular season in the past 36 years. That was the New Jersey Devils in the shortened lock-out season of 1994-95. You could argue that the lock-out messed with tradition. |
| We see upsets in the playoffs every year. But by the time we get to the 4th and final round, the best team usually comes out on top. Like a couple of years ago when the Hurricanes went all the way to the finals by defeating patsies like the leaf along the way. In the finals they were easily put to bed by the Red Wings, the team having finished 1st overall in the regular season. |
So how has the stupid leaf been doing?
In summary:
The leaf team record for points in a season is 100. In the past 36 years this number has been surpassed 110 times and by just about everyone. The Canadiens alone have bettered 100 points in a season 14 times, the Bruins 12 times.
Here you go: In the past 36 years, the leaf on average has finished 36 points behind the NHL’s top regular season team. Under by 36 in 36! (Leafers are thinking yeah, but our guys save their best for the playoffs. - Hee hee, stupid leaf fans)
On average, the leaf has finished in 12th place. Remember, no team finishing less than 9th has won the Cup. Stupid leaf.
In 36 years, the leaf has never finished 1st 2nd or 4th. They finished 3rd once. You have to back 40 years to 1962-63 to find the last time the leaf finished 1st overall. Were you listening to Elvis on your transistor radio at the time it happened?
Warning: The following table may be revealing and disturbing to some younger leaf fans. Parental guidance is recommended.
I hate the leaf
Blow leaf blow
Leafhatred.
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