The longest postseason & statistical weirdness

This could be the longest postseason in history for teams like the New York Rangers

While the format for the playoffs has not been finalized, the New York Rangers may have to win more postseason games than any other team in NHL history in order to hoist the Stanley Cup.  Not only that, how the NHL has classified the qualifying round will lead to some strange statistics.

For the last 33 years the requirement to win the Cup has been consistent.  A team must win four best-of-seven series in order to be NHL champions.   It could take a maximum of 28 games to do it, but the Stanley Cup puzzle was complete if a team won 16 times.  This year, it could be different.

Let’s make one thing clear.  The format is not determined and will probably be set when the league knows when the playoffs will start.  There has been talk about the first two round as best-of-five series with the Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Finals as best-of-seven series.

This is not unheard of.  Before 1987, the preliminary round was a best-of-five series and for a while it was even a best-of-three.   The league went to an all best-of-seven format in the 1986-87 season and has stuck to it.  Blue Line Station did a deep dive into the importance of winning the first game of a best-of-five series last week.

You can be sure that in this bizarro world we live in, the NHL will do their best to replicate the traditional format and will try for four best-of-seven series.  If they do and a team from the qualifying round goes all the way, it means winning 19 games and playing as many as 33 postseason contests.

How long does it take?

The Stanley Cup Playoffs are a marathon, taking as long as nine weeks to conclude  with a maximum of 28 games.  Not only were the St. Louis Blues in last place overall at the beginning of January, but their championship run last year is even more remarkable as it took them 26 playoff games to do it.  That’s ties them with the 2014 L.A. Kings for the most postseason games for any championship team since the league went to  the four best-of-seven series format.

The Blues needed seven games to eliminate the Dallas Stars in the second round and the Boston Bruins in the Finals.  In the other two rounds, they won in six games.  For the 2014 Kings, they played three seven-game series before beating the Rangers in five games in the Finals.

Over the last few yeas, the tendency for the playoffs to go long has been increasing.  In the last six years, the champion has had to play at least 23 playoff games Compare that to the first 12 years of the 28 maximum game format when only the  1991 Pittsburgh Penguins (24 games) and the 1994 Rangers (23 games) took played that many.