Vulgar Statistics: The Stanley Cup Finals At A Glance
With the Cup Finals in full swing and two teams still playing our minds are still on hockey, but there simply isn’t much to analyze. So I figured I would take a quick look at what I’ll call the modern Cup Finals starting in 1939 when the series was expanded to seven games.
Cup Champions:
- Montreal – 27 (20-7)
- Detroit – 21 (9-12)
- Toronto – 14 (10-4)
- Boston – 14 (4-10)
- Chicago – 8 (2-6)
Series Ending In:
- Four Games – 29 (27%)
- Five Games – 18 (25%)
- Six Games – 19 (27%)
- Seven Games – 15 (21%)
Miscellaneous:
- Forty of seventy-one teams (56%) put their names on the Stanley Cup by clinching it in front of their home fans.
- Twenty teams (28%) won their Stanley Cup in an upset.
- Of those twenty teams, fourteen clinched at home.
- Of the twenty Cup Finals that ended in sweeps, eight of them were upsets.
- Sixteen of the eighteen Cup Finals that were won in five games were won at home.
- Only four of the 19 Cup Finals won in six games were won at home.
- Twelve of the fifteen Cup Finals won in seven games were won at home.
Final Thoughts:
I thought it was interesting to see the fairly even breakdown of the number of games we’ve seen in the Cup Finals. As a statistician, I tend to enjoy when things work out in a way that makes sense, and the better team winning a majority of the Cup Finals certainly makes sense. With this one I don’t have a lot to say. I hope you all enjoy the Vancouver – Boston finals regardless of who wins or where they win it.
