Chances Your Team Makes Playoffs after Game 1

Getting off to a good start, does that affect the entire season? I looked back at the last 4 years, I took into effect the result of either making the playoffs or missing them from the previous year. Now whether they won or loss that first game I checked the end of year standings to see if they had made the playoffs or not. Surprisingly from year to year, the stats remained fairly the same.

The 8 different possibilities are:

1. Previous Playoff Team who Won vs Previous Playoff Team

2. Previous Playoff Team who Lost vs Previous Playoff Team

3. Previous Playoff Team who Won vs Previous Lottery Team

4. Previous Playoff Team who Lost vs Previous Lottery Team

5. Previous Lottery Team who Won vs Previous Playoff Team

6. Previous Lottery Team who Lost vs Previous Playoff Team

7. Previous Lottery Team who Lost vs Previous Lottery Team

8. Previous Lottery Team who lost vs Previous Lottery Team

Here are the Percentages of the Team 1's who made the playoffs, after a Win, based on the stats collected from the 8 categories above.

Team 1 vs Team 2

ANA vs DET 51%

ATL vs WAS 51%

BOS vs PHO 61%

BUF vs OTT 61%

CAL vs EDM 42%

CAR vs MIN 42%

CHI vs COL 61%

CLB vs SJS 51%

COL vs CHI 61%

DAL vs NJD 51%

DET vs ANA 88%

EDM vs CAL 42%

FLO vs EDM 42%

LA vs VAN 61%

MIN vs CAR 42%

MTL vs TOR 88%

NAS vs ANA 88%

NJD vs DAL 88%

NYI vs DAL 42%

NYR vs BUF 51%

OTT vs BUF 61%

PHI vs PIT 61%

PHO vs BOS 61%

PIT vs PHI 61%

SJS vs CLB 88%

STL vs PHI 51%

TB vs ATL 42%

TOR vs MTL 51%

VAN vs LA 61%

WAS vs ATL 88%

And here are the Percentages of Team 1's who made the playoffs, after a Lost, based on the stats collected from the 8 categories above.

ANA vs DET 29%

ATL vs WAS 29%

BOS vs PHO 47%

BUF vs OTT 47%

CAL vs EDM 32%

CAR vs MIN 32%

CHI vs COL 47%

CLB vs SJS 29%

COL vs CHI 47%

DAL vs NJD 29%

DET vs ANA 77%

EDM vs CAL 32%

FLO vs EDM 32%

LA vs VAN 47%

MIN vs CAR 32%

MTL vs TOR 77%

NAS vs ANA 77%

NJD vs DAL 77%

NYI vs DAL 32%

NYR vs BUF 29%

OTT vs BUF 47%

PHI vs PIT 47%

PHO vs BOS 47%

PIT vs PHI 47%

SJS vs CLB 77%

STL vs PHI 29%

TB vs ATL 32%

TOR vs MTL 29%

VAN vs LA 47%

WAS vs ATL 77%

The Difference between a Win and Lost also followed a pattern over the 4 years.

1. Previous Playoff Team who Won vs Previous Playoff Team

2. Previous Playoff Team who Lost vs Previous Playoff Team

3. Previous Playoff Team who Won vs Previous Lottery Team

4. Previous Playoff Team who Lost vs Previous Lottery Team

5. Previous Lottery Team who Won vs Previous Playoff Team

6. Previous Lottery Team who Lost vs Previous Playoff Team

7. Previous Lottery Team who Lost vs Previous Lottery Team

8. Previous Lottery Team who lost vs Previous Lottery Team

Win vs Lost

1 vs 2 - 61% - 47% - 14% Difference

3 vs 4 - 88% - 77% - 11% Difference

5 vs 6 - 51% - 29% - 22% Difference

7 vs 8 - 42% - 33% - 9% Difference

As you can see, whether you win or loose after making the playoffs the previous season, the percentage of teams repeating a playoff season is a lot better than trying to get back into the playoffs from the outside.

Teams who won their first game, made the playoffs more than those who lost their first game.

Also the percentages of teams who beat a team who previously made the playoffs in your first game, was a lot larger than those teams who lost.

I really enjoy after researching as much as I did, the results are consistent.

What do you think?