NHL's Historical First Round Busts

Which team has had the best regular season and lost in the first round?

I never looked at if a team was favored to win the series and never put more emphasis on their seeding (Most disappointing if a #1 seed looses to a #8 rather than if the 8 looses to 1).

All I looked at is Points Percentage (Points divided by max possible points) in years in which they lost in the first round.

Obviously teams who have only played in a small number of playoffs are going to have a higher percentage of those teams who have played in more.

MIN 0.616

NAS 0.607

PHI 0.601

ATL 0.591

WAS 0.589

OTT 0.587

BOS 0.584

COL 0.582

BUF 0.574

FLO 0.571

NJD 0.567

DET 0.565

ANA 0.564

SJS 0.564

CLB 0.561

CAL 0.558

TBL 0.555

EDM 0.542

STL 0.539

NYI 0.535

LA 0.532

NYR 0.529

PIT 0.528

DAL 0.526

MON 0.516

CHI 0.514

PHO 0.509

TOR 0.498

CAR 0.496

VAN 0.477

Take away the Wild and the Trashers, and the top of this list makes a lot of sence.

Nashville has yet to win a first round yet always seem to be making the playoffs. The next 3 are Philly, Washington and Ottawa, again no real surprises there.

The bottom of the list is interesting too. These teams have had the least expectations to win in the first round and didnt.

Phoenix/Winnipeg, Toronto, Carolina and Vancouver.

The Best Historical Teams Who Don't Make the NHL Playoffs

I took a look at each teams Points Percentage (Number of Points divided by Number of Possible Points) when they have missed the playoffs. Who has had the best seasons while missing the playoffs?

Minnesota - .493

Calgary - .472

Buffalo - .466

Florida - .466

Montreal - .458

Nashville - .451

Anaheim - .466

Edmonton - .445

Carolina - .440

Columbus - .438

Philadelphia - .438

Toronto - .438

Atlanta - .434

St Louis - .430

Dallas - .421

Phoenix - .415

LA - .414

New York Rangers - .412

Vancouver - .407

Detroit - .402

Pittsburgh - .394

Boston - .392

New York Islanders - .391

Colorado - .386

Chicago - .379

Washington - .377

New Jersey - .344

Tampa Bay - .308

Ottawa - .303

San Jose - .299

Is Edmonton Helping Calgary?

I've noticed lately in a lot of the Flames games, the opposition has played the night before in Edmonton. I thought I would look more into it and decided to look at all the games where the opponent plays Edmonton first then travels to Calgary for their next game.

Here is what I found.

Edmonton has a record of 2-10-1 in these games. They are outscored by an average of 3.7-1.8, almost 2 goals, while shots are fairly close 30.6-29.0.

Calgary has a record of 9-2-2 in the next game for those teams. Flames outscore those opponents by 3.6-2.4. They out shoot the opposition by an average of 31.2-26.5.

After the 2 games the Oilers have won, the Flames also won in the next game.

Flames have 3 shutouts of the 13 games so far. The average goals for by the opponents against Edmonton is 4.0.

Friday is the last of these type of games. Oilers won vs Columbus, Thursday 4-2.

What will the outcome of the Flames/BlueJackets game be Friday?

All Star Update - NHL Game One Stats

I never would have thought looking into this stat would result in such accurate results. There are still roughly 30 games for teams left, so anything can still happen.

Taking the last 4 years results I found out a percentage of making the playoffs against similar teams based on only the first game of the year.

Teams were divided in 8 categories. Either you were a playoff team or not from the previous year and either you won or lost the first game of this year against a playoff team or a non playoff team.

Take for example Vancouver and Philadelphia . The Canucks had made the playoffs last year. Opening night they lost to the LA Kings also a playoff team from 2010. Philly, also made the playoffs and won their first game against the Penguins who made the playoffs. Each Vancouver and Philly would be in different categories. Over the last 4 years each category had a percentage of teams who made the playoffs in the current year. If you would like to see more in detail, look back in the blog for all the results.

So lets look at the current standings to see how accurate the stats are.

1. Playoff teams who won vs a playoff team. 61% of these teams in last 4 years has made the playoffs. Currently 60% of these teams are in the playoffs

Colorado *

Phoenix*

Los Angeles

Buffalo

Philadelphia *

2. Playoff teams who lost vs a playoff team. 47% made the playoffs. Right now 80% of teams are in playoff position. Can drop it to 60% if you move Chicago in 9th as they are currently tied for 7th.

Chicago*

Ottawa

Pittsburgh*

Boston *

Vancouver*

3. Playoff teams who won vs a non playoff team. 88%. Over the 4 years, there was only 1 instance where a team in this category missed the playoffs. Columbus Blue Jackets were that team last year. Currently 2 of these 3 are in the playoffs and the third San Jose is tied with Chicago for 7th.

Detroit*

San Jose

Nashville*

4. Playoff team who lost vs a non playoff team. 77%. Currently at 66% which is as close as you can get with 3 teams.

Montreal *

New Jersey

Washington*

5. Non Playoff team who won vs a playoff team. 51%. If either 2 or 3 of these teams make the playoff this category will be a success. Currently there are 3.

St. Louis

New York Rangers *

Atlanta*

Dallas*

Toronto

6. Non Playoff team who lost vs a playoff team. 29%. The lowest percentage of teams who went on and made the playoffs. Success here would be either none or 1 to make the playoffs and right now there is one.

Anaheim*

Columbus

7. Non Playoff team who won vs a non playoff team. 42%. Sitting at 33% right now. Looking pretty good here.

Tampa Bay*

Carolina

Edmonton

8. Non Playoff team who lost vs a non playoff team. 33%. Currently zero teams are in the playoffs. It is close though for Minnesota and Calgary as they are 1 and 2 points out respectively.

Calgary

Florida

New York Islanders

Minnesota

To think a 82 game season could be predicted after game 1 would be ridiculous, but these results are within a point here and there of being as close as 100% as you can get.

NHL Guardian Project - On A Budget

The NHL Guardian Project so far has been a dud. Revealing the Guarding isn't must see and most of the time I forget that everyday they have been introducing a new one. The NHL probably paid Stan Lee big bucks for this and really the NHL wouldn't be any different if they decided to invest in something else. Instead of having new characters created, they could have just used past and present cartoon or comic characters to symbolize each team.

Here are my submissions for the NHL Guardian Project - On A Budget.

First Anaheim Ducks

Too easy, so had to look a little harder. Plus they are no longer the Mighty Ducks.

Another team also had a Superhero from the past. <<< CORRECTION, NOT FROM THE PAST

Philadelphia Flyers

Credit goes to S. Kreider

My Guardian for the Flyers

Kearney Zzyzwicz - Simpsons

Atlanta Trashers - Woody Woodpecker

Minnesota Wild - Animal

Washington Captials - Bill Becomes a Law

Vancouver Canucks - The kid from Free Willy

Toronto Maple Leafs - Bert the Raccoon

St Louis Blues - A Smurf

San Jose Sharks - The Fonz

New York Rangers - Ranger Smith - Yogi Bear

Nashville Predators - Yellow Ranger - Power Rangers

Pittsburgh Penguins - The Penguin- Batman

Tampa Bay Lightning - Pikachu- Pokemon

Phoenix Coyotes - Wild E Coyote - Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show

Montreal Canadiens - Pepe Le Pew

Florida Panthers - Pink Panther

Ottawa Senators - Dudley Do Right - Rocky and Bullwinkle Show

Edmonton Oilers - Olive Oyl - Popeye

New Jersey Devils - Taz

New York Islanders - Kanye West Southpark - Fishsticks

Carolina Hurricanes - Big Bad Wolf

Chicago Blackhawks - Henery Hawk

Detroit Red Wings - Ursula - Little Mermaid

Dallas Stars - Patrick - Spongebob Squarepants

Colorado Avalanche - Yeti - Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer

Boston Bruins - Smokey the Bear

LA Kings - Babar

Buffalo Sabres - Leonardo - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Calgary Flames - Wheeler - Captain Planet

Columbus Blue Jackets - Drew Carey