Stanley Cup Playoffs: Will the Metropolitan Division’s streak continue?

The Metropolitan Division is on a three-season long Stanley Cup streak. There may not a solid rhyme or reason, but are the Islanders, Hurricanes or Blue Jackets strong enough teams to bring the streak to four?

Anything can happen in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Tampa Bay Lightning were swept by the eight seed Columbus Blue Jackets. But the only thing that matters, in the end, is the final team skating around the ice proudly with the cup in their hands. Believe it or not, there’s one part of the NHL that seems to have been the luckiest in their past few Stanley Cup wins – the Metropolitan Division.

The landscape of the NHL changed during the 2013-2014 season when the league rolled out their new division seeding and playoff format. Gone were the days of three divisions per conference with the top eight in each making the playoffs. In came two divisions per conference and the slightly more confusing wild card format.

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Very few were thrilled with the new format, with most of the criticism going towards repetitive and seemingly fabricated playoff matchups. That and the move of the Detroit Red Wings to the Eastern Conference disrupted their long-standing rivalry with the Chicago Blackhawks, who were left in the Western Conference.

Ever since the division re-alignment, the Metropolitan Division has quietly built itself as a powerhouse and put itself on the lucky streak in winning the Stanley Cup.

Following where the old format left off, you’d probably expect the most powerful division to be the Central that includes the likes of the dynasty Blackhawks, along with the perennial playoff contenders Winnipeg Jets, Nashville Predators, St. Louis Blues, and Minnesota Wild.

Well, you’d be wrong. Ever since the introduction of the wild card format, the Metropolitan Division has won more Stanley Cups than any other division. It may have only been five years since the new format began, but what makes the feat impressive is that the Metro is on a three-year win streak.

The three-year winning streak includes the Pittsburgh Penguins back to back Stanley Cup championships in 2016 and 2017 and the Washington Capitals first franchise championship last year in 2018.

Yes, that factor is skewed because Jim Rutherford’s Penguins team was built to repeat as champions. With the Carolina Hurricanes breaking their Stanley Cup playoff drought this year, every Metro team has competed in the playoffs at least once since the Wild Card era. The Buffalo Sabres and the Arizona Coyotes are the only two teams not to play into April under the new format.

This past season, five separate Metropolitan Division teams made it to the playoffs: the Capitals, Pittsburgh Penguins, New York Islanders, Hurricanes, and Blue Jackets. Three of those teams moved on, minus the Penguins and Capitals. Also worth noticing that Pittsburgh and Washington were matched up against their own divisional foes by virtue of the playoff seeding.

Many factors go into raising the Stanley Cup every year, including the healthy dose of superstition. Last week I wrote an article about an interesting trend of what an early round playoff sweep means for both the losing team and the winning team.

Usually, the winning team makes it to the Stanley Cup final. Assuming that patterns hold true, we might be seeing the New York Islanders, or the surprise of the postseason so far in the Columbus Blue Jackets make it four in a row for the Metropolitan division.

Obviously, there’s a long way to go anything can happen, but wouldn’t it be something if the streak went to four cup champions? Out of the Metro teams remaining, none of them are particularly favored to win the cup, although after that sweep of Tampa Bay the Columbus Blue Jackets have drummed up support in their area and become the people champion.

Perhaps last night’s comeback loss to the heavily favored Bruins put a damper on their own hopes of a Cinderella effort. Then again, the Capitals were expected to fall victim to the second round curse they suffered for years until they reversed their own futures and were the last team left standing.

Any talk of a Stanley Cup victory parade throughout Raleigh, Long Island, or Columbus is too early to tell, but Metropolitan hockey fans can dream, can’t they? Maybe they’ll actually be something to it and we’ll celebrate the 2020 Stanley Cup champion New Jersey Devils next year.