The 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs Have A Chance To Be Record Breaking
By Jim Lynch
The Stanley Cup Playoffs have been fun to watch through the first few weeks, but now they have a chance to be record-breaking – and no, I am not talking about a Leafs’ series win.
This year, the Stanley Cup Playoffs have seen five of their eight first-round matchups head to seven games. The Tampa Bay Lightning and Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins and Carolina Hurricanes, Los Angeles Kings and Edmonton Oilers, Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Rangers, and the Calgary Flames and Dallas Stars all have seen their series go the distance.
Three postseasons in the history of the league have seen seven game sevens. With this year having five in the first round, maybe this year is the year the league gets a new record holder. The three previous seasons where that happened were 1994, 2011 and 2014.
In 2014 only three of those series went to game seven in the first round and both 2011 and 1994 had four in round one. The door is definitely open for this season to feature a record-breaking year with the most amount of game sevens. Which is actually pretty shocking.
Early on this postseason, the league saw a lot of blowout games. Teams would swap 5-0 or 5-1 games early on this playoffs but for the most part, things have evened out the longer these series have gone.
Every team that is still playing in round one has earned their spot, winning three games. Now we just have to wait and see how things end. There is no telling which team is going to win tonight even despite the home ice part of it. Boston and Carolina is the only series that has featured the home team winning every game, so anything can happen tonight when it matters most.
The league’s parity is evident in the way this postseason has gone. Five series going seven games shows how close the competition is and maybe shows there is a flaw in how the current playoff format is being executed with so many teams being this evenly matched.