Friday, April 24, 2009

Hey Look, A Title

Ok, I am not one for numbers, I'm not a huge fan of statistical analysis or anything like that, but lately (I.E since ever) I have been hearing some rumblings, mainly from fans of other Canadian teams about how consistently terrible the Leafs are, how they are the worst team ever yadda yadda yadda. I am sure most of you have also been subjected to it as well.
So this got me kinda curious. Who really is the best Canadian team? Who is the worst? This called for some digging I thought. So I devised a system. Totally ignoring the regular season, which will probably piss off Sens fans, I opted for a point system based only on how far each team made it in the playoffs. Each team got 1 point for making the playoffs, 2 for making it to the second round, 3 for making the conference finals, 4 for making the semi's and 5 for a cup win and of course nothing for not making the post.
For time frame, I went with the 1993 NHL playoffs because it was the first year all teams that play now existed to last year, because, well this playoff season isn't over yet.
This is how things stack up.

Leafs 3, 3, 1, 1, 0, 0, 3, 2, 2, 3, 1, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0 = 21
Habs 5, 1, 0, 1, 1, 2, 0, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 2 = 15
Sens 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 1, 0, 2, 4, 1= 19
Flames 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 4, 0, 1, 1, 1 = 11
Oilers 0, 0, 0, 0, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 4, 0, 0 = 12
Nucks 2, 4, 2, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2, 1, 0, 0, 2, 0= 16

Interesting, very interesting. Look who is on top.
First off let me say how terrible the Flames have been since 93, sure they had that Cinderella run but other than that never made it out of the first round and missed the playoffs 8 times, 7 of those in a row.
The Oilers weren't much better, again a Cinderella run but only made it out of the first three times.
The Habs, even with their cup way back in 93 have been mediocre. Missing the playoffs 7 times with a 3 year drought but were at least able to make it out of the first 5 times including their cup.
The Canucks started decently, with their run to the finals in 94, but since have missed the playoffs 7 times with a 4 year absence.
The Sens, being an expansion team, understandably missed the playoffs a few times (four) int a row to start their NHL experience, got progressively better as they built up draft picks and prospects until their cup run 2 years ago.
The Leafs, while being the only team never to make the cup final made it to the conference final 4 times. They have also been terrible recently.

Totals including this years so far results are as follows
Leafs = 21
Habs = 16
Sens = 19
Flames = 12
Oilers = 12
Nucks = 16

The Canucks could catch and tie the Leafs IF they win the cup, and the Flames could jump to third.
This being a quick (1 hour) study, I don't expect this to swing the confidence of any rival fans out there, but it should give them something to chew on when they go on to say how much better their team has been than the Leafs.

4 comments:

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

Attaboy, Jared. And you're right: Math is fun!!!1

BTD said...

Math defeats all...especially idiots who like other teams...damn them to hell!

general borschevsky said...

Great post Jared. From '92 to 2004 the Leafs had as much playoff success as any team that didn't win the Cup (ie not NJ, Det, Col, Dal). We'll be back again.

Calgary was just awful after they won the Cup in '89 I think they went 15 years without winning another round.

Lori said...

Math!

The leafs get one thousand extra points for having Luke Schenn's adorable self.

You might like this math, too. Your post made me think of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obIGsb-IZMo