Hockey is a sport of brutality, competition and insane devotion to a singular goal. The NHL playoffs are an even more intense concoction of all the captivating qualities that make hockey great. Over the course of 3 months, 16 teams play 4 best of 7 series that culminates with the stunning magic of the Stanley Cup Finals.
It is said that hockey's championship is the hardest in all of sports to win and that cannot be more true. These games involve long shifts, harder hitting and relentless shooting and shot blocking with after-the-play-scuffles often breaking out. By the end of these illustrious playoffs, at least one or two stories emerge about a player fighting through immense pain to give his team a better chance to win a game and is it because of this that we appreciate these playoffs so much.
Each year fans come back begging for more, throwing huge sums of money into the pockets of arena owners and league executives for the chance to see these games in their entirety. The NHL playoffs are line none other. And yet, as big a cash cow and as big an exciting pastime as these series always are, it is only that much better when a best of 7 series actually takes 7 games to settle. As shown by a Go Titletown study, the frequency of that happening is very slowly but quite noticeably increasing.
Game 7's are magical in the sense that they are played as the culmination of at least a week and a half of play between two teams who are so evenly matched that a week and a half later neither team has managed to separate themselves from the other enough to win the series. These games serve as the known end to in cases when they are needed what has been an absolutely phenomenal series and players and fans enter them knowing that for better or worse, the series will end that night. It is a kind of non-mysterious mystery that makes NHL playoff game 7's impossible to turn away from. With those kinds of descriptors being attached to a game 7 one could see how great such happenings are for the league financially. Game 7s draw in big bucks from the broadcasting services such as NBC who fight to the death to get the rights to them. Also, fans pay sometimes pay triple the price of a normal playoff game ticket to get a ticket to a game 7 while congregating around arenas before and after games and flooding thousands of dollars into local businesses.
Game 7s are a kind of magical gift to hockey that no matter how many times they happen, never gets old.
Season | How many teams played in a Game 7 | Did Stanley Cup Go 7 Games | Number of Game Sevens |
1999 | 3 | No | 3 |
2000 | 3 | No | 3 |
2001 | 3 | Yes | 4 |
2002 | 2 | No | 5 |
2003 | 4 | Yes | 6 |
2004 | 3 | Yes | 4 |
2005(Cancelled) | |||
2006 | 2 | Yes | 3 |
2007 | 1 | No | 1 |
2008 | 3 | No | 3 |
2009 | 3 | Yes | 5 |
2010 | 3 | No | 4 |
2011 | 5 | Yes | 7 |
2012 | 3 | No | 4 |
2013 | 3 | No | 4 |
2014* | 4 | n/a | 7 |
*In progress
So how do we know that the hockey world is being given awesomeness more now than ever?
Well as is true with many statistical analysis done in the past few years, the NHL lockout of 2004-2005 serves as the grand separation between old and new in the hockey world. As it pertains to this game 7 question, one does not have to dig very deep to see a bit of a difference between the pre lockout playoffs and those that have taken place since. When the NHL went into its historic work stoppage, the previous 6 playoff seasons had spawned an average of 4.12 game sevens a year. Since the work stoppage, the average number of game sevens per playoff session has increased slightly to 4.22 games per playoff. Now that minute increase of less than 1 unit could easily be refuted. However, if you discount the 2007 playoffs in which the only game seven was played in the first round between the Chanucks and Stars, the average number of game sevens soars up to a total of 4.625. Still not impressed? Yeah, I get it.
Anyway, what has also increased among the complex web of happenings that it takes to produce a 7 game series is the frequency of game sevens outside of the first round. In that 6 year span before the NHL lockout, 2 years saw 0 teams play in multiple game sevens and 2 others saw just 1 team play in 2 game sevens. In both of those years, the team lost its second game seven. In comparison, in the NINE year since the lockout, only 2 seasons have seen 0 teams play in multiple game sevens.
Last on the list of game seven changes since the lockout is something we will now call "the Bruins Phenomenon". In 2011, the Boston Bruins not only played in but won game sevens against Montreal, Tampa Bay and Vancouver in the cup finals. They were the first team to win 3 game sevens in a Stanley Cup Playoff Season. At the time, the hockey world worshiped the Bruins feat as a once in a lifetime accomplishment, 4 season later, the Kings made it a twice in a lifetime happening when they defeated the Sharks, Ducks and Blackhawks en route to the Cup finals.
So why are these game sevens becoming more frequent and why is it, like so many other statistical anomalies, so closely tied to the NHL lockout of 2005? The introduction of the 3 point system that year made it harder for bad teams to sneak into the playoffs so by default teams are better, series are closer and series go longer without a winner.
All and all, it is without a doubt for the good of hockey for these game sevens to become more frequent. Because of that, hockey must be pretty thrilled because the Bruins phenomenon is now a huge part of hockey's illustrious playoff story.
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