Weirdest Cup Final Ever?


How weird has this year's Cup Final been? Both Boston and Vancouver have won three games although the Bruins have outscored the Canucks 19-8 in the series. If in fact Vancouver wins game seven by one goal, they will have won the Cup with a Goals For/ Goals Against +/- of -11. They very well could win the Cup while scoring 11 less goals than their opposition.

Over the entire playoffs, Vancouver has a -7 goal differential through 24 games. The last time any Cup finalist was a minus for the overall playoff season was in 1975 when Buffalo was -5. They would lose the Cup in six games to Philadelphia. Through 17 playoff games they scored 53 while surrendering 58 goals. Prior to that it was 1968 when St.Louis was a -8 through 18 playoff games which included a four game sweep at the hands of Montreal.

There has been only one time in NHL history that a Stanley Cup winner had a minus goal differential that playoff season. In 1945 the Toronto Maple Leafs beat Detroit in seven games but throughout their 13 playoff games that year they had a goal diffferential of -6. This stems solely from a 10-3 loss to Montreal in the first round.

A few more weird facts from the 2011 Cup Final:


  • 43 year-old Mark Recchi is tied for the Boston points lead in the six Final games with 6 points.

  • After Vancouver's defensemen contributed 8 goals and 18 points in the 5 game Semi-finals against San Jose they have scored zero goals and a mere 5 assists in the Final.

  • The only Vancouver forward with a plus rating in the Final is Jannik Hansen at +1, Aaron Rome is also +1 in just over two games played.

  • Boston has ZERO players on the minus side of the ledger for the Final.


Comments

Anonymous said…
Hello, not actually related to this article I would love for you to write a short but indepth opinion on what made Wayne Gretzky such a potent goal scorer early in his career. Its nothing I wasnt previously aware but when scanning The Great Ones first few seasons in the NHL he was absolutely the most dominant scorer the league has ever seen. Since your the Gretzky man what was his secret? I don't remember him having a thundering shop like a Brett Hull and I don't remember him hanging out by the net like Phil Esposito did in his goal scoring years so what was the Great Ones secret. Would love to hear your take Nitz!
June 18, 2011 at 6:31 PM
Nitzy said…
I have often thought about this as well. The one thought I have is if he ever combined a 90+ goal season with a 160+ assist year, the results would have been mind-boggling. It seems he merely switched his game up on his own accord once he found goal scoring that easy and concentrated on the playmaking aspect of the game. I will definitely ook into it further though.
June 19, 2011 at 3:35 PM
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