When a team wins the first four games of a playoff series they are said to have swept the series and their opponent. When the victor does so NEVER trailing in any of the four games, they have completed the rare feat of a PERFECT sweep.
Of the 681 best-of-seven NHL Stanley Cup playoff series played through 2018, 117 (17%) have resulted in a sweep. Only 18 of those 681 series (2.6%), however, ended in a perfect sweep or annihilation.
The chart below describes every such perfect sweep (or annihilation, if you prefer), showing the playoff year, matchup and round of the rarity.
Year
Matchup
Round
1946
Montreal over Chicago
Semifinal
1952
Detroit over Montreal
Final
1954
Montreal over Boston
Semifinal
1960
Montreal over Chicago
Semifinal
Montreal over Toronto
Final
1969
Boston over Toronto
Quarterfinal
St. Louis over Philadelphia
Quarterfinal
1977
Montreal over St. Louis
Quarterfinal
1978
Montreal over Toronto
Semifinal
1979
New York* over Chicago
Quarterfinal
1987
Detroit over Chicago
Preliminary
1989
Pittsburgh over New York**
Preliminary
1992
Chicago over Detroit
Quarterfinal
1995
Detroit over San Jose
Quarterfinal
2000
Detroit over Los Angeles
Preliminary
2009
Detroit over Columbus
Preliminary
2013
Boston over Pittsburgh
Semifinal
2015
Chicago over Minnesota
Quarterfinal
* New York Islanders
** New York Rangers
The Montreal Canadiens lead the league with six perfect sweeps and are the only team to do it twice in a single postseason. That happened in 1960 when Montreal annihilated both the Chicago Blackhawks and Toronto Maple Leafs en route to their fifth straight Stanley Cup championship. Chicago, on the other hand, owns the honor of being on the losing end of a perfect sweep four times, leading all teams in this category.
Breaking it down by round, the most annihilations have happened in the Quarterfinal (7), followed by the Semifinal (5), Preliminary (4) and Final (2). The last team to be so swept in the Cup Final was the Toronto Maple Leafs 55 years ago, adding to their dreary postseason history.
Of the two sweeps thus far in the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs (Columbus over Tampa Bay, New York Islander over Pittsburgh), both victims managed to hold a goal lead at some point during a game of the series avoiding the distinction of making this historic list. Pittsburgh narrowly escaped this honor, leading their series for only 3 minutes and 41 seconds thanks to opening goals in games 2, 3 and 4 from Gudbranson, Wilson and Guentzal.
Beware of the brooms. But avoid annihilation at all costs.
* See also NHL Stanley Cup Playoff Sweeps.
Friday, April 19, 2019
NHL Playoff Sweeps Without Surrendering Lead
Posted by MG at 12:03 AM
Labels: Music, Playoffs, Statistical Anomaly, Video Clip
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment