Most dominant playoff of all-time by a team

[seventieslord]

I was wondering if anyone has ever done the work to determine what was the most dominant playoff performance by a team throughout four rounds of playoffs (so, since 79-80). But not just based on simple metrics like W-L. But overall goal differential or GF:GA ratio, and considering the regular season strength of the opponents they went up against.

For example, LA in 2012 scored 65.5% of the goals in their playoff games, against teams who, in the regular season, ran at 56%, 53%, 51% and 52%.

I'm not saying this is the most dominant example nor am I (at the present time) suggesting a preferred way to calculate their dominance based on these numbers, but I think these are the kinds of numbers we'd want to use to determine an answer.

Has anyone calculated this before or does anyone have some great examples?

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[quoipourquoi]

From the Goals vs. Expectation and Threshold vs. Expectation thread which looked at 1968-2017 playoff runs:

The 1970 Boston Bruins placed the least amount of pressure on their goaltending in order to win the Stanley Cup, and all three of their series ranked in the top-10 highest scoring (vs. expectation) series from a post-expansion Stanley Cup Champion.

• 217.56 - 1972 Boston (vs. St. Louis)
• 215.40 - 1970 Boston (vs. Chicago)
• 213.31 - 2008 Detroit (vs. Colorado)
• 212.60 - 1970 Boston (vs. St. Louis)
• 193.42 - 1985 Edmonton (vs. Chicago)
• 191.02 - 1973 Montreal (vs. Chicago)
• 178.57 - 1983 New York (vs. Boston)
• 184.64 - 2012 Los Angeles (vs. St. Louis)
• 178.94 - 1994 New York (vs. New York)
• 175.97 - 1970 Boston (vs. New York)

This didn’t look at the goaltending itself, which would open it up for other teams to have been more dominant at both ends.

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

I spot checked some dynasties and came up with these runs:

1952 Red Wings went 8-0 in the playoffs, outscoring opponents 24-5
1956 Canadiens went 8-2 in the playoffs, outscoring opponents 42-18
1960 Canadiens went 8-0 in the playoffs, outscoring opponents 29-11
1976 Canadiens went 12-1 in the playoffs, outscoring opponents 44-25
1977 Canadiens went 12-2 in the playoffs, outscoring opponents 54-22
1978 Canadiens went 12-3 in the playoffs, outscoring opponents 58-29

Hard to beat the 1952 Wings or 1960 Canadiens, but it's of course more likely to put up statistically dominant runs over the course of 2 series vs 3-4 series

 

[Michael Varnakov]

I was wondering if anyone has ever done the work to determine what was the most dominant playoff performance by a team throughout four rounds of playoffs (so, since 79-80). But not just based on simple metrics like W-L. But overall goal differential or GF:GA ratio, and considering the regular season strength of the opponents they went up against.

For example, LA in 2012 scored 65.5% of the goals in their playoff games, against teams who, in the regular season, ran at 56%, 53%, 51% and 52%.

I'm not saying this is the most dominant example nor am I (at the present time) suggesting a preferred way to calculate their dominance based on these numbers, but I think these are the kinds of numbers we'd want to use to determine an answer.

Has anyone calculated this before or does anyone have some great examples?

Probably one of those New York Islander teams from the early 80's.
The Nassau collisium was called Fort Neverlose. They had very high powerplay goalscoring percentage also.

 

[VanIslander]

I was in high school when Gretzky & co. steamrolled to their 2nd Stanley Cup, never for a moment in doubt. We KNEW they would win. Vegas refused to give odds. It was like no other year.

 

[Mr Burns]

Probably one of those powerful Montreal Canadiens teams from the 50's with Maurice Richard or the 70's with Guy Lafleur.

 

[BenchBrawl]

Am interested in the answer to this as well.

I spot checked some dynasties and came up with these runs:

1952 Red Wings went 8-0 in the playoffs, outscoring opponents 24-5
1956 Canadiens went 8-2 in the playoffs, outscoring opponents 42-18
1960 Canadiens went 8-0 in the playoffs, outscoring opponents 29-11
1976 Canadiens went 12-1 in the playoffs, outscoring opponents 44-25
1977 Canadiens went 12-2 in the playoffs, outscoring opponents 54-22
1978 Canadiens went 12-3 in the playoffs, outscoring opponents 58-29

Hard to beat the 1952 Wings or 1960 Canadiens, but it's of course more likely to put up statistically dominant runs over the course of 2 series vs 3-4 series

This goes to show how crucial 1979 was for the Bowman era dynasty. In french we have a saying: "À vaincre sans péril, on triomphe sans gloire." (translation: victory without risk brings triumph without glory). The whole thing felt way too easy in 1976, 1977 and 1978. We got to see their character tested in 1979 against Boston.