Patterns

Superstitions are a part of sports. In hockey, most players grow “playoff beards” because they believe it would be unlucky to shave.

Fans have their superstitions as well, from wearing certain clothing on game days to eating certain food or any number of other things.

Most people know that these things don’t make a difference towards the outcome, but I’m going to ignore that and take a look at the various patters affecting this year’s playoff run for the Red Wings.

Pattern #1: Previous Champions. The New Jersey Devils won their only Stanley Cups in 1995 and 2000. They were followed by the only Cup-winning teams from Colorado in 1996 and 2001. This is 2002. The 1997 winner? Detroit.

Pattern #2: The St. Louis Factor. The St. Louis Blues were defeated in both of Detroit’s Stanley Cup runs in the 1990s. Both times, the series went to six games. This series will go to at least five.

Pattern #3: Margin of loss. Game Three’s 6-1 loss was the worst Red Wings playoff loss since their 1997 6-0 loss to the Colorado Avalanche. The Red Wings went on to win that series and the Cup. An interesting side note: Detroit has lost only four playoff games by the score of 6-1 in the team’s history, two of those losses came against the Blues.

Pattern #4: Series length. When the Red Wings last won the Stanley Cup, all of their Western Conference series’ went to six games. This year, Round One went to six and the current round will go to at least five.

There you have it, by the patterns set forth in history, the Stanley Cup Champions for 2002 have already been chosen.