A Bit Of History
Here are the results of the first six games of the Stanley Cup:Vancouver 1, Boston 0
Vancouver 3, Boston 2 (OT)
Boston 8, Vancouver 1
Boston 4, Vancouver 0
Vancouver 1, Boston 0
Boston 5, Vancouver 2
The pattern is obvious: Vancouver wins one-goal nailbiters, and Boston wins blowouts. In fact, the combined margin of games three and four were the greatest two-game net goal differential in Stanley Cup history.
It's incredible, then, that Vancouver might win the Cup on Wednesday after getting blown out in three games, but believe it or not, there's precedent. There's only one example in roughly 120 years, but it's happened before.
Engage wayback machine.
In 1960, the World Series featured the Pittsburgh Pirates and the almightly New York Yankees. It was, without peer, the strangest series in history. Take a look at the scores:
Pittsburgh 6, New York 4
New York 16, Pittsburgh 3
New York 10, Pittsburgh 0
Pittsburgh 3, New York 2
Pittsburgh 5, New York 2
New York 12, Pittsburgh 0
So after six games, the Yankees had outscored the Pirates 46-17, and had scored at least 10 runs in all of their wins.
I've read several articles about this series, and it was a foregone conclusion that the mighty Yankees were going to win game seven. A funny thing happened, though.
They didn't.
Instead, the Pirates, in one of the most exciting game sevens in the history of baseball, won 10-9, scoring six runs in the last two innings.
This is not to suggest that Vancouver is an underdog, or that the Bruins equate to the Yankees, because I think neither of those statements are true. I'm not even rooting for a particular team at this point. I just thought that the strong parallel between the series was interesting.
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