There are 35 ways an NHL playoff series can go. Here's the best example of each

Three games in, and this year’s Stanley Cup final is on track to achieve all-time classic status. And while we’ve still got what we hope are four games left to go, the action so far has got me thinking about great playoff series through NHL history.

Let’s start with a question: How many different ways are there to win a playoff series?

There are a few ways to answer that question. We could go existential and say the answer is “an infinite number of way”, because of every series is a unique snowflake that forges its own beautiful identity every time a butterfly flaps its wings and/or a ref blows a call. That’s kind of poetic. It’s also going to make this post way too long, so we need a different approach.

Instead, let’s go with a mathematical answer. There are only so many ways that a seven-game series can play out, based on what order the wins and losses come in. The longer the series, the more combinations we can get. But with two results possible per game, we eventually run into a limit.

So how many combinations are there? It turns out that the magic number is 35. That list starts with a four-game sweep, which can obviously only happen one way – with the winning team winning each game. Call that a WWWW series. There are four more combinations for a five-game series, ranging from LWWWW to WWWLW. The possibilities grow to ten for a six-game series, and then 19 once we go the full seven. Add it all up, and you have 35 different combinations of W’s and L’s that can describe a seven-game series.

(How long did it take me to figure all that out? Way too long, thanks for asking. I have a headache and I think my wife and kids moved out at some point over the weekend. Never let it be said that I don’t make sacrifices for my readers.)

>> Read the full post at The Athletic