Stanley Cup Finals Notes

The Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks truly are a great organization–of course they are with the great Scotty Bowman a part of it. Bowman has now been a part of 14 Stanley Cup winning teams, including the Blackhawks, who have won three Stanley Cup crowns in the past six seasons.

Last year they lost a heartbreaking 7th game of the semi-finals to the eventual champion L.A. Kings, not exactly a bad playoffs showing.

This year’s final series vs the Tampa Bay Lightning followed the same pattern as the Blackhawks six game triumph in the Cup finals vs the Boston Bruins two years ago.

In both cases Chicago won the opening game on a Wednesday, lost games two and three on following Saturday and Monday before winning the last three on the next Wednesday, Saturday and Monday.

Teams winning the opening game of a Blackhawks’ final series have won 12 of the 13 series.

I also believe this was the first time a team winning game three of a (1-1) Stanley Cup final on the road lost the series. 14 previous teams in that scenario won the Stanley Cup before the Lightning failed to do so this season.

Scotty Bowman