Tonight could the night that the first two teams (the New Jersey Devils and Ottawa Senators) get the boot from this year’s playoffs. Historically, a 3-1 deficit is certainly quite the mountain to climb, although many will note that there are active New Jersey Devils players who were part of that series in which Scott Stevens leveled Eric Lindros and the Devils went on a rampage. Jonathan Willis of “Hockey or Die” took a look at the post-lockout winning percentage of teams in various series situations. Here’s what he found.
Lead 1-0: 71.7%
Lead 2-0: 86.5%
Lead 3-0: 100%
Lead 2-1: 65.0%
Lead 3-1: 92.3%
Lead 3-2: 87.9%