Unlike in baseball and football, playoff seeding in the NBA and NHL usually defines the fate of all involved teams. Over the past ten seasons, the average seed of the Super Bowl Champion was a three seed, and the loser was between a one and a two. In the World Series, the champion has been between a two and three seed, and the loser has averaged a three seed. But both sports have had plenty of underdogs going the distance. The MLB has had seven Wild Cards reach the World Series in the past ten years, with three winning it all. The NFL has had three Wild Card Super Bowl Champs, and a one seed has lost seven of the past ten Super Bowls.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, you have the NBA and NHL, who have sixteen playoff participants each year. There are two trains of thought about the effect this could have on the playoffs. One would be that with more teams, there will be more weaker teams. The other is that with more teams, it is more likely for a low seed to at least "shock and awe" every few years or so. But the latter is not the case. In the NBA, the average Finals Champion is a one or two seed, and the loser a two seed. In the NHL, the average Stanley Cup Champ is also between a one or two, and the loser is usually between a four or five seed. If those numbers don't prove anything to you, try this. In the NBA, no seed lower than a four has reached the Finals in the past ten years. No seed lower than a three has actually been NBA champion. In the NHL, only once has a team that isn't seeded one or two won the Stanley Cup since 2001. Therefore, it should be somewhat easier to predict the champ from each sport based on playoff seeding.
Based off of the past ten years history, these are the possible outcomes of the NHL Playoffs:
Capitals defeat Predators in Stanley Cup Finals
Canucks defeat Penguins in Stanley Cup Finals
Flyers defeat Predators in Stanley Cup Finals
Sharks defeat Penguins in Stanley Cup Finals
The same applies for the possible outcomes of the NBA Playoffs:
Bulls defeat Lakers in NBA Finals
Spurs defeat Heat in NBA Finals
Heat defeat Lakers in NBA Finals
Lakers defeat Heat in NBA Finals
So yes, these scenarios are not positive at all for Boston fans. But I'm just crunching the numbers. Don't shoot the messenger.
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