Heading out to watch the Chicago Blackhawks and want to impress your friends with your hockey knowledge? Let your friends at Madhouse Enforcer do the work for you and give you these 15 facts about the Stanley Cup Final:
1. The Chicago Blackhawks have been tied at 2-2 in a series on eight occasions during head coach Joel Quenneville’s tenure with the team. The team has won all eight of those series and has a combined record of 16-1 after being tied in the series.
2. In Game 5’s under Quenneville, the Blackhawks are 14-3, with a streak of 12 straight victories that was snapped in Game 5 vs. Nashville in the first round.
3. In those 17 Game 5’s, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews have combined for 16 goals and 22 assists. There hasn’t been a single Game 5 during that stretch in which both players were held without a point.
4. In the last 23 Stanley Cup Final series that have been tied at 2-2, the team that wins Game 5 has won the Cup 16 times.
5. The Blackhawks have been tied at 2-2 in both of their Stanley Cup Final appearances under Joel Quenneville. They outscored their competition by a 10-5 margin, and Patrick Kane leads the team in scoring with three goals and two assists in those games.
6. The 2015 Stanley Cup Final is only the third in history in which the first four games have all been decided by a single goal, joining the 1951 and 1968 championship series.
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7. Neither team has ever led by more than a goal at any point during this series.
8. Nine of the last 11 games between the Blackhawks and Lightning have been decided by only one goal. The Lightning are 8-2-1 in those games.
9. When Jonathan Toews scores a goal in this postseason, the Blackhawks are 7-1, with their only loss coming in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final.
10. The Blackhawks are also 11-2 when Duncan Keith registers at least one point. In the eight games that he hasn’t, they are 3-5.
11. Speaking of Keith, he is one of only two defensemen over the last 20 years (Chris Pronger of the Edmonton Oilers is the other) to notch 20 or more points in a single postseason.
12. In the four games so far, the Lightning have held the lead 38.5% of the time, while the Blackhawks have held the lead for just 10.4% of the series.
13. Coming into this series, the Lightning power play converted 16-of-72 opportunities, a 22.2 percent success rate. In this series, the Lightning have converted just once in 11 chances.
14. Patrick Sharp has gone 13 consecutive games without scoring despite racking up 33 shots on goal. This is his longest such drought since February 2015, when he went 19 games without a goal before scoring twice against the San Jose Sharks on March 14.
15. With his goal in Game 4 of the series, Brandon Saad notched goals in back-to-back games for the 14th time in his NHL career (including four times in postseason play). He’s only scored in three straight games once, racking up four goals in three games in April 2013.
h/t to the NHL's PR staff for help with facts 1,4,6,8, and 11.
