How Many Teams if Given an "Ideal Path" Could Win The Cup?

NVious

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Dec 20, 2022
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Personally there's at least 10 teams for me that it wouldn't surprise me at all if they won the cup this year, but obviously some crazy matchups to start. Who do you think if they had good matchups could win the cup?
 
There is no "ideal path" to 16 wins. I think there are about 7 teams that I can see legitimately going all the way. TB/FLA/COL/DAL/VGK/EDM/LA. Any of the others would surprise me.
 
The ideal path doesn't exist in the west so we can rule that out.

All first round series have an interesting narrative and all those team are at worst bubble able to win it all.
 
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What is an ideal path? Facing the bottom 5 teams ranked from best to worst as the playoffs go on?

As far as "ideal path" the Leafs have as close to one as they can get this year.

Sens round 1 they are the better team
Round 2 - especially if Tampa wins the Leafs have proven they can beat them in the playoffs
The metro is weak as hell in the ECR

The hardest part would likely be who came out of the west
 
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The ideal path in the playoffs is having the team you're playing suffer a bunch of injuries every round.
 
You are going to have to beat some of the leagues best teams if the goal is winning the Cup no matter what, so unless the goal is just to win a round or two, there is no idea path. The Oilers have lost to the Cup champions for 3 straight years in the playoffs, so if you want to win the Cup, you have to be able to beat some of the best teams in the league at some point, whether it's round one or in the Cup final.
 
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Ideal path absolutely exists. Penguins were one unlucky bounce away from losing to Ottawa in OT in the 2017 ECF who would've then subsequently lost to my Predators in the SCF that year!

I will not be taking questions on the matter.
 
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What is a realistic ideal path? In a divisional format you can get lucky with 2 easy matchups (see 2024 Edmonton) but you still have to play someone legit eventually. They were super fortunate Dallas had to take out the other top 2 teams in the west, and then they got a battered Dallas team. Still had to play Florida in the finals tho.

Carolina could fall into this category if Toronto beats Florida and Winnipeg makes the finals, but thats another big what if.
 
What is a realistic ideal path? In a divisional format you can get lucky with 2 easy matchups (see 2024 Edmonton) but you still have to play someone legit eventually. They were super fortunate Dallas had to take out the other top 2 teams in the west, and then they got a battered Dallas team. Still had to play Florida in the finals tho.

Carolina could fall into this category if Toronto beats Florida and Winnipeg makes the finals, but thats another big what if.
The copium in this post though
 
All 16, assuming you mean not just which opponents, but also their injury situation.

I mean, Washington made short work of my Habs, but take out any 3 of their top 8 players (and keep Protas out), and the Habs can make it, and from the 2nd round on, winning teams can be beat up and exhausted if their series went to 7 games each time.
 
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All 16, assuming you mean not just which opponents, but also their injury situation.

I mean, Washington made short work of my Habs, but take out any 3 of their top 8 players (and keep Protas out), and the Habs can make it, and from the 2nd round on, winning teams can be beat up and exhausted if their series went to 7 games each time.

With enough plane crashes and infectious diseases, Montreal has a real chance.
 
With enough plane crashes and infectious diseases, Montreal has a real chance.
Hey, in 2021 I was thinking that if Point, Hedman, Kucherov and Vasilevsky got taken out by covid for a week or two, Montreal had a real chance for a Cup !
 
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I remember when people lamented over the Hitchcock era Blues for always having to play the KIngs or Hawks early on. One year, they played the Wild in the first round and still lost. At the end of the day, you have to beat the teams in front of you. That's what makes the Stanley Cup such a revered trophy.

And I dig the Blues, it's just they were the first team that came to mind when talking about "ideal paths."
 
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Out east, the ideal path is through the Metro. And that's no disrespect to Carolina, because they would have a decent-to-good chance at beating the top 3 Atlantic teams, but it's not that crazy to me that the top 3 Atlantic teams should be in the second round just about every year.
 

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