Obviously winning the first two games of a best of seven series is a good thing. Who would not want to start off the series in such commanding fashion?
What is the likelihood of a team with 2-0 series lead to win the series? According to the website WhoWins.com 87.3% of the time the team with a 2-0 lead goes on to win.
WhoWins.com breaks down history into home and road games, too. When the home team takes the first two games, the likelihood of winning the series increases to 90.6%. Boston, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Vancouver and Chicago all won their first two games of their series' at home.
Interestingly, when the road team takes the first two games, such as the New York Rangers have done, the likelihood of winning the series dips to 76.5%. That is still a commanding lead, but I'm surprised it is lower. You would think coming back to your home rink for a possible 3 games to get 2 wins would be easier than winning on the road.
Apparently road teams coming home with 2-0 leads get quite complacent. WhoWins.com says the team in that scenario only as a 50/50 chance of winning game three.
Meanwhile, when 2-0 teams play their first road games, the chances of winning game three are slightly better at 54.3%.
Bottom line - game three is a biggie.
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