Why the West Winning the Stanley Cup Is No Longer a Foregone Conclusion

In the visitors' room of the Pepsi Center before a 2001 regular-season game, New Jersey Devils defenseman Scott Stevens practically spit out his gum when asked about the Colorado Avalanche being the favorite of many to win that year's Stanley Cup.

"West is best. That's what Barry Melrose said," Stevens told me as a younger reporter for The Denver Post, in a tone that couldn't have been any more sarcastic. 

West, it turned out, was best. The Avs went on to beat those same defending champion Devils in seven games of the Cup Final, and another Western team, Detroit, won the following year. The East took the next three Cups (New Jersey, Tampa Bay and Carolina), but Western teams have taken six of the last eight, including the last three.

From 2005-06 to the start of the 2013-14 season, according to NHL.com's Dan Rosen, Western teams had an overall 818-524-189 record against the East—or a 59.6-point percentage. From 1999-2012, according to Grantland's Sean McIndoe, Western teams won more games head-to-head against the East every single season.

That has been the true measure of just how much better the West has been over the East—not just from single Stanley Cup series.

There have been many theories over the years as to why. Western players gain hours on their body clocks when flying East, so maybe they're better rested than the Eastern teams that lose hours when going West. Yet Western teams have to travel more miles, on average, than any Eastern team, so shouldn't they be more tired in general?

There are fewer one-hour bus rides to games out West than there are in Eastern cities. Western teams like to play a faster style and therefore are harder to adapt to for Eastern teams that like to muck and grind and play small-ball hockey. Not sure I've ever bought into that one, but you still hear it. And the numbers have given plenty of credence to such theories being right.

Mark Humphrey/Associated Press

Things may be changing, however. The East has better-looking, deeper teams overall than in previous years. Right now, if a Montreal or New York Rangers or even a Detroit or Tampa Bay were to play any team from the West in a theoretical Cup Final, many pundits probably would consider it an even matchup, maybe with a tilt to a Canadiens or Rangers team.

The Rangers went 18-5-5 against Western teams in the regular season. Last year, despite being a Stanley Cup finalist, the mark was 14-13-1. Detroit went 19-5-4 against the West this year. Tampa Bay was 16-9-3. Both teams were around the .500 mark against the West last year. 

From my perspective, speed has been the reason why the East is catching up. Montreal and the Rangers are fast teams, and so again is Detroit after having too many old guys for too long.

Boston was probably the fastest team of the East the previous few years, and the Bruins got a Stanley Cup in 2011. Then they traded Tyler Seguin out West to Dallas and, well, are trying to get faster and more skilled again.

The Rangers outskated the Kings at times in last year's Cup Final but had trouble with the Kings' overall defensive scheme (and Justin Williams). The Rangers have much of the same cast returning but added some nice size, youth and speed in guys such as Keith Yandle and Kevin Hayes. They're deeper, without having had to sacrifice much youth to get that way. 

The Canadiens play a speed game, with a defense that likes to get the puck up the ice quickly. It's a style the best Western teams have played the last 20 years. One note of worry for the Habs, though: They were a combined 0-4 against Chicago and Anaheim in the regular season. The Rangers, though, were 3-1 against the same teams. 

And lately, it can be argued the West fell in love too much with wanting size over quickness. Not that Western GMs wanted slow teams, but when the Los Angeles Kings won two Cups in three years with a big, banging roster, other teams seemed to think size mattered over everything. Colorado has been trying to get bigger. St. Louis tried to get bigger, and so did San Jose.

All three teams, as well as the defending Cup-winning Kings, are playing golf right now.

Veteran hockey journalist Helene Elliott of the Los Angeles Times summed up perhaps a change in thinking:

"

Blues are done. Does their loss--and Kings missing playoffs--signal trend toward speed and away from big, physical teams that lack speed?

 — Helene Elliott (@helenenothelen) April 26, 2015"

When I was a kid growing up in New England as a diehard Red Sox fan, I took it as a personal humiliation when the National League beat the American League almost every year in the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, including 11 in a row from 1972-82. I mean, it was awful thinking you were genetically inferior or something just based on geography. I'm telling you, those All-Star Game losses were the worst.

Probably some Eastern hockey fans have had the same feeling in recent years. This may be the year, though, that they can finally again say "West is Less."