Twenty-four years ago, the Philadelphia Flyers with a talented roster of — including future Hall of Famer Eric Lindros at center and 50-goal scorer John LeClair at left wing. The oddsmakers to beat the , faster Detroit Red Wings for the Cup … until the series actually began, that is.Game 1 starting goalie Ron Hextall gave up four goals, including by Steve Yzerman from approximately 60 feet away. Hextall was by Garth Snow, who promptly let in four of his own (including from over 45 feet out). After for the rest of the series, Philly proceeded to allow eight more goals over the next two games...…Twenty-four years ago, the Philadelphia Flyers with a talented roster of — including future Hall of Famer Eric Lindros at center and 50-goal scorer John LeClair at left wing. The oddsmakers to beat the , faster Detroit Red Wings for the Cup … until the series actually began, that is.Game 1 starting goalie Ron Hextall gave up four goals, including by Steve Yzerman from approximately 60 feet away. Hextall was by Garth Snow, who promptly let in four of his own (including from over 45 feet out). After for the rest of the series, Philly proceeded to allow eight more goals over the next two games...WW…

neil (, senior sportswriter): Hello, and welcome to our FiveThirtyEight hockey chat! The crew is , and I’m ready to drop the puck on a debate we had to blow the whistle on with minutes left on the clock last chat: Who’s the best player in the league?In the spirit of , I took the liberty of making a bracket — complete with play-in games for the last four seeds — of players who might potentially be in the convo for the NHL’s best player. My selection process included the past few years and , along with , with an emphasis on performance in 2021. (Feel free to @ me with complaints about the...…neil (, senior sportswriter): Hello, and welcome to our FiveThirtyEight hockey chat! The crew is , and I’m ready to drop the puck on a debate we had to blow the whistle on with minutes left on the clock last chat: Who’s the best player in the league?In the spirit of , I took the liberty of making a bracket — complete with play-in games for the last four seeds — of players who might potentially be in the convo for the NHL’s best player. My selection process included the past few years and , along with , with an emphasis on performance in 2021. (Feel free to @ me with complaints about the...WW…

The NHL’s trade deadline is in , and with it will come each team’s last big chance to meaningfully upgrade its roster on the path to the playoffs. But some of the most important moves of the 2021 season have already happened, with effects already evident on the ice and in the standings as we approach the halfway mark of the schedule. So which teams have gotten the most value from their recent arrivals? We looked at teams with at least a 40 percent chance to make the playoffs (according to using ) and found those whose newest additions have added the most in through Wednesday’s games.GAR per...…The NHL’s trade deadline is in , and with it will come each team’s last big chance to meaningfully upgrade its roster on the path to the playoffs. But some of the most important moves of the 2021 season have already happened, with effects already evident on the ice and in the standings as we approach the halfway mark of the schedule. So which teams have gotten the most value from their recent arrivals? We looked at teams with at least a 40 percent chance to make the playoffs (according to using ) and found those whose newest additions have added the most in through Wednesday’s games.GAR per...WW…

Stop me : The Toronto Maple Leafs are finally, finally starting to realize their full potential.After 3-0 Monday night, the team has won six of its past seven games and 17 of 23 this season. Toronto now by a sizable 7-point margin, the largest of any division front-runner. According to using , the Leafs are odds-on favorites (75 percent) to win the North. They also have a 9 percent chance of winning the Stanley Cup — tied with the Vegas Golden Knights for the third-best odds in the league.TeamElo1-wk chgCup oddsTeamElo1-wk chgCup...…Stop me : The Toronto Maple Leafs are finally, finally starting to realize their full potential.After 3-0 Monday night, the team has won six of its past seven games and 17 of 23 this season. Toronto now by a sizable 7-point margin, the largest of any division front-runner. According to using , the Leafs are odds-on favorites (75 percent) to win the North. They also have a 9 percent chance of winning the Stanley Cup — tied with the Vegas Golden Knights for the third-best odds in the league.TeamElo1-wk chgCup oddsTeamElo1-wk chgCup...WW…

It’s hard to stand out in the same division with the defending Stanley Cup champions … especially when they also happen to be to run it back and win again. That’s the problem facing the Florida Panthers this season, playing in the shadow of the mega-talented Tampa Bay Lightning in the NHL’s realigned Central Division. And if that weren’t enough, the Central is also home to the 2020 Cup runners-up, the Dallas Stars, plus the perennially dangerous Carolina Hurricanes, Columbus Blue Jackets and Nashville Predators, and the last remnants of the Chicago Blackhawks’ for good measure. In light of...…It’s hard to stand out in the same division with the defending Stanley Cup champions … especially when they also happen to be to run it back and win again. That’s the problem facing the Florida Panthers this season, playing in the shadow of the mega-talented Tampa Bay Lightning in the NHL’s realigned Central Division. And if that weren’t enough, the Central is also home to the 2020 Cup runners-up, the Dallas Stars, plus the perennially dangerous Carolina Hurricanes, Columbus Blue Jackets and Nashville Predators, and the last remnants of the Chicago Blackhawks’ for good measure. In light of...WW…

More NBA:A team’s current rotation accounts for recent injuries and other player activity; the full-strength rotation does not.Expected minutes per gamePLAYER RATINGExp. min. per gamePLAYER RATINGPlayerPGSGSFPFCTOTALvs. full strengthvs. full strengthOff. +/-Def. +/-122300035SAME+5.5-1.700003636SAME+0.1+5.534000034SAME+3.2+0.900035035SAME+1.2-1.707270034SAME+0.2+1.100216027SAME+0.6+0.321800020SAME+1.7-1.600001212SAME-0.1+2.0000707SAME0.0-0.5000000SAME-0.9+0.9000000SAME-1.7-0.9000000SAME-0.8-0.2000000SAME-0.2-1.9000000SAME-2.0-0.8000000SAME-2.3+0.1000000SAME-1.7-0.5000000SAME-2.4-0.8Rotation...…More NBA:A team’s current rotation accounts for recent injuries and other player activity; the full-strength rotation does not.Expected minutes per gamePLAYER RATINGExp. min. per gamePLAYER RATINGPlayerPGSGSFPFCTOTALvs. full strengthvs. full strengthOff. +/-Def. +/-122300035SAME+5.5-1.700003636SAME+0.1+5.534000034SAME+3.2+0.900035035SAME+1.2-1.707270034SAME+0.2+1.100216027SAME+0.6+0.321800020SAME+1.7-1.600001212SAME-0.1+2.0000707SAME0.0-0.5000000SAME-0.9+0.9000000SAME-1.7-0.9000000SAME-0.8-0.2000000SAME-0.2-1.9000000SAME-2.0-0.8000000SAME-2.3+0.1000000SAME-1.7-0.5000000SAME-2.4-0.8Rotation...WW…

After Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX, we in the pantheon of all-time quarterbacks. Ultimately, we concluded that he was, at worst, the QB co- alongside Peyton Manning (in the regular season) and Joe Montana (in the playoffs).That was in February 2015. All Brady has done since then is 31,050 more yards and 219 more touchdowns, and win 83 more games — 70 and 13 — along the way to and … including both of the last two in by his Tampa Bay Buccaneers over the Kansas City Chiefs. Those six seasons alone would be better than almost any other quarterback’s entire career,...…After Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX, we in the pantheon of all-time quarterbacks. Ultimately, we concluded that he was, at worst, the QB co- alongside Peyton Manning (in the regular season) and Joe Montana (in the playoffs).That was in February 2015. All Brady has done since then is 31,050 more yards and 219 more touchdowns, and win 83 more games — 70 and 13 — along the way to and … including both of the last two in by his Tampa Bay Buccaneers over the Kansas City Chiefs. Those six seasons alone would be better than almost any other quarterback’s entire career,...WW…

It’s been about three weeks since the puck dropped on the NHL’s abbreviated 2021 regular season, which somehow means nearly 20 percent of the schedule is now complete. The league still has a lot of work cut out for it with of — something plenty of sports have over the past year. But the on-ice product has been plenty exciting, with rivalries between teams thrust into new divisions by realignment. Here are some of the elements that have stood out most in the early season data, with an assist from (and based on them):In , my colleague Terrence Doyle and I noted how both Stanley Cup finalists...…It’s been about three weeks since the puck dropped on the NHL’s abbreviated 2021 regular season, which somehow means nearly 20 percent of the schedule is now complete. The league still has a lot of work cut out for it with of — something plenty of sports have over the past year. But the on-ice product has been plenty exciting, with rivalries between teams thrust into new divisions by realignment. Here are some of the elements that have stood out most in the early season data, with an assist from (and based on them):In , my colleague Terrence Doyle and I noted how both Stanley Cup finalists...WW…

After an NFL season , the Super Bowl is finally here. And, for Pandemic Sports™, it’s given us a surprisingly matchup between Patrick Mahomes’s Kansas City Chiefs and Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers. We’ll be breaking the game down using , which track how well each team is currently playing (with adjustments for the ), and also by identifying the facets of the game in which each team was best — and worst — according to ESPN’s (EPA) this season. Here is our guide to the good, the bad and the must-see this Super Sunday:Kansas CityCategoryTampa Bay16-2Record14-55thSchedule strength4th1757Elo...…After an NFL season , the Super Bowl is finally here. And, for Pandemic Sports™, it’s given us a surprisingly matchup between Patrick Mahomes’s Kansas City Chiefs and Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers. We’ll be breaking the game down using , which track how well each team is currently playing (with adjustments for the ), and also by identifying the facets of the game in which each team was best — and worst — according to ESPN’s (EPA) this season. Here is our guide to the good, the bad and the must-see this Super Sunday:Kansas CityCategoryTampa Bay16-2Record14-55thSchedule strength4th1757Elo...WW…

By and We right now, but we can revisit the greatest games in history — at least those that are up on YouTube. We used statistics and expert opinions to look for some of the all-time greatest upsets, comebacks, matchups and most memorable games, then we collected video of those games in this archive. To relive those moments, filter to see the games in each category — and scroll down to see the criteria we used to find these particular games — or just hit the “random” button and let us pick a perfect game for you.Watch a random game 🎲showing   older games more recent...…By and We right now, but we can revisit the greatest games in history — at least those that are up on YouTube. We used statistics and expert opinions to look for some of the all-time greatest upsets, comebacks, matchups and most memorable games, then we collected video of those games in this archive. To relive those moments, filter to see the games in each category — and scroll down to see the criteria we used to find these particular games — or just hit the “random” button and let us pick a perfect game for you.Watch a random game 🎲showing   older games more recent...WW…