Our national nightmare of Boston winning more titles may not be over
Our national nightmare of Boston winning more titles may not be over
There's more than a 50 percent chance either the Bruins or Celtics win a championship entering the 2023 playoffs
Both the NBA and NHL playoffs kick off this week, and that means at least one city will be planning a parade in a couple months time. For most of America we will be rooting against the once-cursed, now can’t-lose Boston sports teams.
Boston still holds the honor of Titletown based on its teams’ epic runs in all four major sports the past few decades. And this season both the NHL’s Bruins and NBA’s Celtics look like they’ll be vying for more hardware in their respective playoffs.
The Bruins only pulled off the greatest regular season of all time winning the most games (63) and garnering the most points (133) in NHL history. The Celtics meanwhile have been favorites to win the NBA title by the betting markets for much of the year.
FiveThirtyEight gives the Bruins an absurd 37 percent chance to win the Stanley Cup
— in a sport notorious for postseason parity — and the Celtics a league-leading 23 percent shot to win the NBA title entering this week’s postseason games.So it’s no surprise if it feels like a championship — maybe two — is Boston’s to lose.
Denver has a legitimate shot at snatching a championship from Boston though as the Avalanche and Nuggets are among the favorites to win this postseason as well.
The Avs, who are coming off a Stanley Cup victory last season and may be a better version entering this year’s playoffs according to FiveThirtyEight, have an 18 percent chance of raising hardware again. The Nuggets’ 13 percent chance help push Denver’s odds of winning at least one championship this spring to about 29 percent.
Milwaukee is third and Philadelphia fourth by virtue of the Bucks’ 20 percent probability to win another NBA championship, and the 76er’s 17 percent chance, respectively.
More Titles Please
With the Chiefs’ Super Bowl XVII championship in February Kansas City was the latest city to record a big four sports title, and with that moved up to 12th on the list of metro areas with the most Titles over Expected (ToE) in North American sports. But KC doesn’t have an NBA or NHL team, so several metro areas on the list below it like Miami, Dallas and New York could overtake the the City of Fountains in ToE
with an NBA or NHL championship.If Boston were to win another one that would put more daylight between it and the next closest city — Los Angeles — in number of titles its teams would be expected to win given how many professional sports teams the city has.
Speaking of New York, the city that would love see both Boston teams fail most is the Big Apple. And fans of New York sports teams will have ample opportunities to watch their squads vie for championships this postseason as the New York metropolitan area will have five teams in play starting this week: the New York Rangers (NHL), New York Islanders (NHL), New York Knicks (NBA), Brooklyn Nets (NBA) and even the New Jersey Devils (NHL).
In fact, next weekend alone will see all regional hockey teams and both basketball teams in playoff action at home.
If that wasn’t enough for New Yorkers both the Yankees and Mets have winning records and are early favorites to win the World Series come the fall.
If New York winds up not winning any titles in 2023 it won’t be for a lack of chances.
Vegas oddsmakers have the Bruins at a 23 percent implied win probability to win the Stanley Cup and Dom Luszczyszyn at The Athletic has them at 26 percent, for comparison.