Quote:
Originally Posted by fotze
I don't follow NFL much at all but it seems those teams can turn around their fortunes much quicker than the NHL. Not sure why though.
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Largely just a perception. The shortness of the NFL season allows for more statistical variation - over an 82 game season hockey players (and teams) almost always regress to their mean. The same is true over 82 NFL games, but within a single season it's not at all unusual to find a team who significantly outperforms their pythagorean projection, or who goes 5-0 in one-touchdown games (the NHL equivalent would be something like going 20-5 in one-goal-games). This effect also carries over into their short, 'one-and-done' playoffs.
If you look at long periods of time in the NFL you see similar performance patterns emerge as with the other major sports. A small number of teams enjoying sustained success, a large number of teams with variable success, and a few teams with very poor performances.
In the NFL, in the last 10 years, Indianapolis, New England, Green Bay, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia have 38 combined playoff appearances. Over the same period of time, the following teams combine for 33 appearances: Cincinnati, Kansas City, Chicago, Minnesota, Tampa Bay, Carolina, Jacksonville, Washington, San Francisco, Arizona, St. Louis, Cleveland, Miami, Oakland, Houston, and Detroit.
The "big five" have 10 Superbowl appearances and 6 wins. The "little" 16 have 5 appearances and 1 win.
Buffalo has not played in the playoffs in ten years. The longest active NHL drought is the Leafs at 7 years.
Edit: Those NFL stats I grabbed from a Ravens forum and they are from before the last Superbowl.