Congratulations to @SouthPaw and the Maine Timber for winning the Four-Star Cup. After coming into the playoffs without a division-winner bye to the 2nd round, they managed to make it all the way to the top. Which brought me the question: is this the first time since we adopted a playoff format where the division winners get byes to the 2nd round? Then I looked at the standings and realized there were only 32 points between positions 1 and 10 in the standings.

So let's roll it back. The playoffs format changed in S55 when QCC and NBB joined the league, so we'll look at every season since then. We'll also look where a 30 points difference from the top would land your team in those seasons that were in the 66-games format.


12 Teams, 50 Games Era

S55 - 50 games
Champions:
2nd round bye: Yes
League Standings: 1st

S56 - 50 games
Champions:
2nd round bye: Yes
League Standings: 1st


12 Teams, 66 Games Era

S57
Champions:
2nd round bye: Yes
League Standings: 2nd
First place: 107 Points
First place - 30 points: #4 78 points | #5 73 points

S58
Champions:
2nd round bye: Yes
League Standings: 2nd
First place: 109 Points
First place - 30 points: #4 85 points | #5 75 points

S59
Champions:
2nd round bye: Yes
League Standings: 1st
First place: 102 Points
First place - 30 points: #5 78 points | #6 70 points

S60
Champions:
2nd round bye: Yes
League Standings: 1st
First place: 115 Points
First place - 30 points: #3 95 points | #4 78 points


14 Teams, 66 Games Era

S61
Champions:
2nd round bye: Yes
League Standings: 1st
First place: 105 Points
First place - 30 points: #6 77 points | #7 71 points
14th place: 41 points


S62
Champions:
2nd round bye: Yes
League Standings: 3rd
First place: / 96 Points
First place - 30 points: #10 78 points | #11 45 points
14th place: 14 points

S63
Champions:
2nd round bye: Yes
League Standings: 1st
First place: 118 Points
First place - 30 points: #3 86 points
14th place: 24 points

S64
Champions:
2nd round bye: Yes
League Standings: 1st
First place: 115 Points
First place - 30 points: #6 83 points | #7 72 points
14th place: / 31 points

S65
Champions:
2nd round bye: Yes
League Standings: 1st
First place: 120 Points
First place - 30 points: #4 89 points
14th place: 30 points

S66
Champions:
2nd round bye: Yes
League Standings: 1st
First place: 102 Points
First place - 30 points: #7 75 points | #8 71 points
14th place: 36 points

S67
Champions:
2nd round bye: NO
League Standings: 4th
First place: 90 Points
First place - 30 points: #10 68 points | #11 / 54 points
14th place: 35 points


In conclusion

The Timber is the first team in SMJHL History to win the Four-Star Cup after playing through four rounds of playoffs hockey. As they came in the playoffs 4th in league standings, they are also lowest ranked team in the FHM era to win the Four-Star Cup. Two teams won the 4-Star after finishing the season 2nd overall (ANC in S57 and QCC in S58), and two teams did it after finishing 3rd (CAR in S54 and NL in S62). The other 8 Four-Star champions of the FHM era were also the regular season Champions.

Furthermore, we can see that there was only in one season prior to this one in which a 30-points range from 1st overall would span over the top half of the standings, which was the season after the expansion that saw the Elk and Grizzlies join the league, which would explain it as an outlier instead of the result of systematic changes.

It is early to call the results of this season the irrefutable success of recent changes by J HO to bring more parity to the league (removing 4th lines, removing 5th season of J eligibility, Waivers system), but as many people this season (like every season) things didn't go my way and I try to find comfort in the fact that things are looking very good for competitiveness and parity in the SMJHL.

Thanks for coming to my 820 words TED Talk, ready to grade.

can someone do this in a tik tok version where they stare at the camera and split it into like 3 10 word slides

Nice deep dive right off the final sim! Those NL teams were crazy

Great writeup Just!

I joined mid-season. I thought the waiver process was related to the current standing. I remember that Maine was 13th in the standings, or something close to that. They had an amazing second half of the season. Congratulations!