The rivalry power of the NHL Playoffs

Yes, our Bruins are out of the playoffs. But you know what? They lost a hell of a series to an I-never-wanted-to-play-this-team team. On paper, it was one of the most even series of all time (four overtimes, all seven games decided by one goal, a total of 2:54 of playing time in the entire SERIES where EITHER team led by two goals or more). On the ice, what does it mean for the future? I'm going to try and answer that question by looking back at last year's playoffs. I'm interested to see if having a playoff series creates a rivalry - for anyone immediately failing to see the validity in this, just look back to this year's Bruins/Canucks 2011 Stanley Cup Final rematch.

So. What to do. I'll take the penalty minutes (PIM) and fighting majors of the games played between two eventual playoff teams in the 2010-2011 regular season, look at the PIM/fighting majors for the 2011 playoff series, and see if the PIM/fighting majors in the 2011-2012 regular season games increased significantly. I suspect the most significant to be that Stanley Cup Final. Now to actually carry out a statistical analysis for all 15 playoff series, I would require more time than I currently have. So maybe this will be a summer study. After all, I will have access to the cool stats programs at Stonehill since I'll be here for the summer.

Think about it though - does playoff hockey create rivalries?