I agree that teams that have had success playing THEIR game and doing so consistently absolutely matters. Not at all saying otherwise.
What I’m saying is simply that the models based on analytics don’t play out in the way of wins necessarily in a short series, because outliers and oddities can beat you.
Now obviously that can happen in the regular season, but it doesn’t matter than.
If Carolina goes up to Ottawa, on a Tuesday night in January and does all the things they do well to the Nth degree, dominates in puck possession and shot share, has tons of chances, yet they lose 3-1, you shrug it off and chalk it up to bad luck and it has minimal impact on their season and you move on and you play another game in a day or two.
In the postseason, if that happens, it’s an entirely different set of circumstances.
You tell your guys to just keep doing what they’re doing and things will even out.
The problem is that things don’t have the time to even out in a short series as much as they do in 6 months and 82 games.