Playoff Matchups by City in Professional Sports

When the Boston Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs, it made me wonder just how many times pro sports teams from Boston and Philadelphia have faced off against each other in the playoffs.  Then I wondered which two cities have faced off against each other the most in pro sport playoffs. Check out the chart below to see what I found out.  Playoff series were counted as one matchup in regards to pro baseball, basketball, and hockey (includes finished series from this year’s playoffs).  Individual games were counted as one matchup in regards to pro football.

Leagues/years included: MLB (1903-), NBA (1947-), ABA (1968-76), NFL (1933-), AAFC (1946-49), AFL (1960-69), NHL (1927-), and WHA (1973-79).

Legend: Gm (Number of Games/Series), BB (Matchups from baseball series), BK (…basketball), FB (…football), and HK (…hockey).

City 1	City 2	Gm	W	L	W Pct	BB	BK	FB	HK
New York	Boston	41	21	20	0.512	6	16	4	15
Montreal	Boston	35	25	10	0.714	-	-	-	35
Philadelphia	New York	34	20	14	0.588	5	7	4	18
Chicago	New York	28	18	10	0.643	3	8	8	9
Detroit	Chicago	25	13	12	0.520	4	6	-	15
Montreal	New York	24	12	12	0.500	-	-	-	24
Detroit	Toronto	24	12	12	0.500	-	1	-	23
Boston	Philadelphia	23	16	7	0.696	2	14	1	6
New York	Washington	22	12	10	0.545	2	4	2	14
New York	Los Angeles	20	12	8	0.600	9	4	3	4
Boston	Los Angeles	19	15	4	0.789	5	11	1	2
Montreal	Chicago	19	13	6	0.684	-	-	-	19
St. Louis	Minneapolis	18	10	8	0.556	1	6	2	9
New York	Toronto	18	10	8	0.556	-	3	-	15
Cleveland	New York	17	10	7	0.588	5	7	5	-
Pittsburgh	New York	17	10	7	0.588	2	-	2	13
New York	San Francisco	17	9	8	0.529	6	-	11	-
Boston	Chicago	15	10	5	0.667	2	5	1	7
Los Angeles	Dallas	15	9	6	0.600	-	5	8	2
Boston	Detroit	15	9	6	0.600	-	8	-	7
Detroit	Montreal	15	9	6	0.600	-	-	-	15
Montreal	Toronto	15	8	7	0.533	-	-	-	15
Los Angeles	San Francisco	14	10	4	0.714	3	7	1	3
New York	Baltimore	14	9	5	0.643	2	8	4	-
Los Angeles	Phoenix	14	9	5	0.643	-	13	-	1
Philadelphia	Milwaukee	13	9	4	0.692	1	9	3	-
Toronto	Boston	13	8	5	0.615	-	-	-	13
Detroit	Los Angeles	13	7	6	0.538	-	5	1	7
Los Angeles	Minneapolis	13	7	6	0.538	2	2	6	3
Dallas	San Francisco	12	8	4	0.667	1	1	7	3
Boston	Cleveland	12	7	5	0.583	5	5	1	1
New York	Indianapolis	12	7	5	0.583	-	9	3	-
Chicago	Philadelphia	12	6	6	0.500	2	3	5	2
Detroit	St. Louis	12	6	6	0.500	3	2	-	7
Houston	Houston	12	6	6	0.500	1	9	1	1
Milwaukee	New York	12	6	6	0.500	3	4	5	-
Boston	Buffalo	11	9	2	0.818	-	2	1	8
Los Angeles	Denver	11	9	2	0.818	-	7	1	3
Los Angeles	Portland	11	9	2	0.818	-	11	-	-
Los Angeles	San Antonio	11	8	3	0.727	-	11	-	-
Los Angeles	Chicago	11	7	4	0.636	3	5	2	1
Toronto	Chicago	11	7	4	0.636	1	-	-	10
Chicago	St. Louis	11	7	4	0.636	-	1	-	10
Los Angeles	Philadelphia	11	6	5	0.545	5	4	2	-
Chicago	Washington	11	6	5	0.545	-	4	7	-
New York	Minneapolis	10	7	3	0.700	-	7	3	-
Boston	St. Louis	10	7	3	0.700	3	4	1	2
Philadelphia	Buffalo	10	6	4	0.600	-	1	-	9
San Francisco	Detroit	10	6	4	0.600	2	2	2	4
St. Louis	Los Angeles	10	6	4	0.600	3	4	1	2
San Antonio	Phoenix	10	6	4	0.600	-	10	-	-
Miami	New York	10	5	5	0.500	1	6	1	2
Philadelphia	Washington	10	5	5	0.500	-	5	1	4

When answering this question, I felt it was important to lump teams into metro areas.  For example the New York Giants and New York Jets play in East Rutherford New Jersey; however the teams play in the New York metro area.  So I considered them New York teams.  I also considered the New Jersey Devils, New Jersey Nets, and New York Islanders as teams from New York.  Teams from Anaheim were considered as teams located in Los Angeles, and teams from Oakland and San Jose were considered as teams located in San Francisco.  Lastly I considered the Green Bay Packers as a team located in the Milwaukee metro area.  The later of the classifications being highly debatable, but it’s important to keep in mind the Packers use to play a handful of games annually in Milwaukee, and the Packers still draw a number of their fans from the Milwaukee area.  The Packers and Milwaukee are still strongly linked.


Check out which cities have faced off against each other the most in world championships.

City	City	Gm	W	L	W Pct.	BB	BK	FB	HK
Boston	Los Angeles	11	8	3	0.727	-	11	-	-
Boston	St. Louis	9	6	3	0.667	3	4	1	1
New York	Los Angeles	9	5	4	0.556	4	4		1
Chicago	New York	9	5	4	0.556	3		6
Montreal	Boston	7	7	0	1.000	-	-	-	7
Toronto	Detroit	7	6	1	0.857				7
Montreal	Chicago	6	5	1	0.833				6
Chicago	Detroit	6	4	2	0.667	4			2
Boston	New York	6	4	2	0.667	3		1	2
New York	Philadelphia	6	4	2	0.667	5			1
Milwaukee	New York	6	4	2	0.667	2		4
Philadelphia	Chicago	6	4	2	0.667	2	1	2	1

Below is a listing of how cities from the same state/province have fared against each other in the playoffs.

City 1	City 2	Gm	W	L	W Pct.	BB	BK	FB	HK
Los Angeles	San Francisco	14	10	4	0.714	3	7	1	3
New York	Buffalo	13	9	4	0.692	-	-	2	7
Syracuse	New York	6	4	2	0.667	-	6	-	-
Philadelphia	Pittsburgh	6	4	2	0.667	-	-	1	5
Edmonton	Calgary	5	4	1	0.800	-	-	-	5
Montreal	Quebec City	5	3	2	0.600	-	-	-	5
San Antonio	Dallas	5	3	2	0.600	-	-	-	-
Dallas	Houston	4	4	0	1.000	-	3	1	-
Toronto	Ottawa	4	4	0	1.000	-	-	-	4
Houston	San Antonio	3	3	0	1.000	-	3	-	-
Los Angeles	Sacramento	3	3	0	1.000	-	3	-	-
San Francisco	San Diego	2	2	0	1.000	-	-	2	-
Rochester	New York	1	1	0	1.000	-	1	-	-
Kansas City	St. Louis	1	1	0	1.000	1	-	-	-
Miami	Orlando	1	1	0	1.000	-	1	-	-
Anderson	Indianapolis	1	1	0	1.000	-	1	-	-
Jacksonville	Miami	1	1	0	1.000	-	-	1	-

Bonus: Number of playoff matchups featuring two teams from the same city.

City 1	City 2	Gm	BB	BK	FB	HK
New York	New York	33	14	3	-	16
Montreal	Montreal	2	-	-	-	2
Chicago	Chicago	1	1	-	-	-
San Francisco	San Francisco	1	1	-	-	-
St. Louis	St. Louis	1	1	-	-	-

Reference: Sports-Reference.com (BB, BK, FB, HK)