Normally at this time I am recapping the first round of the NHL playoffs. However this year in honor of the LA Kings coming back from being down 3 games to none to win their series against the San Jose Sharks, I thought I would look at the history of memorable 7-games series comebacks focusing on one playoff season in particular.
Now I don’t want to take anything away from the LA Kings, who performed masterfully after losing the first three games of their series against the Sharks, but they squandered early momentum in the 3rd period of game 4 but taking three straight deflating minor penalties. Then after dominating the 1st overtime, lose on one of the flukiest goals of the series. After losing game 4, the Sharks, and I apologize to all Sharks’ fan, did what they do best, choked and badly. The Sharks, who were okay on the power play in the first three games, went on to score exactly one power play goal in 19 tries through the final four games. LA could have easily wrapped that series up in 6 games had they found a way to put one puck in the net after taking that early third period lead. Still much congrats to the Kings who will have their work cut of for them in round two facing the Ducks.
Follow me once again below the unclean orange ice sheet for a look back.
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In the history of North American professional sports only 5 teams including the aforementioned LA Kings have ever come back to win a seven game playoff series after losing the first three games. It happened once in baseball when in 2004, the Boston Red Sox came back to beat their most hated rivals, the New York Yankees. While this is likely the most famous comeback in playoff history and certainly will always be one of the most talked about, some might argue it’s not the greatest comeback of sports. The drama surrounding that series was only increased to the storied histories of both teams: the Yankees as winners; the Red Sox as losers.
The only sport this great feat has occurred is in the NHL. It has happened three times, the first was in 1942 when the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Detroit Red Wings to win the Stanley Cup. The only time a 4 game comeback has resulted in a championship win, and the only time the home team completed the comeback. It also happened in 2010, when the Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Boston Bruins after being down 3 games to none.
But the main focus of this diary is what some sports people consider to be the biggest comeback in a seven game playoff series in sports history: The New York Islanders comeback against the Pittsburg Penguins in 1975. I admit to being a little biased myself, but when you consider the evidence, you’ll see there is reasonable ground for this conclusion.
First a little history. The 1974-1975 NHL season was the Islanders third full season in the league. The Islanders had been formed in 1972 to block the WHA’s proposed expansion into the NY market. In their inaugural season, the Islanders would turn in one the 10 worst performances by an NHL team in league history. They would amass a whopping 30 points (12 wins) and have a goal differential of -177 in 78 games. The next season, the Islanders, now coached by Al Arbour, would almost double their previous season’s point total amassing a depressing 56 points (18 wins) in 78 games good enough for next-to-last place. For the uninitiated, the NHL awards 2 points for a win and, at that time, one point for a tie (no overtime from 1942 until 1983).
This brings us to the 1974-75 NHL season. Due to another round of expansion and the development and drafting of some of the players who later go on to win at least Stanley Cup with the Isles, the Isles improved by a whopping 15 wins over the prior season which was good enough to finish 8th in the league. Due to the playoff setup (very quirky) at the time, the Isles would be facing the 7th seeded NY Rangers in the first round. The Rangers were the heavy favorites against the young and inexperienced Islanders. But at the end of their three games series, the Islanders proved victorious on their first ever overtime goal by J.P. Parise just 11 seconds into the extra session. Interestingly all games in the series were won by the road team. That one goal alone could have put the Islanders on the map, but there was more to come.
The next series, the Isles were set to face the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Penguins came out of the gate blazing. They dominated the Isles for three straight games. In fact, through those first three games, the Isles never held the lead once. In an effort to jump start his team, Arbour switched goalies putting rookie Glenn “Chico” Resch in for Billy Smith. Arbour also famously told his players (paraphrasing) to look towards not winning four games in a row, but look to winning a shift, then a period, then a game to stay motivated. Game 4 took place at the Nassau Coliseum, where fans brought signs reading, “Souvenez-vous les Maple Leafs (Remember the Maple Leafs)” who had done the impossible just 33 short years before. What happened the rest of the series could be described as nothing short of astonishing. After not leading once in the first three games, the Islanders never trailed for the rest of the series. It was as if the series had restarted itself and the Isles had swept in a somewhat dominating fashion. I say somewhat because game 7 was a tight checking affair the Isles won 1-0 on a goal by their first captain, Ed Westfall.
The Islanders would play the defending Stanley Cup champion, Philadelphia Flyers in the semi-final round. Once again the Isles would lose the first three games only to win the next three games setting up another decisive game 7. Unfortunately for the up-start Islanders, the Flyers would bring out their good luck charm, Kate Smith to sign “God Bless America.” To add insult to injury, she sang in the crease on goaltender Chico Resch who had am elaborate pre-game ritual (goaltenders, if you have ever watched them live do countless moves prior to the start of a period) and was never able to get set.
While the feat of the 4 game comeback has been replicated thrice in sports since the Islanders accomplished the feat, they are still the only team to ever force a game 7 after being down 3 games to none in consecutive playoff series in sports history. That feat, along with their record of 19 straight playoff series wins, will likely never be repeated.
Some of the info on the Islanders-Pens series was taken from the website WhoWins. For more info on this series, please click the link to read more: http://www.whowins.com/...
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And now for tonight's Tops:
From Denise Oliver-Valez:
I loves this comment just made by Joe Bacon in my diary about the Sterlings.
From
3rock: (too late to rec, but a good comment nonetheless)
This comment from mimi in Street Prophets Saturday.
From your disgusted at the patheticness of his hockey team since '93 diarist:
Elwood Dowd shows us how both Scalia and Ruth Marcus are stupid at the same time. Commented in today's "Appreviated Pundit Round-Up"
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May 3, 2014
Enjoy jotter's wonderful PictureQuilt™ below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment that features that photo. Have fun, Kossacks!
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