‘You Don’t Really Have Anything To Lose’: With 3-0 Odds Stacked

It has only happened four times in the history of the NHL.

In 1942, the Toronto Maple Leafs came back from 3-0 to defeat the Detroit Red Wings in the Stanley Cup Final. In 1975, the New York Islanders accomplished the feat against the Pittsburgh Penguins in their Wales Conference quarterfinal series. In 2010, the Philadelphia Flyers shocked the Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

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And, the most recent case in 2014 involved the Los Angeles Kings looking lifeless in their first three games in the opening round against the San Jose Sharks, only to storm back, win the series, and go on to win the Stanley Cup.

Coming back from down 3-0 to win a series in the NHL is extremely rare air, as the 209 other teams in NHL history that have gone down 3-0 went on to lose their respective series. But, even if it’s near-impossible, it’s not, in fact, impossible, and it has happened. Special teams make history for a reason.

And, this year, there are three different opportunities in the first round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs for history to repeat itself. The Ottawa Senators trail the Carolina Hurricanes by a 3-0 series deficit, as do the Kings against the mighty Colorado Avalanche.

Then, there are the Penguins, who are on the brink of getting swept by their cross-state rival Flyers.

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These teams have both been players in this situation before: The Penguins were on the wrong end of it in 1975, while the Flyers did the improbable in 2010. It is the Penguins who are faced with the improbable this time around, and – to be quite frank – they have looked much like the Kings did in 2014 prior to their out-of-the-blue comeback against the Sharks. And they look just like most of those 209 other teams that couldn’t pull off historical feats.

Takeaways: Penguins’ Strong Start Goes Sideways As Flyers Take Commanding 3-0 Series Lead After a tension-filled Game 3…