In theory, the question is right up my alley.
If the Panthers lose Game 7 on Monday, will it be the biggest collapse in NHL history?
It’s the sort of history-based debate that I’m usually all over. In fact, when it first became apparent that the Oilers were going to make a series of this Stanley Cup Final, I started thinking about how this piece could look. If you’ve been reading me over the years, you can probably picture how it would be laid out. We’d pose the question, then list a bunch of potential contenders for the honors. We’d weigh the pros and cons, putting it all in historical context, drop a few one-liners, and then arrive at a conclusion roughly 2,000 words later.
Advertisement
The problem is, when it comes to this Panthers collapse being the worst of all time, I don’t have 2,000 words for you. I don’t need them.
I only need one: Yes. And then a few more: It’s not even close.
Believe me, I tried. I went back over the history of teams blowing leads. But there’s no reasonable argument that anything in NHL history comes close to what we might be about to see.
Let’s start with the obvious comparison: The 1942 Stanley Cup Final, the only other time that a team came back from down 3-0 to win a championship. That’s not just in the NHL, by the way — it’s the only time it’s happened in any of MLB, NBA or NHL history. That year, the Maple Leafs came back to beat the Red Wings.
Does that work? Not really. Put aside that we’re talking more than eight decades ago, a series that virtually nobody reading this will have any recollection of watching. The early 1940s were also the middle of a World War, one that saw many of the world’s best young athletes called to serve overseas. The NHL’s MVP in 1942 was Tom Anderson. The points leader was Bryan Hextall. This wasn’t even the Original Six era, because that hadn’t started yet. I love NHL history as much as pretty much anyone out there, and even I’m not going to pretend that there’s any sort of comparison here.
Besides, those 1942 Red Wings weren’t very good. They’d finished fifth in a seven-team league, with a record well under .500, and had made the final only due to the league’s extremely strange playoff format. They were probably just happy to be there. Unlike, say, the Panthers, a team that’s spent weeks telling us about how they’ve promised themselves that they’d make it back to the final and finish the job.
So 1942 is out. But the problem is, once you do that, you’re really all out of realistic options. The Islanders were the next team to come back from down 3-0 to win a series, in 1975 against the Penguins. That was a matchup between a pair of recent-ish expansion teams. It was a big win for the Islanders, sure, and a bad loss for the Penguins. But it was the quarter-final. It’s not in the same ballpark.
Advertisement
The Bruins losing to the Flyers in 2010? Nope. That one was also in Round 2, and while it had the extra pathos of Game 4 going to overtime, not to mention the Bruins being up 3-0 in Game 7 and blowing that too, it wasn’t the final. Neither was the Kings’ win over the Sharks in 2014. That one may have been the most devastating collapse of the modern era, given all the weight of heartbreak the Sharks were carrying on their shoulders, but it was a first-round series. Next.
Except there isn’t a next, at least as far as 3-0 series are concerned. We just covered the entire history. And none of it even comes close to what’s happening right now.
Of course, a collapse doesn’t have to be from down 3-0. Open up the definition a bit, and we can talk about some of the teams that have blown 3-1 leads, including last year’s Presidents’ Trophy-winning Bruins to these same Panthers. There was the Leafs losing to the Habs in 2021, or the Flyers against the Devils in the Eric Lindros/Scott Stevens series in 2000, or any number of Washington Capitals collapses. Maybe the best candidate would be the Golden Knights losing to the Sharks in 2019, that famous game where they blew a 4-0 lead in the third period.
Expand the scope further and you could mention the 2011 Canucks blowing a 2-0 lead to the Bruins in the final, or the Red Wings doing the same to the Penguins while chasing back-to-back Cups. We could even get into individual games, like the Miracle on Manchester or It Was 4-1 or the Monday Night Miracle.
All those losses were devastating — the kind of absolute gut punches that some fans still aren’t ready to talk about. Those losses can make you cry. They can make you re-evaluate your fandom. They can leave lasting psychological scars.
But they’re not blowing a 3-0 lead in the Stanley Cup Final, while seeking your franchise’s first championship, in a wired age where the whole world can watch and the hot takes will be flying.
Advertisement
The biggest collapse in NHL history? Maybe it’s the wrong question. What about the biggest in sports history, period?
That’s closer to a debate. I don’t think the NBA or even MLB can offer something close, although Red Sox and Yankees fans might disagree. The NFL could make a case for the Falcons blowing a 28-3 lead in Super Bowl LI. I don’t know enough about soccer or other sports, so maybe somebody can make an argument. Has an Olympic gold medal race ever ended with someone tripping over their own shoelaces and face-planting right at the finish line?
I don’t know. I’m not an expert on sports history. But I do know NHL history, and I know this one isn’t close. What we are witnessing is the greatest collapse in the history of the league, by a mile.
That is … if it happens.
That’s the Stanley Cup-sized caveat here. The Panthers are collapsing, which means they haven’t actually done it yet. There’s still Game 7, on home ice. That’s what you play all year long to earn, or so they say. The Oilers have won three straight, but three isn’t four, as the Panthers are eminently qualified to tell you right now.
So those are the stakes on Monday. The Panthers win, and we all make jokes about how it was never in doubt as the Stanley Cup gets skated around the Florida rink and a new generation of hockey fans is made. Or they lose, and they go to the very top of the most miserable list you can make. There’s no middle ground left here, not anymore.
The worst collapse of all time? There’s no question at all. Except for one: Can the Panthers get the win they need, in their very last chance to avoid infamy?
(Photo: Curtis Comeau / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)