In the whole spirit of comebacks, in this year’s NHL Stanley Cup Final, we were witnessing a great one. The Panthers went up 3-0 on the Oilers; 3 games later the series was tied. This lead to a deciding Game 7 in Florida on Monday night. Would the Oilers be able to complete it?
In the NHL, only 4 teams out of 211 came back from a 3-0 deficit to win the series. Only one of these teams had done it in the Stanley Cup Finals, the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs; they came from down 3-0 to defeat the Detroit Red Wings to win it all. Wow! Only one MLB team has done it; it was of course the 2004 ALCS. Funny enough, I had just seen a 30 for 30 about that Red Sox comeback over the Yankees. I was pretty happy for it. At that point, the Red Sox fell into that same category with the Cubs, not having won one in forever. Of course the Yankees… way too much winning, so yeah, I was rooting for the Red Sox. It was great to see them do it, especially against the Evil Empire, and then to beat out of all teams, the Cardinals in the World Series; this year made me a little happier after the debacle that was 2003. In the NBA… never. Yep, it has NEVER happened. Back to the NHL for just a minute… I remember the year after the Blackhawks first Cup in forever in 2010. In 2011, the Hawks went down 3-0 to Vancouver; they stormed back to send it to Game 7, but… they couldn’t complete it. That would have been nice. Back to this year…
It was our 2nd night in the DR, and we had just come from dinner; we ended up in a sports bar, where they had Game 7 on the big screen, just in time for the last 5 minutes. It was an exciting final minutes. The bar had fans of both teams in there, each rooting for their team…. Let’s Go Oilers… Let’s Go Panthers. The Oilers were putting on extreme pressure, but couldn’t cash in. The Panthers were holding them off; the Oilers emptied the net. As the minutes and seconds ticked down, and the puck ended up in the corner, where multiple Panthers and Oilers engaged in a scrum, the game was over. One of the guys watching the game, obviously an Oilers fan, stormed out of there, yelling at his son… let’s go! Haha… I can’t say I would be any different. For one of my teams to lose in Game 7… well, since I’m mentioning it… I was in Vegas for the Hawks Kings Game 7 WCF back in 2015, where the Hawks were trying to complete another comeback. My wife, son, and mother in law waited as I watched the game… they couldn’t wait any longer, as we started heading out to dinner. As we walked through the casino, I was looking at every TV, and then it happened… Alec Martinez… keep that name in mind… with a tip in, and the Hawks comeback, season, and attempt at a back to back Cup was over. That one was up there in the hurt category.
With the end of the Stanley Cup Finals, we now turn exclusively to baseball for the next couple months, until, you know… the king. The NFL will be back soon… be patient!
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