Kings of the Comeback

They may have the most championships in NHL history, but the Detroit Red Wings quest for Stanley Cup #12 looked pretty bleak as recently as a week ago. Down 3-0 in their second round series against the San Jose Sharks following an OT loss at Joe Louis Arena last Wednesday, it looked like the Wings were basically finished. Fast forward to today. Three wins later, and Detroit is all square with San Jose at three games a piece after a thrilling 3-1 victory on Tuesday night. Upon first take, you'd think this rally by the Wings would be extremely improbable. Think again. This is the NHL we're talking about. Comebacks are the name of the game.

It's never happened in the NBA. Only once has it occured in the MLB. When a team goes up 3-0 in a best-of-seven playoff series, you can pretty much write up their advancement. Outside of the famous Red Sox comeback over the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS, it's never happened in either of the two leagues. The NHL is a different story. Wearing your rally cap actually gets results in hockey. Even though teams trailing 3-0 still don't have a great chance of success, comebacks are much more common on the ice.

Last season, the Philadelphia Flyers became the third team in the NHL history to overcome a 3-0 deficit to take a series when they topped the Boston Bruins in the second round of the NHL playoffs. The Flyers followed in the footsteps of the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs and the 1975 NY Islanders squads who also pulled off the historic feat. Philly would use that momentum to skate all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals where they were outlasted by the Chicago Blackhawks. That same 'Hawks squad almost pulled off a similar shock against the top-seeded Vancouver Canucks this season. After losing the first three games in their first round match up, Chicago took the next three before bowing out in the rubber game. So recent history shows that while still rare, amazing comebacks can happen in the NHL. Will the Red Wings be the next to add their names to the historic list? We'll find out on Thursday when they visit San Jose for what should be a wild Game 7.