By: Olivia Yu

Things did not seem to be working in favor of the Florida Panthers of the NHL, who had already blown a 3-0 series lead. They were also notably only one game away from even worse – possible historical collapse.

If the Panthers were defeated in Game 7 on Monday, June 24, it would have been the worst collapse of all time in the NHL. Although many teams have blown leads before in the league’s history, many believed that nothing we have seen in the past could rival what the Panthers might experience.

According to the New York Times, “The 1942 Stanley Cup Final… [was] 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.” However, the impressive comeback was still made over eight decades ago during an ongoing World War (where many of the best young players were sent overseas) and was played against a relatively easy-to-beat losing team.

The next team to come back from down 3-0 to achieve victory in a series were the Islanders in 1975. Although it was a great win for the team, they were competing in the quarter-final, which was “not in the same ballpark.”

Other similar instances, like the Bruins losing to the Flyers in 2010 and the Kings beating the Sharks in 2014, were both not the final like what the Panthers are facing off in. This was pretty much the entire history for 3-0 series, and none of it seemed to have matched the level of the Panthers’ situation.

Many other past collapses that were not from down 3-0 were also discussed, such as the cases of last year’s Presidents’ Trophy-winning Bruins who competed against these same Panthers, the Golden Knights being overturned by the Sharks in 2019, etc. Expanding the scope wider led to mentions of 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.”

All of these losses were extremely crushing, but were 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” as pointed out by the New York Times. Just as many were about to lose hope, the Panthers managed to dodge collapse by winning the prized Stanley Cup.