Sharks desperately looking for Warriors - like comeback
The Golden State Warriors already proved this season that a team can come back from 3-1 deficit in a best-of-seven series. Now it’s the San Jose Sharks’ turn, trailing the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-1 in the Stanley Cup Final, to fight the odds.
Although, if a series comeback from 3-1 down against the Penguins is so impossible, why has it happened twice in the past five years?
You hate to put it this way, but maybe the San Jose Sharks’ best hope to pull out a miracle and still win the Stanley Cup is that the Penguins have been known to choke.
They’ve done it recently enough, in fact, that it still might be on the minds of some of their key players who were on the teams that did, notably Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Ketang and Ben Lovejoy.
In 2014, Pittsburgh gagged a second-round playoff series against the New York Rangers despite roaring out to a 3-1 series advantage. After losing the series opener, the Pens won Games 2, 3 and 4 only to drop 5, 6 and 7.
In 2011, in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals, Pittsburgh actually won Games 3 and 4 on the road at Tampa Bay to take a 3-1 series lead, but then got smoked by an aggregate score of 13-4 over the final three games. They got shut out in Game 7.
And get this: Pittsburgh had home ice advantage both times, just as they do now.
The Sharks’ Paul Martin should remember. The veteran defenseman played on both of those Pittsburgh teams that coughed up seemingly insurmountable situations.
“You just have to stay positive,” said Martin following San Jose’s 3-1 Game 4 loss Monday night. “We have a lot of good leadership in the room and a lot of guys who’ve been through a lot. We believe in the guys we have, and we haven’t given our best game yet. I think everybody feels we have another level we can rely on and we believe we can get to it.”
If that happens in Game 5 and it forces the Penguins into another 3,000-mile trip across the country, who knows what could happen?
The Sharks just might plant a significant seed of doubt. Bad memories might start flashing back in Pittsburgh. The Pens might start gripping their sticks just a little tighter as the pressure mounts to close things out.
To be sure, Game 5s were a big problem for Pittsburgh in both 2011 and 2014. The Pens got hammered 8-2 by the Lightning in ’11 and where similarly waxed by the Rangers two years ago, 5-1. San Jose could use a performance like one of those.
Note to Sharks: All it required in to trigger the turnaround in those Game 5s was scoring the first goal, something they have yet to do in this series. Almost to a man, they realize accomplishing that in Game 5 is virtually essential.
“Score first and go from there,” said Logan Couture when asked what’s the first key step out of the deep hole. “It’s tough when you’re chasing the game. That’s the reality of this game. When you fall behind all the time, it’s going to be difficult to win hockey games. I don’t know what the stats are, but I’m sure they back that up. But we’ve all got to start better, we know that, and we’re going to try to do it next game.”
“Most of the postseason we’ve been able to jump out and we haven’t quite gotten that yet,” said captain Joe Pavelski. “Moving forward, I think that’s going to play a big role in giving ourselves a chance.”
Historically, a 3-1 deficit in the Stanley Cup Final has been almost impossible to overcome. A total of 32 teams have faced that hole, and only one has managed to climb out of it to claim the Cup – the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs over the Detroit Red Wings.
But there have been 28 comebacks in NHL playoff series overall over the years from 3-1 down, which sounds a little more plausible. The Sharks were victims of one two years ago against the Los Angeles Kings, who rallied from a 3-0 deficit to win four straight.
By comparison, there have only been 10 comebacks each from a 3-1 playoff deficit in the NBA (this year’s Warriors against Oklahoma City being the 10th) and Major League Baseball.
The message in that should be that it happens a lot more often in hockey, the final round numbers notwithstanding.
The Sharks have a few other things going for them that could potentially help them chip away at the 3-1 lead. While they haven’t shown it much in the playoffs, they did post the best road record in the NHL during the regular season at 28-10-3.
Coach Peter DeBoer was already hanging his hat on that fact following the disappointing Game 4 defeat. He believes the Sharks won’t be overwhelmed heading back to Consol Energy Center with their entire season on the line.
“There’s no quit in our group,” DeBoer said. “We’ve been the best road team in the league. We’re going to show up and try to get this back here (to SAP Center) for Game 6. Until you win four, this isn’t over.”
Certainly, with Pittsburgh’s recent playoff history, there may be more hope than what appears on the surface.
(Contra Costa Times/TNS)