The Nashville Predators are back on home ice facing a nearly monumental deficit.
The Predators became the 51st team in Stanley Cup Final history to lose the first two games of the series, losing 5-3 in Game 1 and 4-1 in Game 2 this week. Only five of the previous 50 teams that shared their predicament went on to lift the chalice.
The Predators have been unlucky in the series. Most notably, they held the Penguins without a shot for 37 minutes in Game 1, yet still lost. Their fortunes will have to change to get back in the series.
Not all is lost for the Preds, though. Two of the 2-0 comebacks have happened in the salary cap era. And their Stanley Cup Final opponent would be quite familiar with one of those.
These are the five teams that accomplished what the Predators are hoping to do.
2011 Boston Bruins
The Bruins entered their series with the Vancouver Canucks as underdogs and the results of the first two games went accordingly. However, the Canucks certainly didn’t manhandle the B’s. Raffi Torres broke a scoreless tie with 18.5 seconds remaining in Game 1 to give Vancouver a 1-0 victory, while Game 2 required an Alex Burrows overtime goal in a 3-2 decision.
Once the Bruins returned home, they went from hanging with the Canucks to dominating them. They won 8-1, 4-0 and 5-2 at TD Garden, another narrow loss (1-0) in Vancouver in Game 5 was the only blemish in Games 3-6. The Bruins closed out the series with a convincing 4-0 victory in Game 7, the sole road win of the matchup.
2009 Pittsburgh Penguins
If there’s a team that knows something about overcoming a 2-0 hole in the championship series, it’s Nashville’s competition. Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Chris Kunitz, Marc-Andre Fleury and the injured Kris Letang remain from the team that dropped the first two games on the road to the Detroit Red Wings and rebounded to win it all.
Like the Bruins-Canucks battle, this one was a homer series right until Game 7. That’s when grinder Max Talbot scored twice in a 2-1 win capped off by Fleury’s shuffling shoulder save against Nicklas Lidstrom in the dying seconds. The Penguins’ win was retribution for the 2008 Cup final and prevented the Red Wings from winning back-to-back titles, something Pittsburgh is shooting for this year.
1971 Montreal Canadiens
After failing to win their third straight Cup in 1970, the Canadiens returned to the final on the strength of call-up goaltender Ken Dryden. There, they faced the West Division-champion Chicago Black Hawks and dropped the first two games away from the Montreal Forum. The Canadiens tied the series in Montreal and the teams exchanged home-ice wins to force a Game 7.
The Canadiens edged the Black Hawks 3-2 in a game that saw Chicago coach Billy Reay questionably limit the ice time of stars Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita. Dryden won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP and the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie the following season.
1966 Montreal Canadiens
The defending Cup champions dropped the first two games at the Montreal Forum, but recovered to win the next four to beat the Detroit Red Wings in six. Henri Richard scored the series-winning goal in overtime to claim his sixth of an eventual 11 Stanley Cups – an NHL record for a player. Interesting to note: the Conn Smythe Trophy, in only its second year, was awarded to a member of the losing team as Red Wings goaltender Roger Crozier got the nod. A leg injury suffered by Crozier in Game 4, which reportedly limited his mobility, could have been the turning point in the series.
1942 Toronto Maple Leafs
The Maple Leafs did one better – worse? – by losing the first three games of their series to the Detroit Red Wings, the third coming when they blew a 2-0 lead to fall 5-2. But Toronto evened the matchup with 4-3, 9-3 and 3-0 victories, leading to a decisive affair at Maple Leaf Gardens.
The Leafs trailed 1-0, but fought back to win 3-1 thanks to two goals from Sweeney Schriner. No other team has ever fallen behind 3-0 in the Stanley Cup Final and come back to win it all. Just in case the Predators forgot about how much was riding on Game 3 Saturday.
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