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New York Islanders on The Hockey News
Islanders Face Large, But Not Insurmountable Odds With 3-0 Series Deficit; Flashing Back To 1975
By Stefen Rosner,
13 days ago
The New York Islanders once again couldn't keep up with the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday, falling 3-2 in Game 3.
Ilya Sorokin couldn't give the Islanders the spark they needed, surrendering three goals on 14 shots in his first start of the series. The team struggled to find the second gear needed to tie the game in the third period.
With the loss, the Islanders now have to face the most difficult comeback attempt in hockey: a 3-0 deficit in a playoff series.
Looking back on the series, the odds seem near-impossible.
In Games 1 and 3, New York put forward decent efforts, but Carolina just had enough, scoring timely goals and getting big saves to earn 3-1 and 3-2 wins, respectively.
While the Islanders were up 3-0 halfway through Game 2, their offense stagnated, which allowed Carolina to climb back into the game.
Late in the third, Carolina's Sebastian Aho and Jordan Martinook scored nine seconds apart, putting the Hurricanes ahead 4-3 en route to a 5-3 win.
"It's always in the back of your mind," Islanders forward Bo Horvat said about the enormous hole he and his teammates have to climb out of. "There's been teams that have overcome this in the past. And I think we have such a resilient group here and that everyone still believes that we can do this. I mean, we should. We've proven it all year that every time we've been counted out or are down, we just found a way to kind of overcome that and prove people wrong and prove ourselves right.
"And I think we have a great opportunity to do that again here tomorrow night. And we just got to start by getting this win and then going from there."
Horvat was right. Teams have overcome this deficit.
Out of 208 teams to find themselves down 3-0 in NHL history, four have come all the way back and the Islanders are one of them.
As part of their 1975 playoff run, the team faced the Pittsburgh Penguins and clawed back into the series, winning 3-1, 4-2, and 4-1 to force a Game 7 after going down 3-0.
In that win-or-go-home game, Islanders captain Ed Westfall scored the only goal in the contest in the mid-stages of the third period, giving the Islanders a 1-0 win in the decisive elimination game:
The Islanders found themselves down 3-0 to the Philadelphia Flyers a round later but couldn't come all the way back, losing 4-1 in Game 7.
Among other teams to complete the comeback, the oldest instance is the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs in the Stanley Cup Final against the Detroit Red Wings.
The other two instances, far more recent examples, are the 2010 Philadelphia Flyers making the comeback against the Boston Bruins and the 2014 Los Angeles Kings besting the San Jose Sharks in a monumental resurgence.
While the series may feel all but over, the Islanders can look to their own past, as well as NHL history, as a way to know it's never over until a team gets four wins in the series.
It's a tall task, a Zdeno Chara-type task, but the focus for the Islanders is on Game 4 at home, not the hole that they've dug themselves into.
&commatNYIslanders
"To be honest, I'm not feeling that," Islanders captain Anders Lee said when viewing the enormous task his team is up against. "It's going to be a gauntlet regardless, but we just got to get the first one. We got to take tomorrow and go from there.
"We can't win two, three, and four right now. All we can do is get our minds right, get our bodies ready and come in tomorrow and play a good hockey game and go from there. And then after, it'll be the same thing. I think that mindset. Everyone's taking a game-by-game, and day-by-day approach at this point."
Puck drop for Game 4 is at 2 PM ET at UBS Arena.
Semyon Varlamov will be between the pipes after stopping all eight shots that came his way after coming in for Ilya Sorokin.
We will chat with Roy before puck drop to find out if there are any more changes coming to the lineup.
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