Penguins’ Sidney Crosby: ‘I’d love to be a part of a team that comes back from (down 3-0)’
Sidney Crosby has made an indelible permanent mark on the NHL. He’s carved out a place in the hockey history books.
So, the way he sees it, why not embrace an opportunity to make more history?
The Pittsburgh Penguins captain recognizes the dire situation and the long odds the Penguins face in being down 3-0 in their first-round playoff series against the New York Islanders. But he’s found a silver lining to cling to.
“I’d love to be a part of a team that comes back from (3-0),” Crosby said Monday.
Of the 188 previous teams in NHL history in this situation, just four have done so. Crosby is 0 for 2 in such instances, his Penguins ultimately losing in six first-round games to the Philadelphia Flyers in 2012 and having the Boston Bruins finish off a sweep in the conference finals the following year.
“We’ve been on the other side of it and been up in a series, and I think that level of urgency that you’re going to get from a team that’s down, that’s something that we know we can use to our advantage, too,” Crosby said.
During the Crosby era of the past 14 years, the Penguins have had five 3-0 playoff-series leads; during none did they let an opponent even so much as force a sixth game. Three were completed by Game 5; in two others, the Penguins finished off the sweep.
Brian Dumoulin is the rare man who’s been part of a comeback from down 3-0 — albeit, one that happened in the American Hockey League. Dumoulin was perhaps the best defenseman on the 2013 Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins that won Games 4-7 against the Providence Bruins.
“A few of us were there, so we know it can be done,” Dumoulin said. “Teams have done it before, and I think we still have a belief.”
Still, the clichéd coachspeak most often associated with teams in this type of situation usually doesn’t go big-picture history. True to form, Mike Sullivan buys into the tried-and-true one-game-at-a-time philosophy.
“We’re going to try and win one game,” Sullivan said. “That’s the mindset that we need to have. I can tell you as the coach of this group that I believe in this group that we have. These guys are capable of great things.”
Chris Adamski is a TribLive reporter who has covered primarily the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2014 following two seasons on the Penn State football beat. A Western Pennsylvania native, he joined the Trib in 2012 after spending a decade covering Pittsburgh sports for other outlets. He can be reached at cadamski@triblive.com.
Remove the ads from your TribLIVE reading experience but still support the journalists who create the content with TribLIVE Ad-Free.