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New York Islanders: Series Win Percentage When Up 3-0

By Matt O'Leary|
UNIONDALE, NEW YORK - APRIL 10: Head coach Barry Trotz of the New York Islanders handles bench duties against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game One of the Eastern Conference First Round during the 2019 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at NYCB Live's Nassau Coliseum on April 10, 2019 in Uniondale, New York. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
UNIONDALE, NEW YORK - APRIL 10: Head coach Barry Trotz of the New York Islanders handles bench duties against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game One of the Eastern Conference First Round during the 2019 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at NYCB Live's Nassau Coliseum on April 10, 2019 in Uniondale, New York. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

The New York Islanders won Game 3 in dominant fashion giving them a 3-0 series lead. Based on past history they’ve all but locked up this series.

The 2018-2019 season has been a “prove people wrong” type of year for the New York Islanders. No one expected them to do anything in the regular season, and certainly, no one thought they’d be up 3-0 on the most dominant franchise of this decade.

After the Isles went up 2-0, I warned not to celebrate too hard because there have been 51 instances of a team coming back from 2-0 to win the series. Now that the Isles are up 3-0 it’s a little bit of a different story.

Teams that go up 3-0 win the series 98.1 percent of the time. Only four times in NHL history has a team been down 3-0 to come back and win the series.

The most recent time we’ve seen it was the 2014 season. San Jose had a comfy, or so they thought, 3-0 series lead over the Los Angeles Kings. The Kings would go on to win four in a row and then eventually take home the Stanley Cup that year.

It also happened in 2010 when the Philadelphia Flyers came back against the Boston Bruins. Philly would go on to the Stanley Cup Final before losing to Chicago. You’d have to go back 35 years from this before you find another example.

The New York Islanders did it to the Penguins, ironically enough, in 1975 in the Quarter Finals. The last one on our list in the 1942 Stanley Cup final when the Toronto Maple Leafs would come back and win against the Detroit Red Wings.

History is on the Islanders side, and with the way the Penguins have looked don’t be surprised if it’s sooner rather than later. The Islanders didn’t lose three in a row (in regulation) all year long. Do you think that’s going to happen in the playoffs?

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