See related post: 3-0 Playoff Series Comebacks in Professional Sports
On Monday, the Los Angeles Kings of National Hockey League defeated the New Jersey Devil to win the Stanley Cup, the first time that an 8th seeded team has won the championship in either NHL or NBA, the two leagues that employ the 16-team playoff format. The Kings have been the story throughout this playoff. Despite barely making the playoffs, the 8th seed Kings went onto defeat the Vancouver Canucks, St. Louis Blues, and Phoenix Coyotes, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd seeded Western Conference teams, respectively, on its way to the Stanley Cup, where it defeated the Devils in 6 games for its first Stanley Cup trophy ever.
In NBA, only give 8th seeded teams have won the first round of the playoffs, most recently the Philadelphia Sixers this season against the Bulls. In the most successful case, the 1999 New York Knicks managed to make it to the NBA Finals, where it ultimately fell to the Spurs. Over at NHL, there have been more cases of upsets. In the most successful case, the 2006 Edmonton Oilers managed to not only make it to the Stanley Cup Finals, but also managed to come within 1 game of winning it, before losing to the Hurricanes in Game 7.
Not only did Kings it all, they won their series in decisive fashions. Until Game 5 loss at New Jersey, the Kings had won every single road game (10-0) of the playoffs. The ten road roads tie a single postseason NHL record. Given that the 8th seeded Kings began all series on the road, they were able to take commanding leads in all series. In fact, they were also able to win all Game 3's at home, thereby beginning each series up 3-0. Only a handful of teams have come back from 0-3 hole. The Kings put all four of their opponents in that unbearable hole, before finishing the series in Game 4 (vs Blues), Game 5 (vs Canucks and Coyotes), and Game 6 (vs Devils). The 16-4 run to championship was quite an impressive one, and the Kings doing so with an 8th feed makes it quite unique.
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