Sharks have a chance to make 2014 collapse a hilarious memory

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’42 Wings. ’75 Penguins. ’10 Bruins. ’14 Sharks.
’42 Wings. ’75 Penguins. ’10 Bruins. ’14 Sharks.
’42 Wings. ’75 Penguins. ’10 Bruins. ’14 Sharks.

The more you say it, the more hypnotic it becomes.

Those are the four teams to take, and then return, 3-0 series leads in Stanley Cup history. That’s out of 209 total series. If you throw in the one time the New York Yankees gave the Boston Red Sox life after death, it’s 245-5, and the NBA, in which this has never happened, makes it 346-5 (h/t WhoWins.com: https://bit.ly/2H7PFkd ).

We mention this, obviously, not because we think this will be San Jose’s fate yet again now that they have taken their sixth-ever 3-0 lead by hammering the Anaheim Ducks, 8-1, Monday night, but because their fifth 3-0 lead and what they did with it is the most seismic event in franchise history. Hell, you probably barely remember their first four 3-0 leads (4-2 over Colorado in 2004, 4-1 over Detroit in 2010, 4-3 over Detroit in 2011 as the harbinger of events not yet formed, and the sweep over Vancouver in 2013) because the expected survival and advancement occurred, unlike . . .

’42 Wings. ’75 Penguins. ’10 Bruins. ’14 Sharks.
’42 Wings. ’75 Penguins. ’10 Bruins. ’14 Sharks.
’42 Wings. ’75 Penguins. ’10 Bruins. ’14 Sharks.

It is the most indelible part of their history, and will be until they get their own parade. It led to the end of the Todd McLellan era and the beginning of the Peter DeBoer regime. It took the team’s reputation as too soft for the hard work and set it in vibranium. It certainly snapped them out of their self-satisfied torpor and made them, slowly but surely, a leaner and hungrier group.

But now here they are again, playing well enough to make most people think that they can finish this series Wednesday night and complete the second series sweep in franchise history (see, nobody ever talks about that Vancouver series the year before The Great Faceplant, do they?). They have taken a series most people considered too close to call and made it the most lopsided of the first round. They have pummeled Anaheim goalie John Gibson (14 goals) while keeping their own, Martin Jones, relatively free from persistent harm (three allowed), and they have watched Anaheim lose its composure repeatedly in failed attempts to goad them into retaliation penalties and turn the game into a dock fight.

They have played definitive playoff hockey, and there is no evidence to suggest that this will change four times. Maybe not even once. Still . . .

’42 Wings. ’75 Penguins. ’10 Bruins. ’14 Sharks.
’42 Wings. ’75 Penguins. ’10 Bruins. ’14 Sharks.
’42 Wings. ’75 Penguins. ’10 Bruins. ’14 Sharks.

And let’s be clear that the sins of that 2014 team are clearly not those of this one. Yes, six of the players from that team have helped forged this lead (alphabetically, Justin Braun, Brent Burns, Logan Couture, Tomas Hertl, Joe Pavelski and Marc-Edouard Vlasic, not to mention the ghost of Joe Thornton) were on that ’14 team, but too much has been burned away in the meantime, including their only Stanley Cup Final appearance two years later. Besides, the ’42 Red Wings won the Cup in ’43, and the ’10 Bruins won in ’11. The ’75 Penguins needed 16 years and Mario Lemieux, but history isn’t always so tidy.

Oh, and the Yankees won the World Series five years after taking the pipe. Just for the sake of thoroughness.

In short, it is trite at best and wrong at worst to say that the worst thing that ever happened to the Sharks could turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to them. Indeed, this is probably just a historical glitch that swine like me will bring up just because there is work to do and space to fill. And if they close out this series Wednesday night, 2014 will just be a hilarious memory, as the others eventually became.

Until then, though . . .

’42 Wings. ’75 Penguins. ’10 Bruins. ’14 Sharks.
’42 Wings. ’75 Penguins. ’10 Bruins. ’14 Sharks.
’42 Wings. ’75 Penguins. ’10 Bruins. ’14 Sharks.

Because it happened. And it changed them all.

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