In one statement, Vancouver Canucks forward Jannik Hansen summed up the situation of his team as well as that of the Pittsburgh Penguins. With their miserable postseason starts, they've eliminated all room for error. The Canucks and Penguins are both down 3-0 in their first-round playoff series and hopes have shifted from raising the Stanley Cup to winning just one game. It's a remarkable turn.
"There's a new game Wednesday," Hansen said following the Kings' 1-0 win Sunday that put Los Angeles one win away from eliminating the Presidents Trophy winners. "It's do or die. We have no more chances. We wasted our three lives here. We got to play for everything now."
The reality for the Penguins and Canucks is that Sunday's games might have been do or die. The Flyers' quick-striking potent offense shows no sign of letting up and Kings goalie Jonathan Quick seems incapable of losing four consecutive games. There will be a lot of talk about the Flyers coming back from the dead to beat the Bruins a couple years ago, and that's the hope these teams have to cling to. But chances are, even the most valiant comebacks in series like these fall short. Like the Canucks saw by finally eliminating Chicago last year in Game 7 after jumping to a 3-0 series lead. Or the like the Red Wings learned last year in spotting the Sharks a 3-0 series lead before losing in Game 7 on Patrick Marleau's winner.
There's a reason only three teams in NHL history have rallied to win a seven-game series after losing the first three.
"We know what we need to do," Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said after Sunday's game. "We need to win a hockey game here, that's what it comes down to."
Can one win turn into a history defying run? Here's a breakdown of Pittsburgh's and Vancouver's hopes the rest of this spring:
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- Senior NHL writer for ESPN The Magazine
- Wrote for Atlanta Journal-Constitution
- Wrote for The Sporting News
ABOUT THIS BLOG
Craig Custance
Craig Custance joined ESPN in September 2011 as an NHL reporter for ESPN the Magazine, ESPN Insider and ESPN.com. A graduate of Michigan State University, he lived for nearly a decade in Georgia working for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution where he spent time covering the late Atlanta Thrashers. He was the only Thrashers beat writer to get the team to the playoffs.
From 2008-11 he was the national hockey writer for the Sporting News, writing regularly in print and online. A member of the PHWA, he's a proud voter for the major NHL awards and can occasionally defend his selections.
Like hockey, he left Atlanta to return north where he currently lives in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, with his wife Cassie and their three kids.
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