Devils must make history or they're history
The 1942 Maples Leafs. The 1975 Islanders. The 2010 Flyers.
The only teams in NHL history to go down 3-0 in a playoff series and come back to win.
Only the '42 Leafs did it in the Stanley Cup final.
That's the task ahead of the Devils after their 4-0 loss to the Kings in Game 3 Monday night. Game 4 is Wednesday night in Los Angeles, which is now hockey country.
"We're not going to quit until someone has won a fourth game," said captain Zach Parise. "We start over. We've got to win four straight. That's it. That's our approach. Win the next one. That's all we can do."
The Devils won the last six games of the regular season and then the first game of the playoffs. The high-flying Kings weren't part of any of that.
The first two losses, at home in overtime, were clearly close games that could have gone either way. Not so Monday night, where the better team piled up the big margin and moving the Kings to within a win of the franchise's first Cup.
The Kings are the first team to take 3-0 leads in all four series since the NHL went to its all-seven game series format in 1987. They did lose Game 4, at home, to both Vancouver and Phoenix before going on the road, where they are 10-0 in these playoffs, to win Game 5.
You get the feeling they're not going to have to do that this time.
The Devils, who have lost three games in a row for the first time since losing four straight Feb. 24-March 1, have beaten Jonathan Quick twice, once when defenseman Anton Volchenkov's shot bounced in off defenseman Slava Voynov. The other goal was a deflection by fourth-line left wing Ryan Carter in Game 2.
That's it. Nothing from Ilya Kovalchuk, who appears to be playing hurt. Nothing from Zach Parise, who could be playing in his final game with the club Wednesday night. Nothing from Patrik Elias. Go on down the list. Nothing from any of them.
The Devils need a win Wednesday to bring it home for Game 5.
"That's what we're going to do," said Kovalchuk. "I really believe so. We've got to go out there and try to get a win and go back to our building."
