Every sports fanatic loves a good underdog story, especially when it comes to the playoffs. And this year, sports fans in North America have been treated to those in abundance, across three of the country's four major sports.
In the NBA, the Miami Heat stunned the likes of the Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks, and Boston Celtics en route to the Finals series. In the MLB, the American League's fifth-seeded Texas Rangers as well as the National League's sixth-seed Arizona Diamondbacks have both made the Championship Series. And in the NHL, who can forget the Florida Panthers knocking off the record-breaking Boston Bruins, as well as the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Carolina Hurricanes en route to a first Stanley Cup finals appearance in 27 years?
While it's usually the powerhouse teams that dominate the playoffs, there are also those times when the unexpected happens, when a team goes from being the dark horse to finalists. Here are four such times that have happened in recent years.
2021: Montreal Canadiens
For NHL fans, the Canadiens’ passion for ice hockey is unmistakable. The team has lifted the Stanley Cup a whopping 24 times, the most of any side in the league and some 11 crowns clear of fellow Canadian outfit the Toronto Maple Leafs. Two years ago, they scraped their way into the postseason and were the lowest seed in the North Division after finishing the regular season with a losing record.
They started their playoff campaign with a shocking upset of the heavily favored Maple Leafs in a scintillating seven-game series, setting the tone for their run. They would then sweep the Winnipeg Jets in the second round, before knocking off the Vegas Golden Knights to set up a first Stanley Cup finals appearance in 28 years. Although they would ultimately finish as runners-up to the Tampa Bay Lightning, their mix of attacking play as well as superstar goalie Carey Price stopping pucks left, right and centre endeared them to the fans all over the continent.
2017: Nashville Predators
The Nashville Predators are notorious for qualifying for the playoffs and immediately exiting after a couple of games. That was until 2017 when the Tennessee outfit had the most impressive in franchise history. They took down the powerhouses of the Western Conference, such as Patrick Kane's top-seeded Chicago Blackhawks as well as the St. Louis Blues.
Victory against Pacific Division winners in the form of the Anaheim Ducks set up a meeting with Sidney Crosby's Pittsburgh Penguins, a team that also had a bit of a fairy tale post-season of their own.
Unfortunately, it was Crosby and Co. that managed to lift the famous trophy after winning in six games, but the Predators' performances will be remembered for years to come.
2012: Los Angeles Kings
The Los Angeles Kings had an unremarkable regular season record-wise in 2012. Their campaign up until the postseason was nothing to write home about and they were the eighth seed in the Western Conference. But once the playoffs came around, they took their game to another level.
They stunned the top-seeded Vancouver Canucks in the opening round, before sweeping the second-seed St. Louis Blues in the second. That set up a date in the conference finals against the third-seed Phoenix Coyotes, who were also dispatched. The defeat was one Arizona is yet to recover from, as they have reached the playoffs just once in the decade-plus since, leaving pundits to wonder what’s going on with the Coyotes franchise.
Unlike the other teams already mentioned in this piece, the Kings wouldn't falter at the final hurdle. They met the Eastern Conference's sixth seed in the Stanley Cup playoffs, the New Jersey Devils and they would secure a 4-2 series victory to lift the trophy for the first time in franchise history.
2010: Philadelphia Flyers
The Flyers had a mediocre start to their season, and no one gave them much of a chance to make the playoffs. But they proved everyone wrong, and by the end of the season, they had clinched the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference. Once there though, their postseason run was a whole new level of unexpected.
After clawing their way into the playoffs on the last day of the regular season, they were written off after they lost their starting netminder Brian Boucher to a knee injury early in the playoffs. But their rookie goaltender Michael Leighton stepped up, and the Flyers went on a magical run.
More adversity struck when they were down and out after losing the first three games of their conference semifinal matchup against the Boston Bruins, but they would do the impossible by winning the next four. They then took out the Canadiens in five games in the next round to seal their spot in the Stanley Cup finals. Unfortunately for them, the Blackhawks ultimately had too much for them to handle winning through six in a highly charged series.
Original Source of the original story >> Four Times Rank Outsiders Reached the Stanley Cup Playoffs
