It is the stuff of lore that a champion must endure hardship to reach glory. Now, such is not always the case: Consider the four-time defending Stanley Cup champion Montreal NHL Canadiens, who won their fifth straight title in 1960. As the Detroit Red Wings had done in 1952, the 1960 Canadiens swept their way through their best-of-7 Semis and Finals rounds to win the Stanley Cup, with nary a loss blemishing their sterling playoff record. Unlike the 1952 Wings, however, the Canadiens' sweeps were not just sweeps but WhoWins™ annihilations: Montreal never trailed -- not even for one second -- in the 1960 NHL playoffs. It is an accomplishment of one-sidedness that has yet to be matched in MLB, NBA, and NHL best-of-7 playoff runs, and it was a most fitting cap for the Montreal dynasty of the late 1950s. But the 1960 Canadiens constitute one extreme. At the other extreme are those teams that must scratch and claw their ways to their championships, overcoming one or multiple significant obstacles. The 2000 best-of-7 champions -- the New Jersey Devils of the NHL, the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA, and the MLB New York Yankees -- are closer to this latter extreme. Herein, the case.

It was in best-of-7 series 810 that the New Jersey Devils' train to the 2000 Stanley Cup came closest to derailment. In that series vs. the Philadelphia Flyers ("north Jersey" vs. "south Jersey"), the Devils won Game 1, but then dug themselves a deep, deep hole by losing the next three games to the Flyers. Of the MLB, NBA, and NHL, only the NHL currently has four full rounds of best-of-7 playoff series. There are differences in the inherent nature of these rounds, and one of those differences manifests itself in how teams respond to 3-games-1 deficits. In NHL best-of-7 playoff series from 1939 through 1999, a team facing a 3-games-1 deficit had a far better chance to win a series in the oddball Prelim round than later in the playoffs. In fact, here are the series records through 1999 of teams leading best-of-7 series 3-games-1, presented by league and round:
NHL Semis: 51-0 (1.000)
NBA Finals: 25-0 (1.000)
NHL Qtrs: 50-2 (.962)
NHL Finals: 24-1 (.960)
NBA Qtrs: 65-3 (.956)
NBA Semis: 37-3 (.925)
MLB Finals: 33-5 (.868)
MLB Semis: 12-3 (.800)
NHL Prelim: 32-12 (.727).
It was not the 2000 NHL Prelim round but the 2000 NHL Semis round in which New Jersey trailed Philadelphia 3-games-1. And as if a 0-51 record weren't daunting enough, the Devils had to play Games 5 and 7 of series 810 in Philadelphia. In spite of it all, however, New Jersey managed to win Game 5 in Philadelphia 4-goals-1, "hold serve" in Game 6 at home 2-goals-1, and take a taut Game 7 in Philadelphia 2-goals-1 to achieve a comeback unprecedented in NHL best-of-7 series -- a comeback from a 3-games-1 deficit in an NHL Semis-round series. On the heels of such an unprecedented comeback, the New Jersey victory over Dallas in series 812 was almost anticlimactic by comparison, even though winning series 812 resulted in the 2000 Stanley Cup for New Jersey. If indeed "it is always darkest before the dawn," then it was darkest for the 2000 New Jersey Devils after four games of their best-of-7 NHL Semis series vs. Philadelphia; that these Devils emerged with the NHL championship is testimony to the strength of their character.

It was not a series deficit but a game deficit that imperiled the Los Angeles Lakers' drive for the 2000 NBA championship. Just as the New Jersey Devils trailed their 2000 NHL Semis series 3-games-1, so it was that the Lakers led their 2000 NBA Semis series (series 818) 3-games-1. But by way of giving the Devils their due, the Lakers' Semis opponents (the Portland Trailblazers) rebounded to win Game 5 in L.A. 96-pts-88 and Game 6 in Portland 103-pts-93, thus setting up a dramatic Game 7 in Los Angeles. And through three quarters of Game 7, it appeared as though the Trailblazers would become only the fourth NBA team (in 41 tries -- see the series records above) to surmount a 3-games-1 deficit in best-of-7 NBA Semis play to advance to the Finals: Portland led at the three-quarter mark 71-pts-58 against the host Lakers. But this story is not about comebacks from 3-games-1 deficits in best-of-7 Semis series. It is about perseverance in the wake of mettle-testing, and in this case, not the Trailblazers but the Lakers were to NBA perseverance what the Devils were to NHL perseverance in the 2000 playoffs. In best-of-7 NBA series playoff games from 1947 through 1999, teams leading by a lucky 13 points after three quarters had a perfect game record of 57-0. Alas for Portland, its comeback effort would evaporate in the wake of the fourth quarter of Game 7, in which Los Angeles would outscore Portland by 18 points to win Game 7 and best-of-7 series 818: Of the 1575 best-of-7 NBA series games played from 1947 through 2000, in only 17 of those games was there a fourth-quarter point differential greater than 18 points. And, surely, what the Devil of 2000 felt after the end of Game 4 of series 810, so felt the Laker of 2000 after three quarters of Game 7 of series 818.

In contrast to the NHL and NBA champions of 2000, the 2000 MLB champion New York Yankees did not encounter a situation so adverse that the opponent had a 50-something-to-nil historical win-loss record in its favor. Neverthess, in terms of surmounting adversity, the 2000 Yankees were arguably closer to their fellow 2000 best-of-7 champions than to, say, the 1960 Canadiens. For starters, the Yankees did not enjoy an auspicious beginning to the 2000 MLB best-of-7 playoffs. Against the Seattle Mariners in their MLB Semis (American League Championship) series (series 820), the Yankees set an MLB best-of-7 playoff series record for futility by posting 16 consecutive scoreless innings from the start of such a series, breaking the previous record of 13 consecutive scoreless innings (set by Detroit in the 1945 World Series and tied by Philadelphia in the 1950 World Series and by Los Angeles in the 1959 World Series). A seven-run eighth inning in Game 2 of series 820 helped New York even its series with Seattle at 1-game-all (in addition to ending the futility streak), and the Yankees would eventually win series 820 in six games. In Game 1 of the 2000 World Series, the Yankees became only the ninth home team (in 64 tries) trailing by one run after 8 1/2 innings to win the game. Also: In Game 2 of the 2000 World Series, the Yankees survived a five-run top of the ninth inning (a new record for most runs in the top of the ninth inning in a losing cause in a best-of-7 MLB playoff game) by the New York Mets to win a one-run game, giving the Yankees a 2-games-nil series lead in a series the Yankees would ultimately win in five games. As regards levels of darkness before the dawn, it was never as dark for the 2000 Yankees as it was for the Devils and for the Lakers that year. Nevertheless, there was adversity to be conquered on the way to the 2000 World Series championship, and the 2000 Yankees deserve credit for said conquest (even if the conquest magnitude was a bit less than that required of the Devils and the Lakers earlier in the year).

22 April 2001