The Pittsburgh Penguins and Vancouver Canucks aren’t very good at this favoritism thing. They were favored to win each of their first three playoff games this year. They were favored to win their conferences. Heck, they were even the favorites to hoist the Stanley Cup at the end of the entire NHL postseason.
Yet, here we are, shrugging our shoulders at a considerable collapse in the matter of days, in which the favorites in the east are essentially done. The Penguins are down 3-0 to the Philadelphia Flyers after a miserable week by goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury and Sidney Crosby is already fighting.
The Canucks, meanwhile, aren’t having any luck against the Los Angeles Kings, either. Both teams have seen their stock plummet in Bovada’s NHL Futures Betting Odds to win the Stanley Cup. They each are 35/1 longshots, only slightly better odds than the Florida Panthers (40/1)
Pittsburgh hasn’t even won a game yet and face elimination Wednesday night as they face the Flyers on the road in Game Four. Philadelphia is clearly the favorite in NHL Betting Lines to finish the series out with a sweep. If it were to happen, it would be the first real shock of the NHL Playoffs.
It’s not like the Penguins haven’t had their chances. They were up 3-0 in Game One before paving way for a rally in overtime. They led 3-1 in Game Two before coughing that up, too.
“When you think of playoff games and it being tight, the last couple of games, I think for the most part, have kind of caught us off guard as to what you expect, some of the chances given up,” defensemen Paul Martin told ESPN. “You like to pride yourself on keeping it tight and not giving up too many odd-man rushes and opportunities. But I think we know the type of team that we are and the type of guys that we have from top to bottom and the chances we have, as far as when we play the right way. I think the hardest part is we spend too much time trying to figure out why we let the lead slide.”
A few other favorites are on the ropes at them moment, but only three teams in NHL history have ever come back from a 3-0 defecit. Only the Boston Red Sox 
in 2004 have done it in the entire history of baseball. It’s rare.
The Flyers are actually the last team to do it two years ago against the Boston Bruins.
“We’ve proven time after time we do react well in those situations,” Crosby told ESPN. “All those things you go through, there’s a reason why you have that confidence. You’ve shown you can come through it and you can be successful. Yeah, I think that’s something good that we know that.”