One of sports’ best qualities is that a game can still turn around, even when things look hopeless. Until it’s over, there’s usually a chance.
Fans have seen staggering comebacks before, from the Patriots’ Super Bowl LI rally from 28–3 to the Red Sox clawing their way back in the 2004 ALCS. Still, some leads seem all but impossible to lose. A football team ahead by 35 with 90 seconds left, for instance, should be able to close things out.
Hockey fans may have thought they knew where that line was. Then the Montreal Canadiens took a 4–0 lead over the visiting Winnipeg Jets at the Bell Centre, with fewer than three minutes remaining in the third period.
Montreal’s fans watched the team let that lead slip away in what became the biggest collapse in NHL history. I’d noticed hockey accounts hinting at an “epic collapse” in Montreal the night before, but I was putting my son to bed and trying to stay off social media. I figured I’d catch up in the morning. I never imagined this was what they meant.
Giving up four goals in the final three minutes sounds almost impossible. It’s the kind of ending you’d expect a movie studio to reject as too far-fetched. After Winnipeg scored its first goal, Montreal could have tried to slow everything down, pinning the puck along the boards and running down the clock. There were only minutes left.
The game went to overtime, giving the Canadiens another chance to avoid making history. They couldn’t manage it, and the Jets completed the comeback.
It was a regular-season game in November, the sort of result that might normally fade from memory within days. This one probably won’t. Hockey fans are going to remember it for a long time.
