Only four teams in 84 years of NHL hockey have come back from a 3-0 series deficit to win. Four. The 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs did it in the Stanley Cup Finals. The 1975 New York Islanders did it against — and this is genuinely perfect — the Pittsburgh Penguins. The 2010 Philadelphia Flyers did it against the Boston Bruins in the second round. The 2014 Los Angeles Kings did it against San Jose in the first round. That’s the entire list. And now Sidney Crosby, at 38 years old, is dragging Pittsburgh to the edge of becoming the fifth team in league history to pull it off, and cable sports television has spent the last 72 hours talking about everything except this.
Four Times in 84 Years
After three games, this looked like a mercy killing. The Flyers had outscored the Penguins 11-4. Pittsburgh hadn’t just lost Games 1 through 3 — they’d been physically overrun. The conversation shifted fast to the trade deadline sellers who hadn’t sold, to Crosby’s window finally snapping shut, to whether this was simply the last chapter of an era ending quietly in a first-round sweep.
Then Game 4 happened. Pittsburgh won 4-2. Then Game 5: 3-2, and Crosby — who took a thigh injury scare midway through and returned anyway — notched multiple assists for the second straight game to push his series line to one goal and four helpers across five games. He also recorded his 100th career playoff win in Game 5, becoming one of just five active players to reach that mark. The series is 3-2. Game 6 is Thursday night in Philadelphia at 7:30 PM ET.
The symmetry running through this series is almost too much. The 1975 Islanders completed the only 3-0 comeback in franchise history against Pittsburgh — which means if the Penguins close this thing out, they’re avenging a 51-year-old ghost while joining the most exclusive comeback club in hockey. And the Flyers? They’re the 2010 team that clawed back from 3-0 against Boston. They know exactly what this feels like from the other side. Now they’re the ones trying to hold the line.
The Team the Penguins Were Supposed to Be Done With
Pittsburgh finished 41-25-16 this season for 98 points, second in the Metropolitan Division. They returned to the playoffs for the first time since 2021-22 after three straight postseason absences. At the deadline, they were widely projected as sellers. They held.
Nobody gave them much credit for it. The framing was: aging core, rebuilding window closing, Crosby probably on his last legs as a difference-maker at this level. The Penguins-are-done narrative has been running for three or four years now, and it fits neatly into a content cycle that prefers clean endings over messy, ongoing arguments about what a great player can still do at 38.
Sidney Crosby and Rickard Rakell each with a goal and an assist and the Penguins stay alive with a 4-2 win against the Flyers in Game 4. Back to Pittsburgh for Game 5 on Monday.
— Adam Kimelman (@NHLAdamK) April 26, 2026
Crosby’s performances in Games 4 and 5 aren’t the output of a player limping toward retirement. Multi-assist games in consecutive playoff wins, finishing through an injury, generating offense against a Flyers team that had been controlling this series decisively — that’s a player who is still the most important person on the ice when it matters. The national media can keep ignoring it. The box scores are right there.
Game 6 Is Thursday Night
The Penguins have to win in Philadelphia, a building that will be hostile in every sense. If they do, they bring a Game 7 home, where the crowd and the history and the sheer improbability of what they’ve already done will be on their side. The 2010 Flyers knew how to push past a 3-0 hole. The 2014 Kings knew. Now we find out if Pittsburgh has enough left.
Four teams in 84 years. Only four. That number either stays at four or it doesn’t, and we’ll know by Friday morning.