In late April, the Boston Bruins found themselves down 2-0 to the Montreal Canadiens in their Eastern Conference Quarterfinals series. The Bruins unceremoniously dropped the first two games at TD Garden before winning the next two at Bell Centre. The Bruins eventually won the series in seven games before exorcising the demons of last season's epic collapse against the Philadelphia Flyers by sweeping them in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.
Boston finds itself in yet another 2-0 hole after Saturday's 3-2 overtime loss to the Vancouver Canucks in the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals. The Bruins may have escaped such a hole earlier this postseason, but history shows that it will be a tough task to do that again in the Stanley Cup Finals.
Via Joe Yerdon of Pro Hockey Talk, since the expansion era began in the 1966-67 season, only two teams, the 1971 Canadiens and the 2009 Pittsburgh Penguins, have battled back from a 2-0 deficit to win the Stanley Cup. In total, four teams (the aforementioned two champions, the 1966 Canadiens and the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs) have come back from a 2-0 Cup deficit. In fact, 25 of the last 27 teams to earn a 2-0 lead in the Stanley Cup Finals have ultimately won the Cup.
To make matters worse, every Stanley Cup Finals series since the 2004-05 NHL lockout has started 2-0. But if there is one piece of history on Boston's side, it's that every Finals has started out with the home team winning the first three games. Monday, the Bruins return to TD Garden in an attempt to avoid an insurmountable 3-0 hole, one that has only been salvaged by one team in NHL history: the 1942 Leafs.
The Bruins, despite being down 2-0, have played well through two games in Vancouver, but will need to be better in order to cut into its deficit. Either history will be repeat itself or the Bruins will have an awesome "History Will Be Made" commercial.