Panthers, Oilers one step away from rarest of playoff history

If you don’t have a dog in the hunt, the choice is easy, right? You’re lining up behind the Oilers on Monday night.They have a chance to join one of the most select clubs in sports, the one that permits teams and fans to dream even under the dreariest circumstances, that reminds us that the wisest sporting words ever uttered came from Yogi Berra:“It ain’t over till it’s over.”The Oilers were down three games to none.

They were dead.They looked spent.

They looked overmatched.The Florida Panthers, even the ones trying hard not to invite the wrath of jinxing gods, had probably already begun to see their names on the Stanley Cup.Now, it is 3-3.Now, Edmonton looks to become only the sixth team in the history of North American sports to spot another team the first three games in a best-of-seven, then put together the most well-timed and illogical four-game winning streak of the year.The first seven-game series in modern team sports was 1905, New York Giants against the Philadelphia Athletics.

The first time the NHL went to a best-of-seven was 1919, the Montreal Canadiens and the original Ottawa Senators.The NBA introduced best-of sevens right away, in 1947, the Philadelphia Warriors and the Chicago Stags.Overwhelmingly, in all three sports, those series end either in a sweep or, as in the case of the three examples above, a “gentleman’s sweep” of four games to one — the Giants, Canadiens and Warriors all won those initial best-of-sevens that way, 4-1.Sometimes, a team can push it to six.

Remarkably, it took baseball until 1999 before that happened, the Mets spotting the Braves a 3-0 lead, winning Games 4 and 5, and then Kenny Rogers lost the strike zone in Game 6.And on even rare occasions, there’s a Game 7.Sign up for Starting Lineup for the biggest stories.

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