Could the Washington Capitals' Crumble Be One of Sports' Biggest Chokes?

When the Stanley Cup Playoffs began a few weeks ago, I wrote that the Washington Capitals, the best team during the NHL regular season, would quickly breeze past their opponents, the Montreal Canadiens.

Going into Game Five, it seemed that way, as Washington built up a 3-1 series lead over the Canadiens.

But goalie Jaroslav Halak and the rest of the Habs had other ideas.

Halak turned away 131 of 134 shots the Capitals blasted at him during Games Five, Six, and Seven of the series. The Habs roared back to dispose the Capitals 4-3. The Capitals have now become the first No. 1-seeded team in NHL history to blow a 3-1 series lead to the No. 8 seed. 

That's understandable. But I have one question for Ovechkin and the rest of the Capitals: Is "terrible" even a strong enough word?

After winning the Presidents' Trophy as the NHL's best team during the regular season, and having a 3-1 series lead going into Game Five, and blasting an incredible 134 shots against Halak and only allowing 65 against Semyon Varlamov (16 in Game Seven), shouldn't someone get a thesaurus and find a stronger word than "terrible?" 

After all, allowing two goals on only 16 shots is not supposed to happen, period.

There will be a time when this piece of history becomes a trivia question: "What was the first NHL team to have the best record in the NHL during the regular season and blow a three games to one series lead to be eliminated in the first round?"

But heck, there are several prime examples of a major collapse happening. It's happened in baseball many times.

In Game Five of the 1986 ALCS between the California Angels and the Boston Red Sox, the Angels had a 3-1 series lead and a 5-4 lead in the top of the ninth with two out when Dave Henderson stepped in the batter's box. The Angels were then one strike away from winning the pennant.

But Henderson then blasted a two-run home run to put the BoSox in front 6-5. California eventually lost the game 7-6 in extra innings and never seemed to recover from being one strike away from the World Series.

They were scorched in the next two games, 10-4 and 8-1.  

How about the 2004 ALCS? The Yankees had a 3-0 series lead over the Red Sox, but the Red Sox stormed back win the next four games and with it the American League pennant—the first team in MLB history to come back from a 3-0 series deficit to win the series.

To add insult to injury for Yankee fans, two of the final four games were decided in extra innings.

A notable example in the NBA was in Game Seven of the 2000 Western Conference Finals between the Blazers and the Lakers. The Blazers at one point in the fourth quarter held a 15-point lead but notably missed 13 consecutive field goals to end up losing 89-84.

In the 1992-93 NFL playoffs, the Houston Oilers blew a 32-point lead over the Buffalo Bills to lose 41-38.

In soccer's 2005 UEFA Champions League Final between A.C. Milan and Liverpool, A.C. Milan saw a 3-0 halftime lead dissolve when Liverpool came back to tie the game and eventually win on penalty kicks.

Yes, my last three examples happened in only one game. The Capitals, on the other hand, had three games with the opportunity to redeem themselves. They threw everything they had at the Canadiens, but unfortunately, they came up short.

Last year, the Capitals had a 2-0 series lead over the Penguins, but they lost the series 4-3. Three of the final five games went into overtime, and out of those three games, the Caps lost two of them, allowing a fluke goal here and there.

Before being blown out in the decisive Game Seven, Varlamov was playing great, and at the time, I believed if the Caps went the distance and won the Cup, I would've had my money on him to be the playoff MVP.

A similar thing happened this year, when Varlamov allowed goals in the final three games even though the Caps allowed so few shots.

The Capitals perhaps have become the best team in NHL history to ever be eliminated in the opening round. They had two 100-point scorers, Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom. They had Alexander Semin, who had 84 points during the regular season. They had Mike Green, who led the NHL in points among defensemen. They had the best record during the NHL regular season.

Yet the only thing people will remember now is the Capitals blowing a 3-1 series lead to the Montreal Canadiens.

And with it, one of the biggest crumbles in sports history.