When the New Jersey Devils trailed the Los Angeles Kings 3-0 in the best-of-seven 2012 NHL Stanley Cup Finals Devils coach Peter DeBoer knows “the hockey world pretty much wrote us off.”
Why wouldn’t they? Only once before in NHL history has a team come back from a 3-0 deficit to win the Cup, and that was 70 years ago when the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs did it.
The Devils can even the series with a victory Monday night in Los Angeles. If they lose, the season is over and the Kings will be hoisting the Cup. If they win, Game 7 is in New Jersey.
“We believe in ourselves and the guys in the room. We want to keep playing. Through the playoffs, all the team has gotten stronger I think every round as each series has gone deeper. It shows again here,” said Adam Henrique. “Obviously, you’re in a hole, backs are against a wall really, but we just kept playing and we believed that we could do this, we could win.”
The Devils are beginning to make other people believe it, too.