Who had the worst playoff game ever?
I don’t know. You don’t either. I’m not sure the question even has an answer, because “worst game” is such a subjective category. We’re looking for performances here – i.e. not factoring in injury or tragedy, because come on – but even that’s still pretty broad.
But if I know hockey fans, I know there’s not much we love more than reliving terrible games. So as we make our way to the midpoint of the first round, let’s look back and see if we can conjure up some miserable memories while hoping your favorite team doesn’t add anyone to the list in the coming days and weeks.
Let’s remember some sighs.
But first: What even is a bad game?
It’s tough to define, right? The most obvious answer is that as fans, we know a bad game when we see it. But that criteria can shift under the circumstances.
I’ll give you a few of my own examples. While I keep it fairly well hidden, I’m a Maple Leafs fan. There are two playoff games, both from the Pat Quinn era, that have always stuck with me as an example of a player having a rotten evening. The first came in Game 7 against the Islanders in 2002, when the injury-riddled Leafs dressed a 26-year-old rookie winger named Paul Healey. He took one shift early in the first period, took a minor penalty, and then watched from the box as the Islanders scored on the power play. He didn’t see the ice again, finishing the night with 42 seconds of playing time. Not great!
Maybe worse: Bryan McCabe’s nightmare game against the Flyers two years later, in which he went minus-5 while making plays like the one below. It got to the point where every time the Flyers scored, which was often, you just looked for No. 24 to come gliding into view.
McCabe played 25 minutes that night, or just over 24 more than Healey. But both guys had miserable games, the kind they’d probably rather forget ever playing in. And those are just the ones stuck in my broken Leafs fan mind. Surely there have been far worse. We just have to figure out how to look for them.
The minuses
Plus/minus is a bad stat, as you no doubt know if you’ve ever made the mistake of mentioning it in front of an analytics guy who’s still screaming at you from the bottom of your driveway to this day. But it’s bad because it’s so noisy, and the thing with noisy numbers is that they still hold value at the extremes.
We’ve already seen McCabe’s minus-5. Was that the worst single-game score ever? No. But as it turns out, it wasn’t far off. The record for the worst plus/minus in a playoff game is a minus-6, held by 14 different guys.
That list includes some darn good players, by the way, including Selke winners Bobby Clarke (against the Rangers in 1979) and Doug Gilmour (against the Kings in 1990). Former Conn Smythe winner Reggie Leach did it in the same game that Clarke did. Jets legend Thomas Steen once found himself sitting at minus-6 in the third period of a playoff game against the Oilers and was apparently so embarrassed that he got himself thrown out for fighting Paul Coffey, kind of.
Some of the other names aren’t as well known, like Steen’s linemate for that game, Bengt Lundholm. Defenseman Kevin Dahl joined the club as a rookie in 1993. Rick Chartraw did it in 1981. And the defense pairing of Brad Maxwell and Lars Lindgren both hit the mark in a 1985 game against the Oilers. Maxwell makes a solid claim for “worst ever” in that game, as he also took three minor penalties in the first period. The mid-’80s Oilers power play wasn’t very good, right?
If you’re looking for company for McCabe in the minus-5 club, there are 34 more names, including Chris Pronger, Mats Sundin, Dale Hawerchuk, Chris Kunitz and Brayden Point. That’s an important reminder: Even good players can have miserable nights. And for more proof, look no further than the Nashville pairing of Roman Josi and Shea Weber, who were on the ice for all five goals against in a 5-0 Game 7 loss back in…
This article was originally published by a theathletic.com . Read the Original article here. .