Alright, the complete list of players to lose two series that they were up 3-1 in.
I only included players who had 6 or 7 games. if they had 3-5 games, they had to have played in the losses.
3 Times, 3 Different Teams:
Keith Jones, Washington/Colorado/Philadelphia (1995, 1998, 2000)
3 Times, 2 Different Teams:
Keith Tkachuk, Winnipeg/Phoenix/St. Louis (1992, 1999, 2003)
Brooks Orpik, Pittsburgh/Washington (2011, 2014, 2015)
Matt Niskanen, Pittsburgh/Washington (2011, 2014, 2015)
3 Times, 3 Stints on 2 Teams:
Rick Tocchet, Philadelphia/Phoenix/Philadelphia (1988, 1999, 2000)
3 Times, Same Team:
Kelly Miller, Washington (1987, 1992, 1995)
Michal Pivonka, Washington (1987, 1992, 1995)
Teppo Numminen, Winnipeg/Phoenix (1990, 1992, 1999)
2 Times, Different Teams:
Dave Brown, Philadelphia/Edmonton (1988, 1989)
Doug Crossman, Philadelphia/Detroit (1988, 1991)
Jimmy Carson, Edmonton/Detroit (1989, 1991)
Al Iafrate, Toronto/Washington (1987, 1992)
Derrick Smith, Philadelphia/Minnesota (1988, 1992)
Gaetan Duchesne, Washington/Minnesota (1987, 1992)
Paul MacDermid, Winnipeg/Washington (1990, 1992)
Jim Johnson, Minnesota/Washington (1992, 1995)
Mike Eagles, Winnipeg/Washington (1992, 1995)
Mike Sullivan, Calgary/Phoenix (1994, 1999)
Robert Reichel, Calgary/Phoenix (1994, 1999)
Craig Berube, Washington/Philadelphia (1995, 2000)
Keith Primeau, Detroit/Philadelphia (1991, 2000)
Al MacInnis, Calgary/St.Louis (1994, 2003)
Trent Klatt, Minnesota/Vancouver (1992, 2003)
Dallas Drake, Phoenix/St.Louis (1999, 2003)
Scott Mellanby, Philadelphia/St. Louis (1988, 2003)
Sergei Gonchar, Washington/Boston (1995, 2004)
Dan McGillis, Philadelphia/Boston (2000, 2004)
Derek Morris, Colorado/NY Rangers (2003, 2009)
Markus Naslund, Vancouver/NY Rangers (2003, 2009)
Brendan Morrison, Vancouver/Washington (2003, 2010)
Mike Knuble, Boston/Washington (2004, 2010)
Todd Bertuzzi, Vancouver/Detroit (2003, 2013)
Joe Thornton, Boston/San Jose (2004, 2014)
2 Times, Same Team:
Fredrik Olausson, Winnipeg (1990, 1992)
Pat Elynuik, Winnipeg (1990, 1992)
Shawn Cronin, Winnipeg (1990, 1992)
Thomas Steen, Winnipeg (1990, 1992)
Kevin Hatcher, Washington (1987, 1992)
Rod Langway, Washington (1987, 1992)
Mike Ridley, Washington (1987, 1992)
Calle Johansson, Washington (1992, 1995)
Dale Hunter, Washington (1992, 1995)
Dmitri Khristich, Washington (1992, 1995)
Sylvain Cote, Washington (1992, 1995)
Peter Bondra, Washington (1992, 1995)
Adam Foote, Colorado (1998, 2003)
Joe Sakic, Colorado (1998, 2003)
Peter Forsberg, Colorado (1998, 2003)
Patrick Roy, Colorado (1998, 2003)
Chris Kunitz, Pittsburgh (2011, 2014)
Craig Adams, Pittsburgh (2011, 2014)
James Neal, Pittsburgh (2011, 2014)
Kris Letang, Pittsburgh (2011, 2014)
Marc-Andre Fleury, Pittsburgh (2011, 2014)
Paul Martin, Pittsburgh (2011, 2014)
Alexander Ovechkin, Washington (2010, 2015)
Brooks Laich, Washington (2010, 2015)
Eric Fehr, Washington (2010, 2015)
Jason Chimera, Washington (2010, 2015)
John Carlson, Washington (2010, 2015)
Mike Green, Washington (2010, 2015)
Nicklas Backstrom, Washington (2010, 2015)
Almost every one of these post-1975 teams have a connection to another one. The exceptions are:
- The 1998 Avalanche. When they blew the series against the Oilers, no one on the team had ever done that, and no one would ever do it again for another team, though four of them would be around five years later when they turned the trick against the Wild. (Edit... Oops! Forgot about Jones)
- The 2010 Bruins. No one on that team had ever blown a 3-1 lead before, and no one on that team ever has since. (Though the seven surviving players are scattered on Edmonton, Buffalo, Islanders, and Winnipeg, with three on the Bruins, so there's plenty of chances for it to happen. It almost did last year)
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The 87-95 Capitals had nine players blow two series with them: Pivonka, Miller, Bondra, Langway, Hatcher, Ridley, Johansson, Hunter, Cote and Khristich. Pivonka and Miller were there for all three.
The choking flu may have started in Washington. They had it bad for a nine-season span, during which time they brought in players with experience choking in three different cities. Just after they beat their illness (for 15 years at least), three of their ex-players spread it to three new cities: Gonchar (Boston), Jones (Colorado), and Berube (Philadelphia).
The 2011-2014 Penguins had 8 repeat chokers, though Malkin and Crosby are not among them. Missing one of those players each time is probably precisely why they choked.
Can you believe Winnipeg had only five players who played in the whole 1990 series and the whole 1992 series two years later?
In the span that Keith Jones choked three times, only one other team in the league managed to do it once! It happened four times in a six-season span, and three of those four times, Jones was involved.
Players whose chokes spanned ten seasons: Mellanby (16), Tocchet (13), Tkachuk (12), Klatt (12), Bertuzzi (11), Thornton (11), Primeau (10), MacInnis (10), Gonchar (10).
Captains on this list: Ovechkin (2), Langway (2), Sakic (2), Tkachuk (1), Hunter (1), Steen (1), MacInnis (1), Naslund (1), Thornton (1). These are, of course, not the only captains to blow a series, just the only ones who blew a series multiple times, AND were captain at least one of those times.
There have been 62 players who have suffered this fate two or more times. Keith Tkachuk, the reason this conversation began, is in some pretty elite company, though: One of only eight to do it three times, and one of only four to do it twice for one franchise and once for another.
Only goalies on the list did pretty well for themselves otherwise...