A list of an athlete’s most painful defeats would look a lot different than this one but, for Wayne Gretzky they’d match right up. Though the Edmonton Oilers blowing a 5-0 third-period lead in Game 3 of an 1982 playoff series isn’t necessarily on Gretzky – the team had six future Hall of Famers, after all – it effectively ended one of the greatest seasons in sports history. Gretzky had scored 212 points in the regular season (92 points and 120 assists to shatter his 1981 record of 164) and his Oilers figured to roll over a Kings team that finished 48 points behind them in the standings. But after the comeback started, Gretzky would add just two more points in the best-of-five loss. Not that this defeat lingered for too long. Much like Michael Jordan’s Bulls teams a few years later, Edmonton had to crawl before they could burst into full sprint: The team won five of the next seven Stanley Cups.
A list of an athlete’s most painful defeats would look a lot different than this one but, for Wayne Gretzky they’d match right up. Though the Edmonton Oilers blowing a 5-0 third-period lead in Game 3 of an 1982 playoff series isn’t necessarily on Gretzky – the team had six future Hall of Famers, after all – it effectively ended one of the greatest seasons in sports history. Gretzky had scored 212 points in the regular season (92 points and 120 assists to shatter his 1981 record of 164) and his Oilers figured to roll over a Kings team that finished 48 points behind them in the standings. But after the comeback started, Gretzky would add just two more points in the best-of-five loss. Not that this defeat lingered for too long. Much like Michael Jordan’s Bulls teams a few years later, Edmonton had to crawl before they could burst into full sprint: The team won five of the next seven Stanley Cups.