Neutral-Zone Crap: What's with all the comebacks?

An early trend has teams storming back to win, but we'll see if it lasts...The Toronto Maple Leafs are incredibly fragile...Retro uniform rankings...And a couple of 19-year-olds who intend to stick

The Vancouver Canucks have blown a lead in each of their first five games this season.

Through Thursday night’s games, the NHL had played 70 games this season. Would you believe that almost half of those games have been come-from-behind victories? One 34 occasions in this young season, games have been won by teams that staged comebacks. In fact, on Tuesday night there were eight games and in five of them, teams came back from multiple-goal deficits to gain victories. And in another game, the Ottawa Senators had a three-goal lead over the Boston Bruins and blew, then had another three-goal lead that they almost blew again before securing a 7-5 victory. The Vancouver Canucks have blown leads in each of their first five games.

In the parity-crazed NHL, stirring comebacks have become a lot more commonplace, unlike the days of the Dead Puck Era™, when a 1-0 lead in the first period was usually a recipe for victory. Scoring is trending up, which is one of the reasons why teams find it easier to get back into games, but part of it is that it’s early in the season. At least that’s how some coaches feel about it.