Well, I have to say that I didn't expect much from the Flyers this year. They struggled a bit during the regular season and they ended the season barely getting into the playoffs, by the skin of their teeth in fact. I was fortunate enough to get a phone call from a friend informing me that this end season game would be televised so I made a point to record it. What a game! It was against the Rangers and went all the way into overtime. Then the 4 on 4 five minute overtime lapsed and it went to a shootout. Luckily, the Flyers won the shootout and they advanced to the playoffs.
The bummer was that for some reason, almost none of the Flyers games were televised on Versus or the Networks or otherwise (and I have a basic sports package on Direct TV to boot). So, they sweep the Devils and I saw nary a game. But then came Boston. I didn't get to see many of those games initially, Lisa and I were ensconced in routing for the Canuckle-heads at the time and the Flyers were having their asses handed to them anyway. Ultimately though, the Canucks got beat by Chicago in a hideous game six that made you want to vomit. Their defense absolutely sucked! And, of course, Luongo, their goalie, got most of the blame. I blame the haphazard defense that throws a hapless puck across ice in their own zone in front of incoming Chicago forwards with no recourse.
Well, enough of the Canucks, the series and game of the season so far has to be Flyers v. Boston. Right out of the shoot, Boston tallies up three straight wins against the Flyers who'd just swept the New Jersey Devils. But the Flyers never said die and kept themselves alive by winning the next three games with the help of returning scoring star Simon Gagne. In fact, Boucher their starting goalie, gets injured in game 5 and is forced to retire for the rest of the season but the Flyers backup goalie, Leighton takes over, continues the shutout Boucher started and they force a game 6. Leighton continues the streak with the Flyers and force a game 7.
Since the Canucks were out, Lisa and I did watch some of the Montreal v. Pittsburgh games and actually cheered on the Habs. But nothing compared to watching game 7 of the Boston v. Philadelphia game. The Flyers come back from 3 games down in the series to force a game 7 with a backup goalie. Game 7 commences and Boston rips 3 goals past the newly appointed Flyer tender in the first period. At this point, I had taken off my Flyers jersey thinking they were done like dinner and wearing the jersey would only make me feel worse. But, with less than 6 minutes left in the first, Flyer coach Laviolette calls a crucial time out to slow the pace and get the team thinking "score a goal". They do and close out the first period down 3 - 1 but not out.
Early in the second, the Flyers go on to score another goal then another goal and end the second period tied at 3 - 3. With just over 7 minutes left in the third period, Simon Gagne scores the winning goal and the series is over with the Flyers making a historic comeback that few teams in the history of sports have ever done. They will be listed as one of the few: "Forever more, whenever a playoff series in any sport finds one team ahead of another three games-to-none, the list of teams that came back to win will now read:
1942 Maple Leafs, 1975 Islanders, 2004 Red Sox, 2010 Flyers."
So far, early in the semi-finals versus the Habs of Montreal, the Flyers have continued their historic run by stunning the Canadiens with back to back shutouts by a backup goalie 6 - 0 and 3 - 0. I'll be watching with baited breath for sure and not wearing my Flyer jersey until they bring home the Stanley Cup!
No comments:
Post a Comment