The Flyers don’t deal with elimination well. Last season, they took a similar but slightly different path to extinction at the hands of these same Penguins with a nationally televised 6-0 stomping in game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Skip over the year they missed the playoffs entirely to May of 2006, where their season ended with a 7-1 thumping by the Sabres in game 6 of the first round. Now jump back to the present day, where the Orange & Black enter Mellon Arena, a venue they haven’t had playoff success in since 2000, and you have all the makings of another embarrassing exit. The players and coaches have been saying all season how well the team can play when their backs are against the wall. They play at their highest level when everything is on the line. So tonight, we win… right?
Well, using the past as my guide to answer that fateful question, I’d have to answer with a big fat NO. The Sabres loss was BAD… and I mean really bad. They pushed poor Peter Forsberg around all series, until games 3 and 4 where the great Swede literally strapped the Flyers to his back. It all came apart in the following two games. The worst part about that 6 goal loss in game 6 was that it was in front of a home crowd. I watched that game at a bar in downtown Philly and just couldn’t believe my eyes. By the 5th or 6th goal, I was laughing at the futility of the whole scenario. Last season, I decided to watch game 5 at the Wachovia center, with its ice covered by the turf of the future champion Philadelphia Soul. Pretty much the same outcome as before, but this time they had the decency to do it in Pittsburgh.
Is the probability of defeat really that high? Well… no. If you listen to anyone rational (meaning not Pens fans) then you would know that the Flyers have dominated the majority of these games as the series has progressed. Game 1 was a wash, but Game 2 ended controversially in OT and had the Flyers leading for more than half of the game. Game three was a huge lopsided victory for Philly with Giroux taking over in the 2nd and 3rd period. Game 4 was once again a tight match that came down to an empty net goal with under a minute to go. Malkin and Crosby have not lived up to the pre-series hype, with Sid scoring only two goals so far… and neither of them came off the blade of his stick. Marc Andre Fleury has been oh-so-human till game 4 where he turned aside 46 shots. None of the experts (you know, the people that get paid to write) think he can replicate that type of performance two games in a row. Add that up, and there’s still a improbable chance.
On the Flyers side, you can’t help but be a little disappointed in the “six.” That would be the six 25 or more goal scorers that have all but disappeared in these playoffs. Disappointment can also be leveled on our captain, Mike Richards. His assist in game 4 for Dan Carcillo’s goal came off a pretty move and shot, but it still isn’t good enough. His two monstrous hits were amazing, but don’t you wish they were on people a little more important than Rob Scuderi? Mike Knuble is having an awful series, and you would think that he’d score at least a goal in ONE of the Flyers’ 8 power plays from the other night. Carter, Hartnell, Lupul, Briere… the list goes on and on for players that haven’t shown up yet, and it’s literally (possibly) one game from being over. Biron hasn’t been awful this round, but he also hasn’t stolen a game yet and you wonder what that will do to his potential resigning in the offseason.
Winning three games in a row to advance to another round has never been done by the Philadelphia Flyers before. Ever. I’ve spoken before about sports teams following scripts in Philadelphia. So far, this team is balls deep in the final pages of “First Round Exit” featuring star actor, Sidney Crosby. I also spoke before about the gap that is widening between these two teams. I must admit that the games themselves and the stats are pretty damn close, but the outcomes aren’t. The “new” Penguins are currently 7-2 against us in the Playoffs. If they eliminate us tonight, or in games 6 or 7, then you can’t help but think the Penguins are in a higher bracket than the Flyers. Lose tonight, or lose this series at all, and you throw away all the progress that came from last season. But first thing is first. You focus on tonight with the goal of getting back to game 6 on home ice. Pens head coach Dan Bylsma said he literally felt the earth shake beneath his feet when Carcillo cut the lead in two in Game 4. Get back here down 3-2 and the home crowd in all it pretentiousness means something. We all know the success they had last year in the first round game 7 against the Caps. This isn’t impossible, just highly unlikely. What do you think? Can they do it…?
Enjoy the game (I hope you do).
Original Story:
http://www.the700level.com/2009/04/fl...
