The Philadelphia Flyers are
flirting with history once again.
Throughout their storied history,
the Flyers have made it known
that they will battle tooth and
nail to have a chance to win the
Cup.
This year was no different; the
Flyers played their way into the
No. 2 seed of the Eastern
Conference. Lead by Claude
Giroux, who had the most points
on the team for the season, the
Flyers were dominant for most
of the season, flirting with the
best record in the NHL multiple
times.
The year started out great for
the Flyers, winning 40 games in
the first five months. The team
was on a emotional high, being
led by a rookie goalie who basically
came out of nowhere from
Russia, Sergi Bobrovsky, only
22 years old won 28 games and
had a 2.59 goals against average
and he also made his teammates
believe in him because he
showed poise and was playing
like a wiley veteran for a good
part of the season.
Unfortunately, the Flyers hit a
rough patch in March that had
the team feeling like they were
starting to spiral out of control,
losing 13 of their last 20. The
Bullies limped into the playoffs
with uninspired play and an
injury to one of the biggest leaders
on the team, Chris Pronger.
Peter Laviolette was not pleased
with his team and vowed that
they would turn it around in the
playoffs.
The Flyers drew the white-hot
Buffalo Sabres, winning their
last 8 out of 10 in the playoffs.
It was going to be a true test of
character for the Flyers, because
most of the analysts were picking
the Sabres to pull the upset.
Game One in Philadelphia was
true test of grit. The Flyers were
grinding it out and dominating
the game, but there was one
thing stopping the Flyers from
winning, and that was Sabres
goalie Ryan Miller, pitching a
shutout stopping 24 out of 24
shots. The Flyers, even though
losing Game One, were still confident
that they could beat the
Sabres.
The Flyers came out and did
just that in game two. It was the
complete opposite of game one,
with Flyers winning an offensive
battle 5-4. Bobrovsky, letting up
3 goals on 7 shots was quickly
pulled in favor of the veteran
Brian Boucher. Boucher stepped
into the game and played
extremely well, only letting up
one goal for the rest of the game.
The Flyers were led by committee
and had five players score
the 5 goals they had. This gave
the Bullies confidence that the
series is theirs.
Game Three meant that the
Flyers had to travel up into the
hostile envoirment of the HSBC
arena in Buffalo. The one thing
people might have forgotten was
that the Flyers were a better road
team than at home during the
season.
The Flyers came out firing on
all cylinders. With the addition
of an offensive weapon Nikolay
Zherdev getting the start to play
alongside Kris Versteeg, and the
captain Mike Richards, the line
started to show glimpses of fireworks.
Zherdev got his first
goal of his post season career
from a beautiful play created by
his line mates. Flyers defense
buried the hatchet on the Sabres,
winning 4-2, giving them a 2-1
lead in the series.
Game Four was a replay of
game one, with the Flyers dominating
the flow of the game and
possessing the puck most of the
game, but the man who came up
big again to give the Sabres a
pulse in this series was Ryan
Miller. Miller, getting his second
shutout of the series, played
even better this game than the
first, stopping 29 shots out of 29
and helping the Sabres tie the
series up two games apiece.
The Flyers beat the Sabres in the
series and will now have a
rematch against the Boston
Bruins. The Bruins were up three
games to nothing in the series in
the playoffs last year, until the
Flyers won the remaining four in
a row to advance to the STanley
Cup.
WIth this series starting on
April 30, this series is sure to be
a thrilling one as everyone hopes
the series will be as exciting as it
was last year.