News and opinion from the playoff front -- Imagine this scenario: One of the top teams in the league enters March riding high, in the lead of their division. Then, suddenly their luck changes for the worse. Their coach is diagnosed with cancer and is replaced behind the bench. Their star player and captain receives his fourth concussion of the year and is sidelined. What follows is even more improbable. The injured star faults his team's medical staff with misdiagnosing his injury. Then the team's GM strips him of his captaincy.
Welcome to The Days of Our Lives, Philly Style. Yet this drama does not reside in the mid-afternoon hours on network TV. It is playing it out on the arenas of the Eastern Conference and ESPN.
One would think this team would have been distracted by all the surrounding controversy. Certainly this team would not be knocking on the door of the Stanley Cup finals. Nevertheless, the Philadelphia Flyers have persevered. They are now one game away from a chance at hockey's Holy Grail.
They have achieved all this without Eric Lindros and Head Coach Roger Neilson, and with a rookie goalie, Brian Boucher, in net. It seems that the Flyers have thrived on adversity. Many hockey pundits, including myself, predicted Philly would bow out in the first round of the playoffs to Buffalo. Virtually no one was willing to say they would make the finals. Yet they defeated the mighty Dominik Hasek and the Sabres in five games in round one. This did not silence the critics.
When the Pittsburgh Penguins opened up a 2-0 lead at Philadelphia in the second round, people were again counting them out. The Flyers then took the hard road back, winning four in a row, including two overtime games to advance.
Their next foe was the New Jersey Devils, who had always vexed the Flyers. In fact, Philly had won only two of their previous 16 games against the Devils. Once again, the Flyers have beaten the odds and won three-straight to put the Devils' backs against the wall. One more win and the underestimated Flyers will return to the Stanley Cup Finals after a two-year hiatus.
This success in the face of adversity begs the question, why? Well, in the first place, Philly is more than a one-man team. People forget that Lindros is one among many solid players on their roster. Bruiser John Leclair has picked up the slack more than adequately, defining the role of power forward. His 12 playoff points include four power play goals. Playmaker Mark Recchi is leading the team with 16 points. Eric Desjardins has shown his veteran leadership as Lindos' replacement as captain.
Then there is the factor of the formerly untested Boucher in net. Goaltending has always been the Achilles Heel of the Flyers in the playoffs, and this year looked like no exception. However, Boucher has proved up to the task, compiling a 2.01 goals-against average and .922 save percentage. Not too shabby for a goalie who last year was manning the cage for the AHL Philadelphia Phantoms.
Proving the critics wrong seems to be the perfect inspiration for the Flyers. They are now hoping they can ride this inspiration all the way to the finals.
All is not quiet on the Western front either. On Sunday, the defending champion Dallas Stars tied things up with the Avalanche in a scrappy battle. When the game had been by the third period, each stoppage in play was accompanied by pushing and shoving and the occasional heavyweight fight (Derian Hatcher vs. Adam Deadmarsh). The difference lay with the goaltenders however, as has the rest of the series. Simply put, Ed Belfour dominated while Patrick Roy floundered.
Moving on, the question of which goaltender will show up tonight is the main concern for the Aves. Will it be the Roy who shutout Brett Hull, Mike Modano and the potent Stars offense twice, or the one who allowed three soft goals on Sunday? I'm sure both Dallas coach Ken Hitchcock and Aves coach Bob Hartley would love to know that. My guess is that the real Patrick will stand up. He didn't win 118 career playoff games for nothing.
Once again, the hockey gods have blessed us with an enjoyable playoff season. Where else can one see grown men risking life and limb merely for the glory of having their name inscribed alongside their boyhood heroes.
We can be sure that the road to a date with Lord Stanley's Cup is filled with many exciting and memorable moments. For some reason, I think Lord Stanley would have wanted it that way.
