Flyers Season Review (so far)

It’s hard to believe we are already here: halfway through the 2008 NHL Playoffs, with only four teams remaining. After the gruelling 82 game regular season and two hard fought rounds of hockey, it’s time to look back and reflect on what brought us here. This is the journey of the Philadelphia Flyers.

The 2007-08 Flyers roster gave hope to us fans who had just lived through the worst hockey season in Flyers history. After several deals at the 2007 trade deadline that saw Martin Biron, Scottie Upshall, and others come to Philadelphia, the Flyers made a splash in the off-season. The Flyers General Manager was able to sign star free agent Daniel Briere from Buffalo, and trade away the offensive defenseman Joni Pitkanen to Edmonton for a young kid by the name of Joffery Lupul and the captain of the Oilers, Jason Smith. Another defenseman, Kimmo Timonen, was brought in from Nashville along with Scott Hartnell, for a draft pick the Flyers had obtained in the exchange for Peter Forsberg at the deadline. Coming out of the off-season, the roster was a mixture of veteran leadership and talented youth.

The one position that had always held the Flyers back was their goaltending. This year there was hope that the goaltending problems had been solved by long time backup goalie in Buffalo, Marty Biron. Marty would prove throughout the year that he had learned a thing or two playing back-up to two of the leagues best goalies, Dominik Hasek and Ryan Miller, in Buffalo.

The season started off great. The Flyers were even within reach of the top of the conference, but things started to fall apart. Plagued by post concussion syndrome Simon Gagne, by far the best Flyers player last season, was forced to miss weeks, and eventually decided to end his season for good. This took its toll on the Flyers offence. The Flyers plummeted in the standings, falling out of the playoffs and were still there when March rolled around.

Despite this, some of the young guys on the team were still managing to make a name for themselves, especially Mike Richards. Not only did he secure a 12-year contract with the Flyers, he was also named to the NHL Eastern All-Star Team roster, along with defenseman Kimmo Timonen. Richards had picked up his game like those who had watched him in the minors knew he would. Then the injury bug struck again. Richards was gone with a torn hamstring, but once again the team rallied and others took over.

This time, it was Jeff Carter’s chance to shine. He helped the Flyers go 5-2-2 during Richards’ absence. Around trade deadline time, Carter’s name was rumoured to have been thrown around due to his lack of production, but Carter was able to turn it on when the Flyers needed it most.

The battles would not end with the regular season. They only got tougher. Due to the Flyers win in the last game and an Ottawa loss, the Flyers wound up finishing 6^th meaning they would play the 3^rd seeded team, the Washington Capitals.

The analysts were already writing the Flyers off, saying their defence was too slow to stop the offensively gifted Alexander Ovechkin. But, despite giving up lead after lead, they found themselves up 3-1 in the series. Unable to finish off the Caps in Washington they had the chance to win the series at home. Again they weren’t able to finish them off. The Flyers, once with a 3-1 series lead, were now facing the series tied at 3 and game 7 taking place in Washington. Once again the Flyers were able to battle back and prevailed in overtime in game 7. In the 2^nd round the Flyers were going to have to face the young, fast, and very talented Montreal Canadiens and their rookie sensation goalie, Carey Price.

After the Washington series some knew not to count out the Flyers, but few actually thought they would pull off the series win. However, with huge play from RJ Umberger and their own playoff rookie goaltender, they were able to come back after a blown lead and game 1 loss in overtime to win the next four straight and the series.

And now we look forward into the future, where the Flyers will take on state rivals, the Pittsburgh Penguins and their abundance of young talent, the likes of Sidney Crosby, Marc-Andre Fleury and their best playoff performer Evgeni ‘Geno’ Malkin. If this series lives up to the hype, it will go down as one of the best playoff series in recent history. So sit back and enjoy the 3^rd round of the 2008 NHL Playoffs. Lets go Flyers!

--kp