Friday, May 14, 2010

A Game 7 situation we didn't see coming


Philadelphia Flyers at +110 +1.5 (-275)
Boston Bruins -130 -1.5 (+235)

The Flyers will try and become the 3rd team in NHL history to come back from a 3 games to none deficit in a playoff series and win. Only twice in the history of this great game has that happened. It's almost hard to believe that with the amount of playoff series played every year and how hockey is a game where a goalie and take off and carry a team, that it hasn't happened since 1975. The New York Islanders were down 3-0 to the Pittsburgh Penguins when Hall of Fame coach huddled the team at practice and said "If there is anyone here that doesn't think we can win 4 in a row against Pittsburgh, get the heck off the ice."
I wonder if Peter Laviolette heard that story. I'm sure he has as Peter was a big part of the Islanders rebirth if you will getting them back to the playoffs in 2002 for the first time in 8 years. Al Arbour and that story probably gave him the motivation to keep his team fighting when as we look through history they basically had no shot.
But the Flyers got an overtime goal from injured Simon Gagne in game 4 that sent the series back to Boston. In Boston in game 5, the Flyers lost journeyman goalie to injury Brian Boucher and trotted out Micheal Leighton. The Bruins still couldn't score as Mark Recchi started to look his age and the Bruins weak forward unit were beaten and kept very far away from the score sheet. More of the same in game 6 as the Flyers were all over the Bruins most of the game and Leighton just had to stop the ones he was supposed to stop in order to get to a game 7.
So here we are, the Flyers have completely taken over this series and if they play the same way they have been, they will win tonight. The Bruins need to forget about everything that has happened these past 3 games and go out and play a great game. They need to find a way to get traffic in front of Leighton and be more hungry for rebounds. They won't score on skill or style. If not, the Flyers will be the 3rd team in NHL history that comes back from a 3-0 deficit. Not bad for a team that fired their coach, lost their starting goalie for almost the entire year, had to play their 5th string goalie for a period in a loss to the Islanders in early April and got into the playoffs by winning the last game of the season on a shootout.

Prediction: Flyers straight up

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