BillyV's Blog

5/4/08

On to the conference finals.  The Flyers are a Corvette ZO6, on their way to turning into a Lamborghini, tearing through opponents at an incresingly faster pace.  

When they took a 3-1 lead in their first series with Washington, then lost the next two and had to go to a deciding game 7, people said they didn’t know how to put a team away.  So, after they took a 3-1 lead over Montreal, many in the media kept asking if the Flyers had learned a lesson from the earlier series.  Personally, I didn’t think there was anything to learn.  It’s not like they didn’t try to win games 5 and 6 against Washington, or like they took the Caps for granted. Sometimes the other team just plays well with their backs to the wall.

But maybe I was wrong.  Maybe there was something about the first series that gave the Fl;yers some insight and allowed them to put away Montreal without delay.   I do know that they got tremendous goaltending from Marty Biron in the games where their offense (and their power play) wasn’t very good.  Then, in that last game when Biron let a few go in, the Flyers own offense went into high gear, allowing them to win 6-4. 

I also know that certain players found a great groove in the series with the Canadiens, the most obvious being R.J. Umberger.  After scoring one goal in seven games against the Caps, he broke through for an amazing 8 goals in 5 games against Montreal.  His two goals, plus an assist, were a big part of the win last night that eliminated the Canadiens.

Everything is working for the Flyers right now.  Let’s see if that continues to be the case in the conference finals.  They’ll be playing the Pittsburgh Penguins, who eliminated the New York Rangers this afternoon.   Not to take anything away from the Flyers performance against the top-seeded Canadiens, but the Penguins are, I think, an even better team that Montreal. 

I remember being at that incredible five-overtime game until the wee hours of the morning the last time the Flyers and Penguins met in the postseason in the year 2000.  Should be another exciting series ahead.