Tempus Fugit

The 1987 Stanley Cup Finals were rapidly approaching June, and the Oilers were on the verge of winning their third Cup in four seasons.

Game 6 returned to the Spectrum in South Philadelphia on Thursday, May 28^th, with Edmonton holding a three games to two series lead. It could have been, should have been all over two nights before but the Oilers blew leads of 2-0 and 3-1 in Game 5 as the Flyers shocked the hockey world by pulling out a thrilling 4-3 win at Northlands Coliseum thanks to Brian Propp’s four assists and Rick Tocchet’s game-winning goal.

However, the shift away from the distractions of home seemed to power the visitors, who scored twice in the first period and out shot the Flyers by an incredible 15-5 margin. The goals were not classics, as Kevin Lowe scored when he booted in a wraparound pass by Wayne Gretzky then Kevin McClelland stuffed home the rebound of Craig MacTavish’s shot in close.

Philly seemed tired and lost until Lindsay Carson’s goal with a little more than seven minutes gone in the second cut into their deficit. Even then luck was a huge factor since Oilers goalie Grant Fuhr appeared to stone Carson cold on the shot, only to see it trickle through his pads and curl inside the right post.

Down by a goal heading into the third, the Flyers had only 13 shots, came up empty in four power-play chances, and gave up a shorthanded goal. It looked like Edmonton had the game wrapped up in a defensive shell, until Glenn Anderson decided to turn his stick into the side of Peter Zezel’s face with 7:39 to play.

Propp tied the game with a beautiful snap shot which beat Fuhr’s glove in the top left corner 43 seconds later and finally things were looking a lot less bleak. Over a minute later, J.J. Daigneault, little used in the game to that point stepped up to greet the puck and into franchise lore with 5:32 to play in regulation…

http://youtube.com/watch?v=aP0cKGcIaSU

Of course, history records that after Daigneault’s go-ahead score, nothing else happened as the Flyers marched on to victory and Game 7 returned to Edmonton three days later.

Not so. Not by a long shot.

The Oilers kept coming in waves over the final five-plus minutes, and it took a heroic effort by each Flyers line to keep them at bay. Fuhr went to the bench for an extra attacker with just over a minute to go, and Tocchet had two chances to ice the game with an empty-netter but failed. After the second attempt with 20 seconds left, Paul Coffey fed ahead for the rush and Kent Nilsson’s missed outlet through center ice went into the Flyers’ zone. Hextall came out to the edge of the right circle to play it, and decided it was a good time to shoot for the empty net right up the center of the ice.

Except…Mark Messier smartly read the play, came zooming up the middle and used the full extension of his body plus a few inches off the ice to grab the clear. He skated in on Hextall with no Flyers player within 10 feet, and got off a shot which Hexy kicked out – but right back to Messier, who thankfully pushed the second shot over the net. He backhanded a blind clear through the crease all the way back to defenseman Randy Gregg, but his weaker point shot was knocked down by Mark Howe’s thigh with two seconds to go.

When the clock finally hit three zeroes, the Spectrum crowd erupted with a sonic thrust that did not subside for almost 15 minutes. Gene Hart’s call of those final frantic seconds was almost unintelligible on TV and radio due to the noise bouncing off the walls of the venerable arena.

Wrote Al Morganti in the opening paragraph of his story in the following day’s Inquirer: “This was the type of comeback, the type of gut-busting effort, with which the Flyers have established a very special place in Philadelphia sports history.”

Narrator Earl Mann put it more dramatically in “Blood, Sweat and Cheers,” the story of that 1986-87 squad: “The legend of this team and this series will live on forever for those that witnessed it.”

For anyone under the age of 40, this remains the defining moment in Flyers history. Even the surprise run in 1995, the first three-quarters of the 1997 playoffs, and the miraculous 2000 journey all pale in comparison collectively.

The buzz in the whole Delaware Valley over the next three days was so positive and wondrous, because the Stanley Cup was there for the taking in a deciding seventh game. We should all be so lucky if a future Cup winning Flyers team garners one-third the respect the 1987 team earned.

For now, 20 years to the day, it’s nothing more than a distant poignant memory, caught up in the emotion of the ensuing years of heartbreak.

Stanley Cup Finals Preview

Ottawa and Anaheim clash for the Stanley Cup beginning tonight, a seven-game, 15-day odyssey which will see one of these teams win the first title in franchise history.

No Canadian team has hoisted the Cup since Montreal's 5-game triumph over Los Angeles back in 1993, and only three Canadian teams since then have competed in the Finals (Vancouver - 1994; Calgary 2004; Edmonton 2006) since then.

Although the Senators now consider their original team which disbanded in 1935 as part of this current regime, the NHL considers this Ottawa franchise separate due to the intervening 57 year gap. Captain Daniel Alfredsson's hard work and perseverance may finally pay off, as he is the longest-serving Senator, having played in every Ottawa postseason game since their first appearance in 1997. The key to success for the Sens is a successful transition game, constant pressure in all three zones, and the ability of more than one line to score. Sixteen different players have scored, yet the point totals are overwhelmingly in favor of the top line of Heatley-Alfredsson-Spezza (58 of 128 total points). The other three lines must assert themselves more, and find bigger roles than just supporting players. Of course, goaltender Ray Emery has to keep on keepin' on, a mobile, agile and hostile kung-fu genius totally ensconced in his own head.

On the other hand, the Ducks get their second crack in team history to bring home the Cup. No team from California has won, and only the Kings in 1993 played for the trophy, in league annals. Anaheim lost a well-played and heatbreaking seven-game set to the Devils in 2003 - a fact not lost on Anaheim goaltender Jean-Sebastein Giguere who upstaged Martin Brodeur to take home Conn Smythe Trophy honors as playoff MVP. He is one of only two players left from that club, bolstered by multiple-Cup-winner Scott Niedermayer, and last year's runner-up Chris Pronger on defense. Veteran goal-machine Teemu Selanne now gets his shot to win, and let's hope he doesn't float like he did for most of the Detroit series. There should be no concern over losing Chris Kunitz to his broken hand - Travis Moen and Sami Pahlsson have stepped up to provide extra offensive punch in a way Mike Comrie and Oleg Saprykin need to for Ottawa.

I don't see one team imposing their will on the other for more than a few minute-stretches of each game. Barring injury or excessively undisciplined play, it should be a long and exciting series. If both teams can keep the miscues to a minimum, it will reduce stress on the defense and goaltending, and since both teams are both fearless and physically imposing, you might see a lot of open ice in 4-on-4 situations.

That said, I give the edge to the Senators offensively, and to the Ducks on the back end. The goaltending is a push, though Giguere has the added badge of having been here before and carried his club. Power-play goes to the Senators, and even strength to the Ducks, who can play any style which game flow dictates. Intangibles go to Ottawa, which is now dedicating their Finals run to the little three-year-old fan and recent cancer victim who adopted the team as his own.

Prediction: Man, is this one painful to figure out. By another coin flip, it's Anaheim in seven.

Turn Out the Lights, The Party's Over

Just learned through watching TSN Canada at work, that the Predators are about to be sold to Jim Balsillie - the same Canadian billionaire who almost had the winning bid for the Penguins back in January.

Watching the playoffs, you could tell something was up with the franchise. Although the rumors got as far as the Canadian answer to ESPN (because ESPN USA can't be bothered with hockey beyond Barry Melrose on Thursdays) they were unsettling enough to start believing something was going down in the off-season.

It's a pity that the Preds had to win a division title, 50+ games, then flame out in the first round again for all this to come to the surface, but I know I'm not alone in saying that I was really uncomfortable having a hockey team in the home of country music. They were originally on my hit list during the cancelled season, one of four teams that I thought should be contracted to get the lague back on track. Now, with Balsillie's letter of intent, which is more ironclad than that Pittsburgh one, Nashville will most likely not be in Nashville after next season.

Of course, as it stands now, nobody knows what Jim Balsillie will do. But let's recount the journey he's taken just since the turn of the New Year: Stepping up to purchase a struggling Penguins team on the verge of moving - all the while suggesting that the right thing to do with his purchase was to find a more economically viable location. Hamilton, Ontario was floated as his primary choice, followed by Winnipeg, Quebec, Hartford and Houston. Now, he steps up to sign a letter of intent - with prior ownership's backing - to purchase the Predators franchise which has been hemorrhaging money as an expansion team for years, and these two first-round failures put extra pressure on the business operation.

Since Balsillie would automatically be worth more money than virtually all other NHL team owners, he'd want to use that financial power to exercise some influence to move the club somewhere else. Because the NHL is already trying to monkey around with the schedule system and the division alignment following next season, I'd expect a relocation to pass with little opposition. Also, the fact that he's taking over one of the so-called "small market" teams will give him certain additional leverage with the Commissioner, whose job it has been to balance things more financially between market sizes.

Thus, Balsille can shift from the public perception of a younger Monty Burns trying to steal away a team from the hearts of the dedicated, to an unwitting hero about to rescue the NHL from its shaky experiment in the Southern reaches of the United States.

Don't get me wrong - I thought it a great gesture on Paul Kariya's part to place his newfound faith in the NHL and bring his leadership to the Preds two summers ago. I also thought it a great shot in the arm that David Legwand chose to and Tomas Vokoun both chose to stay after starting their careers with the then-expansion team, and that J.P. Dumont and Jason Arnott saw the Predators as a team with which to grow. However, it hasn't been a revelation that Nashville has been losing money while not garnering the support of butts in seats which it has required.

Recall the promise in 2003, that if the Preds didn't make the playoffs, season ticket holders would get a drastic reduction for the following season. If anything, it hastened Steve Sullivan's arrival in town, which had a direct effect on that season's successful capture of a playoff berth. It's also natural to expect a deep playoff run in subsequent seasons which will fill the crater of operating a team with the extra revenue of additional playoff home games; this didn't happen as the Preds were bounced in the opening round by the Sharks the last two years, with only six postseason home dates.

If playoff flameouts by division winners has been the downfall in established markets (like the downturn the Flyers suffered through in the early 1980's), think of the repercussions in a market which never got the support in the first place. This is where Balsillie can become a conquering hero.

True, his first choice of Hamilton would further split the 100-mile area between Toronto and Buffalo with a third team, but since the region has almost a million people (plus a long-time AHL fan base), it just might work after an upgrade to Copps Coliseum. In Winnipeg, a new arena awaits, and in Connecticut, two million fans wait with bated breath for the NHL's return. After the slow leak of money out of the Music City, even a billionaire with vast resources can see that pouring money into someplace where you won't get it back isn't a wise choice, even if you can recover those losses somewhere else.

I would venture to say, that unlike Florida and North Carolina, hockey in Nashville won't really be missed - and it has little to do with the Appalachian/Southern stereotypes of NASCAR-lovers and such. The region has an entrenched baseball, football and basketball history which remains strong, and unlike Kansas City or Atlanta, wouldn't be ridiculed for its failure given enough time to analyze.

I would also say that because of the cracks now appearing in the finances and fan base of certain Southern teams, it's time for people in the colder climates to get moving. It's not enough just to stand pat and say you deserve a team because of rich hockey heritage; you've got to get the people behind it, push through the funds, build the arena, and get fan interest into a frenzy. The NHL is still a business; you have to put together a fancy pitch which will make it impossible for the league to deny your city when faced with a better pure business opportunity somewhere else.

A man with billions of dollars and a pipe dream to move an existing club to your town only comes along once in a blue moon.

Make Your Own Breaks

If there's one thing to glean about the games this weekend in each Conference Final, it's that talent alone and past performance really don't have anything to do with future success.

In the Buffalo-Ottawa series, the Sabres basically got lucky in Game 4, catching the Sens off guard with the goal nine seconds in. I don't know if being at home naturally slipped Buffalo into a comfort zone, expecting the crowd and the home ice to be what carried them to victory, but it didn't work in Game 5. For the fourth time in the series, Buffalo was out-worked and out-hustled after going up 1-0 early in the game. Of course, it being an elimination contest, you'd have to expect the burst of energy which preceded the Sabres' tying goal, but where was the urgency after that? In overtime, the Senators threw a blanket over Buffalo, then capitalized on a lucky break - the fact that three Sabres defenders were within 10 feet of Daniel Alfredsson yet barely touched him, and one was used as a screen before the game-winning shot.

Aside from that, the most obvious and telling reasons that Ottawa has reached the finals, is that every player on the ice has executed his job, and even the top line is no longer afraid to work in the corners and work inside the give-and-take of playoff punishment.

Yesterday's Ducks-Red Wings game was a prime example of how working to make your own luck can turn the tide of a series. The Wings held a 34-18 advantage in shots after 60 minutes of play, and for most of the contest were seen buzzing around their opponents in all three zones. That said, there was little finishing ability and a dearth of quality scoring chances for Detroit - and the goal they did score was aided by a tussle going on in the crease which distracted Jean-Sebastien Giguere just enough. I got the sense that all Anaheim was doing, and needed to do, was lay in wait for the one or two chances they had to score, which is smart considering Joe Louis Arena can be an intimidating place to play deep into a playoff round. They lucked out in that pretty much their only two opportunities came so close to each other late in the game and then early in overtime. Still, it takes a cool hand to make it all work, and it's also no shock that Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne were the veterans who showed stones of solid brass to finish off their plays.

Anaheim would be wise to go for broke in Game 6 at home, because the worst that can happen is a Game 7 in Detroit, and the Ducks have already shown mettle in winning a pair of overtime games at the Joe.

And speaking of breaks...My colleague at work already broached the subject with a good column, but I'm still mystified as to why NBC would switch over from the Sens-Sabres a full 70 minutes before the Preakness? Let's face facts, the game was going to be pre-empted or switched or whatever, because the gambling community in this country has it in for horses welll ahead of hockey. I'll even grant you that the space between the end of regulation and the start of overtime is as good a break as any, but it was a mistake to send the game to Versus so soon.

Even with a bit of rudimentary math, NBC would have been safe to keep the game on air before the race. The third period concluded at 4:50 pm, and intermission lasts no longer than 15 minutes. Even if NBC showed a full overtime without anyone scoring to decide the game a 20-minute playoff period lasts no longer than 35 minutes. They could have been safe to switch after a first OT somewhere around 5:40 pm, and have only 20 minutes of useless pre-game before the race. All of that was rendered moot anyhow, since the game concluded midway through OT.

The fact that not everybody in the country was able to see overtime because it was not an automatic switch to Versus? Nothing short of a complete travesty.

Coming off the aborted 2004-2005 season, I finally caved and realized the only way for the league to thrive was to make it the best fourth-tier sport in America. I wanted contraction, four divisions, losing teams making the playoffs to make it easier for the top teams to advance, and a television contract like the one currently in use. I was willing to accept the actual TV deal as a joke, but the internal decisions which govern who gets to see what games when is what will prove to be the death knell for the sport.

Despite beloved team, Philly's not really a hockey hotbed

You’d think one of the top five media markets in the NHL, and a franchise that has enjoyed 40 seasons of mostly successful hockey, would capture enough young minds to eventually churn out some top-flight prospects into the college ranks and into the league.

And you’d be dead wrong.

The supposed hockey boom throughout the Delaware Valley that was supposedly created due to the Flyers’ success through the 1970’s and 1980’s hasn’t really panned out. In spite of the fact that the core members of those Cup Winners settled in South Jersey or the Pennsylvania side of the river, had hockey playing kids and lent their hand to some leagues, there are precious few names that come to mind when talking local product.

By my count, there are only 10. And did I ever have to rack the inner recesses of my gray matter to come up with that many.

The prospect currently generating buzz around these parts is one Bobby Ryan. He’s a 20-year-old out of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, the second overall choice of Anaheim in the 2005 Draft. His story, chronicled around that time by the Inquirer, details a life less ordinary, and shocking by all accounts. Long story short, he was a pawn in his father’s game of eluding authorities after the attempted murder of his wife - Bobby’s mother. Ryan isn’t even his real last name. Regardless, he has risen from those lurid times to become a highly-touted player out of the Ontario Hockey League and looks to be a permanent member of the Ducks’ AHL affiliate in Portland, Maine this season.

Next on the list is Mark Eaton, the area’s lone success story. A native of Wilmington and graduate of Notre Dame, Eaton began his NHL career with the Flyers in 1998. Nine years and two teams later, he’s a part-time veteran defensive cornerstone to the Penguins’ youthful proto-dynasty. At least he got to The Show, and has carved out a niche as a defensive-minded backliner with some talent on both sides of the puck.

After that, the picture gets murky. Jay Caufield was the first to come from the region and earn a reputation (with the hated New York Rangers in 1986-87), but he didn’t so much as look at a pair of skates until high school. Plus, aside from his fistic abilities, his career can be summed up as the result of a close friendship with Mario Lemieux.

Tony Voce, a Northeast Philly boy and Boston College captain, won a title with the Eagles in 2001, and was signed by the Flyers as a free agent. He spent one year at Archbishop Ryan before going the path most players need to make, heading to Connecticut’s Canterbury School for a higher level of prep school competition. After two seasons with the Phantoms which included a Calder Cup in 2005, he was “acquired” under odd circumstances by Grand Rapids this past Winter after an alleged altercation with head coach Kjell Samuelsson.

Ryan Gunderson, who continued to learn his trade at the University of Vermont, tore up the Lower Bucks league while attending Holy Ghost Prep. However, he didn’t crack the 10-goal plateau in any season in Burlington against elite Hockey East competition, and remains un-drafted following his senior season.

Vince Clevenger is probably the least recognizable name on the list, even to those who are in the know about regional hockey. A native of West Chester, he also attended Canterbury, then went on to a solid four-year career as a third-line player with Merrimack College from 1997-2001. He entered the real world upon graduation.

Two Havertown, PA products, Ryan and Matt Mulhern had their shot to make it as well. Ryan, the elder brother, was an eighth round pick of Calgary in 1992. He played collegiately at Brown, then spent time in the ECHL before becoming a fan favorite with the Portland Pirates, then the affiliate for the Washington Capitals. He had one cup of coffee (three games with Washington in 1997-98) before leaving the game in 2000. Matt had a successful career at Canterbury, then a four-year stint as a penalty-killing specialist at Boston College, but his career was cut short by knee injuries in the ECHL. He now coaches the varsity boys’ team at The Hill School in Pottstown, PA.

At the bottom of the barrel are Ryan Sittler and Ray Staszak. Sittler was not born here, but was raised here when his father, Hall-of-Famer Darryl Sittler, played with the Flyers in the early 1980’s. Philly made him their seventh-overall pick in 1992, but he only reached the Hershey Bears for 49 games over two seasons.

Staszak had the honor of being the very first Philadelphia native to play in the NHL, but his career lasted all of four games with Detroit in 1985. Another Ryan graduate, he was one of a group of signings for the Red Wings in what became a notoriously dismal 17-win and 40-point season.

Although there are rinks that spring up in selected locations throughout the region from Reading to Vineland, the Philadelphia area is still ill-suited to producing talent like traditional spots in colder climates.

The first impediment is the lack of Division I game in the city. Penn used to have a top-level program in the ECAC until the Ivy League decided to go to I-AA and dropped hockey to club level. St. Joseph’s, Drexel, LaSalle and Temple have good second-division teams, and several smaller colleges offer competition, but it pales in comparison to Boston, Detroit, or Minneapolis.

Another oft-quoted fact is that the Wachovia Center is so distant from Center City and the city’s college campuses. It was a major factor in the NCAA’s decision to have a future Frozen Four in Washington, D.C. where the MCI Center is in a central location.

Second, hockey isn’t woven into the fabric of life like the above cities due to the climate, the relative newness of the sport to the area, and the fact that the city has always boasted basketball as its top export. When it’s 55 degrees outside in January, there aren’t too many kids who want to get exercise in a place where it’s colder. Besides, 55 degrees in January is more likely a fantasy to a kid living in Eden Prairie, Minnesota or Medford, Massachusetts. Even at the existing rinks here, there are only a hardcore few people – mostly volunteer parents – who operate leagues and sponsor teams, and these dedicated few are barely enough to keep things going. In some cases, if a former Flyers great does not have some hand in keeping the dream alive with financial or spiritual support, these things collapse.

Third, the suburban structure of the Delaware Valley doesn’t lend itself to an all-encompassing growth of the sport. In Boston, Detroit, and the Twin Cities, there are numerous autonomous outlying towns that support their own teams and schools and leagues with their own rinks. There is more sense of civic pride and involvement, and every school has a scholastic squad and every town has a traveling team.

The fact that Philly and Jersey suburbs are divided into townships inhibits growth because of distance – many kids have to cross the river into Jersey to play, and even St. Joseph’s University has to scrounge for ice time in Oaks, which is more than 30 miles from campus. Rink construction is by and large done in strategic locations, but in places like Havertown’s Skatium, up to a dozen teams call it home and a dozen more play a handful of games there each season.

Also, the sacrifices of parents and players in trying to find a good fit and some fun takes a toll and thins the ranks. I know, because I was one of them. I quit playing after 8^th grade because my high school didn’t have a team, and I didn’t think it was worth it to try and shoehorn a traveling-team schedule into a tough academic one. Now I’m stuck with the Al Bundy-like remembrance of a four-goal game I had at Rizzo Rink back in 1991 at the ripe old age of 13.

Finally, the level of high-school-age competition is nowhere close to those in the New England Prep Leagues, the USHL, or Canadian juniors. There is no question that you need to leave the area to have a shot to make it – so you have players like Voce who spend five years in secondary education just to get an edge. Gunderson may have actually harmed his chances for the big time by staying at Holy Ghost, and it isn’t a surprise he was chosen by Vermont, a program just now getting to its feet after a devastating hazing scandal.

If there are only a select few kids even willing to break through all the barriers just to earn a fleeting chance, no wonder 10 names in 22 years were hard to come by.And if you think a series of “hometown boy makes good” stories are also the best move to generate interest in your dead-last Philadelphia Flyers, think again. The Boston Bruins have made pathologically inept attempts in recent years to bring back nearly every player either born in the Boston area or who played in Hockey East, to no avail.

Nonetheless, the system can’t be knocked. There are thousands of youngsters who put on their skates at a young enough age to get hooked. Memories abound of hallway hockey on road trips, a run to the state finals, or hot cocoa after a disheartening loss. The ride lasts until they’re 18, which is a pretty good chunk of time to emulate their heroes.

Even though it’s perfectly all right to dream, don’t confuse the ability to play with the ability to become one of the best – because the overwhelming truth of the matter is, if you’re born here you’ll make your living at something else.

Around the Rink: Mayflower Edition

"I went to a basketball game and a hockey brawl broke out..."

It's really odd to see that the Spurs-Suns NBA playoff series features more hitting and dirty play than virtually all of the NHL playoff games this season combined. I know the NHL wants to feature higher quality action, and by that I guess they mean a constant flow on the ice which incorporates more skill than grit, but I think the NHL playoff game this postseason has lost some of its unique flavor.

I really shouldn't be surprised, because I recall 10 years ago that the Bulls, Knicks and Miami Heat all engaged in post-whistle ruckuses that were right on par with the Red Wings and Avalanche.

Even in the Buffalo-Ottawa series, given the bad blood from the regular season, the play is not as centered on fierce battles in the corners and devastating checks as much as it is puck possession and making sure each player knows his proper position in all three zones. You still have the heart, soul and zeal to win the Cup which exists on every shift, but the willingness to throw oneself into the path of danger with a huge hit, or to take a risk and try to pick off a pass for a breakaway is absent - having crossed over to the gruesome sideshow of Manu Ginobili and Bruce Bowen of San Antonio ganging up on Steve Nash of Phoenix.

That said...Our Boy Nash is Canadian, and knows how to take an elbow to the nose and a punch to the groinal region. He also apparently knows how to take a hit, as what happened in the last Spurs-Suns game where Nash was casually strolling by the scorers table and got drilled, demonstrates. That may be the best hit I've seen in any postseason thus far. Buffalo could use a guy like Nash in the lineup, because I haven't seen too many Sabres really break a sweat in the first three games against Ottawa. Steve-O has endured a freely-flowing blood cut to the schnoz, a punch Andrew Golota would be proud of, and a check Denis Potvin wishes he'd thrown - and he gets up to dish out more punishment with his scoring and passing prowess.

And yet, this morning, I bet Lindy Ruff is hard at work concocting bizarre conspiracy scenarios as to why the favored Sabres are one game away from hitting the golf course.

Flyers eager to lock up Scottie and Big Ben

This week, the orange and black inked both Scottie Upshall and Ben Eager to two-year deals, setting them up to be youthful cornerstones of The Big Turnaround.

Eager had a relatively healthy season, six goals, 11 points, with an-NHL-best 233 (?) penalty minutes in 63 games. I have him pencilled in as a solid third-line guy, not really an "energy" player, but the guy who gets sent into the corners to dig the puck out for his linemates, and also filling the role of enforcer. You can't overestimate his value to the team, though - most nights he's not going to set off fireworks, but put in true bone-crunching effort each shift. He needs to tread the line between worker and goon to be most effective, and could do well on a mash-up line between Richards and Carter.

Upshall came here in the Forsberg deal, and immediately endeared himself to the fan base with his enthusiasm, tireless work ethic, and timely scoring. His overtime goal in Boston was one of the best non-top-line highlights in the last five years. I'm sure there will be a ton of writers and pundits who will rail on him for not reaching 20 goals next year, but he's not here to be a second-line talent - he's the "energy" guy like a Rob DiMaio or Trent Klatt. He'll get his goals any number of ways, can do wonders disrupting an opponent's top two lines, and is an effective penalty killer. He'll be the team's secret weapon on more than one night.

Other Flyers Thoughts...

At this point, I'm still in the camp which wants to put Sami Kapanen (another player rewarded with a two-year deal) permanently on defense. He's been used too sparingly on either side the last two seasons, and deserves to have a permanent spot in the lineup. Since there's not too many moderately-priced veteran defensemen on the market, it's best to have Kapanen on the backline whether or not the Flyers can get rid of Derian Hatcher. As a Finn, he can impress upon Joni Pitkanen how and when to use his puck-handling skills, and also when to be defensively responsible - something he's totally lost since Ken Hitchcock's firing.

As for the captaincy, it's not such a big deal if Simon Gagne does or does not accept responsibility; after all, Eric Desjardins was captain for a year - the first non-North American to be honored in team history. In my initial rantings from this blog back in September, I nominated Mike Knuble for the honor, and why not since the club was so quick to put the letter on Forsberg upon his arrival - Knubes has been here for two seasons, and has demonstrated excellent qualities both on and off the ice. I'd also have no beef if Kapanen was given at least a trial with it, because the European taboo was broken with Forsberg's investiture two seasons ago. I'm also not big on the rush to keep anointing a team's supposed best player the captain - and I cite Rick Tocchet, Eric Lindros and Peter Forsberg as prime examples of where that can go awry.

Final Analysis

Although the Sabres are down 3-0 with Game 4 in Ottawa Wednesday night, something tells me that Lindy Ruff has some kind of fire-and-brimstone to break out which will cause Buffalo to win this next game as well as Game 5 back at HSBC Arena. That should be enough time for the Senators to be taken aback, and recover enough to take the series in a Game 6 at home. I've heard that the Sabres are dead, but this is a 50-plus win team we're talking about here - they're not going to roll over and die - and nothing in the series has indicated they will do so. For them, it's a matter of aggressiveness, not desire.

Anaheim tying the series with Detroit says absolutely nothing about the Ducks' chances to seize control of the series once it shifts back to Southern California on Tuesday. It's actually time for either team to play an absolute clunker, one whose video will be burned immediately after the final buzzer. Strap yourselves in for a long one, folks, and enjoy it.

20/10

Not vision, as in the clear kind which the Flyers organization needs to dig themselves out of the hole they've dug over the past two seasons -- but 20 years ago and 10 years ago, the dates of the Flyers' last two Stanley Cup finals appearances.

It's late enough in the playoffs to begin reminiscing, since the second round, conference finals and Cup finals provided the fans with some great memories in 1987 and again in 1997.

20 years ago: May 10, 1987: Flyers 6, Montreal 3 - Wales Conference Finals Game 4. Pelle Eklund scores a hat trick, each goal an impressive display of speed and skill, as the Flyers chased starter Patrick Roy and earned a three games to one series lead over the defending champions. Ron Sutter, Brian Propp and Scott Mellanby also scored, and Ron Hextall stopped 23 shots on the night. The Flyers are the first team in years to beat the Canadiens in back-to-back playoff games at the Forum in one series, and move within a game of the Stanley Cup Finals.

10 years ago: May 11, 1997: Flyers 6, Buffalo 3 - Eastern Conference Semifinals Game 5. After blowing their chance at a four-game sweep of the Sabres two nights prior in Philadelphia, the Flyers seal the deal on the road in Buffalo on a Sunday afternoon. Following a scoreless first period, both teams combine for seven goals and one disallowed score in the second. Eric Lindros scores twice, including one on a penalty shot, as Philly takes leads of 3-0 and 4-2. Although Buffalo scores to cut the deficit to one before the second-period buzzer, goals by Dainius Zubrus and Rod Brind'Amour put the game away in the third. The Flyers go on to face the New York Rangers, which eliminated New Jersey in a Game 5 that same afternoon.

Picks: The Conference Finals

One night removed from Detroit's dismantling of the bigger, "badder" San Jose Sharks, and we're on to the Conference Finals.

In the East, it's Buffalo and Ottawa, in a rematch of last year's Eastern Conference semifinal which Buffalo won in five games. Ottawa learned several a valuable lessons then - that you can't hope to beat Buffalo in a shootout; you have to battle for 60 minutes to stay close; that you need to have goal production throughout the lineup because the Sabres are the deepest team in the conference.

This year, the Sens got the message and got tougher on defense, tougher at forward, and every skilled player has mucked it up at some point. They've made it through two playoff rounds by mixing up run-and-gun with a punishing style curiously absent when Zdeno Chara patrolled the blue line. The only problem is, aside from the top line, there has been little production elsewhere.

Buffalo seems to be getting stronger, and more able to react to varying game situations since the first contest of the postseason. They didn't panic after the Rangers did an Operation Shutdown just to squeeze out a pair of wins at the Garden, didn't bat an eye when they needed 59 minutes, 52.3 seconds to tie the score in Game 5, and did an excellent job of building up a lead on Sunday in Game 6. Barring a freakish run of injury like the one that nearly crippled their second-half of the regular season, the Sabres have that steely gaze which tells me they will mow down everything in their path to the Cup.

Prediction: Buffalo in six. Alternate prediction: Lindy Ruff will dispute something in ALL six games, win or lose.

In the West, it's a battle of Old School and New School between Detroit and Anaheim. It's the oddest matchup in the conference since the 2003 Final pitted Anaheim against Minnesota.

Detroit really should have been here with Shanny and Stevie Y in 2004 and 2006, but this year's model actually has a verifiable blueprint for success: younger, speedy complemented by a veteran defense which has leadership and postseason savvy - ending with a goaltender who has proven himself to be a difference-maker when he wants to be. A healthy Tomas Holmstrom and Henrik Zetterberg really do make a big difference in the amount of space the Wings have to operate in all three zones.

Anaheim is a near-mirror image of Detroit: same batch of young, speedy forwards (Selanne excepted, but he's been playing like the beginning of his first tenure with the Ducks), with a defense that is skilled, punishing and carries postseason experience - with a goaltender that displays none of the mental quirks of his opponent, but has carried a team (the 2003 Ducks) on his back to a Cup Finals Game 7.

If both coaches don't see the similarities between their respective clubs as a way to play each game like a chess match, we should see some high scoring games punctuated by taut overtime thrillers. It's a toss-up and upon flipping a coin...Anaheim in six.

Quebec Block Party

Scandal on the streets of Ottawa...Panic on the avenues of Montreal...

French-Canadian politicians are up in arms over the selection of Phoenix's Shane Doan as captain of the current Canadian squad now participating in the World Championships in Moscow.

Apparently, back in 2005, Doan was tabbed as uttering a common slur to an official of French descent. Later, though, it was revealed that said official heard the slur, but was uncertain who let it slip. When the time came for Hockey Canada's decision to elevate Doan to the captaincy, a veritable tidal wave of dissent washed in from the province of Quebec. According to several prominent Quebec politicians interviewed on TSN on Tuesday, outrage does not center on Doan's alleged comment, but on the selection itself given that there is only one other player born in Quebec on the roster, and that player, Matthew Lombardi of Calgary, is part of the Anglophone community and does not have French lineage.

This is a tough question to handle, and will always be. How can Quebec, only one province out of 10, realistically find equal footing as a primarily Francophone society, while also being responsible for roughly half of all Canadian-born NHL players? The battle goes back to the mid-18th Century in the aftermath of the French and Indian War, when England gentrified Eastern and Atlantic Canada and basically threw all the French out into the wilderness. Their modern-day descendants, the Quebecois, found a foothold in the province of Quebec in the early 20th century and have spent that entire time imposing rules which make it difficult for native English speakers and those of non-French descent to thrive.

All the principles of Hockey Canada are natives of Ontario and westward. There seems to be no Eastern input, and no French-Canadian influence either. It's no wonder that Doan, a native of Alberta, was a natural selection to wear the "C" - the ideal amongst English Canadians for a strong-willed, rugged leader-type has most always come from the nation's heartland. There is an inherent stigma attached to French-Canadians about their attitudes (devil-may-care), their style of play (more skilled and floating than willing to make contact), and their sense of entitlement because of the Montreal dynasty and the consistent level of talent found in the province compared to all others.

However, the old arguments about a cultural bias usually crumble when players from each side are stacked up against each other. In this case, Hockey Canada has a point. Which native Quebecer could have supplanted Doan as captain? Alex Tanguay? Pascal Dupuis? Patrice Bergeron? Maybe you can make a case for Vinny Lecavalier, but most of the old-school Quebec-born players are gone, and the young ones are not ready to assume a position on the national team, let alone the captaincy.

Maybe the French just wanted a show trial for somebody. Then again, they'd be on TV decrying the fact that Francophone players were just given a show trial and not serious consideration. It will never be enough as long as the English are in power and the French are marginalized. No wonder they treat Quebec like their own independent country.

Nonetheless, there have been few great French-Canadian players who have been worthy of being leaders, either for an NHL team or on the national stage. Mario Lemieux is a modern example, and even he was far from perfect in terms of attitude and actual leadership skills beyond his God-given talent and desire to survive through pain. Denis Potvin was one, but he was born in Ottawa and raised bilingual with English dominant.

In addition, one of Quebec's own is calling for an end to the nonsense, because of that pesky national unity issue when it comes to all things hockey. Maybe he recognizes that dearth of leadership quality in Quebec natives, or maybe he's just embarrassed at more of his colleagues' grandstanding and tilting at windmills. I guarantee if Canada at least reaches the semifinals, all this BS will go away faster than an ice floe during the Spring thaw.

Whatever happens, I just get the feeling time is nothing more than empty space for the Parti Quebecois until the next outrage pushes their agenda onto Canada's papers and TV screens.