And on the eve of what would have been her 101st birthday (May 1), the team has an interesting decision tonight: Do you dare sit the most unique good-luck charm on the North American sports landscape?

"You try to be careful not to overuse it," Shawn Tilger, the senior VP of business operations, said yesterday, chuckling about how important that decision has become. "You don't want to use it to the point where it doesn't have an effect anymore."

If, as Tilger says, the fan response drives that decision by a select group of Flyers staffers, then it would be hard to imagine them not dusting Kate off again for another priceless duet with Lauren Hart, both of whom raise goose bumps with their renditions. "I get a couple e-mails a game from fans asking us to use it," Tilger said. "They're disappointed when we don't."

Twice during the regular season the team used the recording, in what Tilger called "must wins." It has preceded all four home games in the playoffs because, as Tilger notes, "they are all must wins in the playoffs." The Flyers are 5-1 this season when the recording is played, losing only Game 6 to the Capitals.

It's the most times "God Bless America" has preceded a Flyers game since the 1975-76 season, when the team went 4-2. Ironically, those two losses came in the Stanley Cup finals vs. Montreal. Smith's last of her four live appearances at the Spectrum came on May 16, 1976, a 5-3 loss that capped a Montreal sweep.

Back then, the Flyers turned to Smith as much as they did goalie Bernie Parent, "using" her 12 times in 1972-73, nine times in 1969-70 and eight times apiece in 1971-72 and the first Cup year (1973-74).

All of that history and the game-by-game breakdown can be found at flyershistory.com, an unofficial team site that Peter Anson, of St. Catharines, Ontario, has been updating for almost 10 years. He's fairly confident of the Flyers' overall record after Smith sings: 73-19-4 through Monday night. It's some of the specifics that are a bit clouded for someone who has gathered copies of all of the Flyers' game summaries.

"Sometimes they made notes, Kate Smith's record is such and such," he said by phone earlier this week. "But that didn't really start until '73 or so, where they would make a special note that Kate Smith's recording was used on the game sheet itself, on the notes. So the first 20 games or so you'll notice that I only have a handful of games."

Anson bases his total on newspaper stories that reflected Smith's early success: The Flyers were 19-1-1 at one point. While her tradition since has been passed along to new fans and the new players, her recording made fewer appearances after her last visit: nine times the rest of the 1970s, 11 times during the 1980s and nine times in the 1990s. It was used seven times this decade heading into this season.

Tonight would make it seven times this season. Overuse or riding a good thing? That's what the Flyers will determine by 4 p.m. today. *