Phil Sheridan: Getting closer to the Stanley Cup

The other day, as the Flyers were preparing to leave for their epic Game 7 in Boston, the subject of Fred Shero's legendary blackboard scrawl, "Win today and we walk together forever," came up.

Peter Laviolette, trying to become the first Flyers coach since Shero to hoist the Stanley Cup, smiled slyly. This was a big game, but a little perspective was in order.

"Win tonight and we're halfway there," he said. "I really don't think that's going to get them going."

In a way, what the Flyers did against the Bruins was more remarkable than winning a championship. Someone wins the Stanley Cup every year. Only four teams in North American major-league sports have rebounded to win a seven-game series after losing the first three.

But the Ultimate Comeback was all about one thing, and that was getting closer to what Laviolette called "that big, shiny, silver thing." What the Flyers bought themselves with their unforgettable comeback - down 3-0 in the series, then 3-0 in Game 7 - was a chance to play a Game 1 just 45 hours after shaking hands with the Bruins.

"It's something we can build on," defenseman Chris Pronger said. "I don't think anybody in this room is satisfied. You can look at the accomplishment and look back on it and say it was something special, but we've got a bigger prize that we're looking for. We're still eight wins from that."

They are halfway to the Cup, but the road doesn't get much easier.

Enter the Montreal Canadiens, the most storied franchise in ice hockey and a team that has been making its own history this spring. Montreal eliminated Washington and Pittsburgh, the team with the best regular-season record in the NHL and the defending Cup champion, by winning two Game 7s on the road.

"A lot of people could say they're a team of destiny, as well," Pronger said.

Less than an hour after completing the Ultimate Comeback, Pronger was already looking to set the tone for his teammates. He is the only player on this team whose name is etched on the Cup. He isn't about to let the rest of them buy into this Team of Destiny idea.

Destiny isn't going into the corners and hitting anyone. Destiny isn't throwing its body in front of any frozen rubber missiles. Destiny isn't coming back too soon from surgery and playing in pain.

It comes down to this. If these Flyers were capable of winning four lose-and-it's-over games in a row against Boston, two of them on the road, then they are capable of beating the Canadiens and whichever team comes out of the Western Conference. But to do that means continuing to play exactly as they have been.

There is no other way.

"That's what the Stanley Cup is," said Laviolette, who won it with Carolina in 2006. "If you make it to the end and you reach to grab that thing, you know you've sacrificed. You play hurt. You play injured. You do anything to move on. . . . The Stanley Cup is about sacrifice. You have to be willing to do that."

It is remarkable how completely this team redefined itself over the last month. Six months ago, the Flyers were playing poorly enough to get their coach, John Stevens, fired. Just a few months ago, they went on a late-season free fall through the standings. If they had what it took to overcome 0-3, they did a marvelous job of hiding it.

And now this.

"I think it shows the relentlessness of our team and the character of our team," Pronger said. "There's been a lot of ups and downs and a lot of adversity, a lot of questions from the media, a lot of questions with respect to injuries and who was going to step up. Every time guys have been under the gun, or things have been questioned, guys have stepped up and found a way to play better or harder."

The official scorers took away an assist originally credited to Mike Richards on the first Flyers goal Friday night. And it's true - he didn't touch the puck before it got to James van Riemsdyk.

What Richards did says more about this team and about his captaincy than anything on the score sheet. He delivered a hellacious check that took defenseman Johnny Boychuk (and Richards, too) out of the play. Assist? No, but Richards gave up his body to make the goal possible.

"There's the right people in that locker room," Laviolette said Friday night, and it looked for a moment as if he might shed a tear.

Richards, Pronger, Simon Gagne. Danny Briere, Blair Betts, Michael Leighton. Claude Giroux, Brian Boucher, and the rest.

Will they walk together forever? They're halfway to their destiny.