Ping-pong ball, Kane haunt gallant Flyers
The Philadelphia Inquirer Blog - Flyers Report: Broad Street Bull
Ping-pong ball, Kane haunt gallant Flyers
Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer
Oh, that damn ping-pong ball.
With a little luck in the 2007 lottery, the Flyers would have had the first overall draft pick that summer and would have selected winger Patrick Kane.
The Flyers had the worst record that season, but they lost the lottery to the Chicago Blackhawks, who chose Kane.
The same guy who broke the collective hearts of the Flyers and their loyal fans Wednesday night at the Wachovia Center.
Kane scored 4:06 into overtime to give the Blackhawks a 4-3 win that clinched their first Stanley Cup since 1961.
“It stings. It hurts,” said Flyers winger Scott Hartnell after a heroic, two-goal performance. “It’ll give us more fuel in training camp next year.”
Kane had three goals and five assists in the Finals. On Wednesday, he also had a pair of assists as Chicago won the series, four games to two.
The Flyers played gallantly and had a remarkable playoff run, highlighted by their comeback from a 3-0 series deficit against Boston in the conference semifinals.
But Chicago was the better team. The Hawks showed it by thoroughly outplaying the Flyers in the last two games.
The first period figured to set the tone, and the Hawks were dominating. At one point, they were outshooting the Flyers, 16-3. They finished with a 41-24 advantage in shots, and they controlled the game with their passing, fore-checking and speed.
But the Flyers, to their credit, would not go away. They sent it into OT when Hartnell scored with 3:59 left in regulation, and they almost won it when Jeff Carter had an open net with 1:29 remaining.
Carter couldn’t get the shot up, and Hawks goalie Antti Niemi, who was sprawled on the ice, was able to make the save,
Throughout the game _ and most of the series _ the Flyers had only one line working. Danny Briere, Hartnell and Ville Leino combined for all three goals and seven points. Leino tied an NHL rookie record with 21 playoff points, and Briere fell one point shy of the NHL record for points in the Finals _ 13 by someone named Wayne Gretzky in 1988.
The Briere line was plus-15 in the series.
The Mike Richards-Carter and Simon Gagne line was a combined minus-21 in the Finals.
So where do the Flyers go in the off-season?
Probably shopping for a goalie.
Michael Leighton had a very good season and was superb in the conference finals (three shutouts) against Montreal, but he was shaky in the Finals _ and allowed a bad goal to Kane, who was deep inside the left circle, nearly at the goal line, when his shot appeared to go through the goalie’s legs for the Cup-winner.
The hunch here is that the Flyers, who have said they want to re-sign Leighton, will now explore the goalie market. Montreal’s Carey Price (not my No. 1 choice), Vancouver’s Cory Schneider, Nashville’s Dan Ellis and Los Angeles’ Jonathan Quick and Jonathan Bernier are among the candidates.
But that’s for another day.
The Flyers, seventh-seeded in the East, should be saluted for a sensational two-month playoff march in which they overcame injuries, deficits and higher-seeded teams as they came within two wins of their first Cup since 1975.
“We went through a lot this year as a group,” Richards said. “I can't analyze the season right now, but like I said, we went through a lot. We've gone through a lot together. When you go through stuff like that, I think it brings the group closer together.”
Lol....Still laughing at the freaking Kate Smith clip brfore the game...! Only in smelladelphia— wworldbfree- 2 million celebrate the STANLEY CUP in downtown Chicago.....I am not sure if there even are 100,000 hokey (sic) fans in all of PHILADELPHIA......can't believe that any city could have more than 100,000 spoiled sports......— MAUI PUNK KID
Comment removed.- Hey FLYERS.....today is the day to attack, attack, attack the BLACK HAWKS....they are all hung over BIG TIME after two straight days of nothing but celebration... MAUI PUKE— MAUI PUNK KID
- WAH WAH WAH WAH---the lottery was fixed, the ball bounced the wrong way, "did anyone else notice Carter's stick being held", the Pens neeeded a new arena, it's Bettman, it's the refs,. ON and on and on it goes WAH WAH WAH WAH (BTW, didn't Philly get a new arena not so long ago?)— ybob
- Huett is available from the hawks. He is a decent goalie and would be an upgrade for Philly.— cedman
- the flyers won twice but of course ignorant "fans" like you hawksrule don't know. 2 million people came to both parades. i got tired of all the whining about pronger. pronger pushed our player wah wah wah. so don't even start about whining. we're not whining anyway so what the h-- are you talking about?— liberty_bell
- You want some cheese with that whine there, Sam? There's no guarantee even if we got Kane we would have a Cup. If so we would have had a Cup in the Lindros years, so stop writing whiny articles and focus on the future instead of crying about what ifs that don't matter. It's just a shame we can't get some decent sports writers with some of those ping pong balls you're crying about.— Kanayd
Kane comes across as being a conceited, arrogant, sneering little punk. Lucky goal at the end but other than that he didn't do much in the finals either.- Lament, lament, lament. The Cryers got the luck of the hockey gods to have both Pitt & Wash lose to a goalie playing out of this world. No way Cryers will get this hockey-planet alignment again. Good luck when you make the Cup Finals again in, oh, 2022!!!— grant44
- I don't care how good he is, I am GLAD we didn't draft that kid. Patrick Kane is a spoiled nerd who should have his lunch money stolen. He's lucky the Hockey gods died when the NHL did, 10 years ago. Hey Pat; drinking, assualt and screaming "spring break rules!" don't make cool.— cassidy5180
- the Flyers showed character, grit and resolve where none existed in March. We came within an OT and 1 game of the cup. In March you would been locked up for suggesting that possibility. Carter will be a UFA next summer so he has played his last game for the Flyers. Trade him to LA for Bernier or Quick and a couple of high picks. Giroux bumps to 1 line, Briere back to center. We need another winger or two, at least one who can score. JVR needs to step up or go back to being a Rangers fan. He disappeared to many nights in the last 2 months.— keith7470
- We need a non-english speaking, eastern european, young goaltender— phillyfan19335
- Let's not forget that Johan Backlund is in the system and looked solid in his starts before the confounding goalie injury carousel got to him. Backlund was a top goaltender in the Swedish Elite league and the plan was to give him a year in the AHL. He's ready now.— pizano13
- Bufflin....go and learn how to spell his name......— hospodar
