Ed Moran | 'Twas the season to forget

SIMON GAGNE would normally have been inside the training room riding a bike or in the medical room getting whatever treatment he needed to be on the ice the next game.

And there was always another game just a day or 2 away.

In April, staying healthy for the playoffs is key. It didn't matter yesterday. Only two players were getting treatment with trainer Jim McCrossin, and the bikes in the back were still.

There are no more games this season.

The Flyers have 6 months to work on fitness and health, more than they have had since they last missed the playoffs after the 1993-94 season.

They beat the Buffalo Sabres yesterday at the Wachovia Center, 4-3, coming from behind on third-period goals from Mike Knuble and Mike Richards.

Playing so differently than the team that was walloped by the Sabres 9-1 on Oct. 17, a game that sent this team spiraling into oblivion, they skated and passed and looked more like NHL players than they had in the fall.

They had goaltending yesterday. Martin Biron made 27 saves, playing against his old team for the first time.

"I wanted to win it because I wanted to end this season on a good note," Biron said. "A lot of times in the last 6 weeks we were just right there. We lost a lot of one-goal games. We were never able to get that extra goal and we were able to get that today and end the season on a positive note."

Gagne felt the same.

He was unsure what to say, other than to repeat what he's been saying for days, that it's "weird" not to have a postseason. And he was not about to boast.

He knew the real final score of the day.

"We're a different team [yesterday]," he said. "But you need to understand, they [Buffalo] need to get ready for the playoffs, they didn't want to get hurt and I don't think they played their best game.

"We'll take a little credit, and overall we're a better team than we were in October. But still, there is a lot of work to do. We had that little step we needed to take to win the game but a lot of times we were in close games and lost by one goal and didn't find a way to win.

"And that's the difference between a good team and a bad team. [Yesterday] we were there, but really we still have a lot of work to do."

Honest words.

Yesterday the Flyers skated, transitioned from defense to offense, came back from being down, and then finished the effort.

And they won for the 22nd time. Buffalo has 22 losses. It was the team with the most points (113) vs. the team with the fewest (56).

And in the end, the game closed the final page on a year that goes into the books as the worst in franchise history.

The lowlights included these numbers:

Fifty-six points in 82 games, a league-record largest drop in points between seasons (45); team records for most home losses (24), most home losses in a row (eight, regulation games only) longest winless streak by a goalie (13, Antero Niittymaki), and most players on the roster in a season (49).

Here are a couple more that stand out: Only nine players in the game yesterday were on the ice at the beginning of the season, and there were at least 300 player-days lost to injury.

What a year. It was bad from beginning to end.

For the rookies, it is a page that gets turned with little thought. For the veterans, it's one less chance to win a Cup.

"This has been a wasted season," Sami Kapanen said. "I don't know if there was any point in the season that we were close to making the playoffs. It seemed like since preseason, the exhibitions, we were never really in the games a whole lot.

"There were times in the season where I thought we played better hockey, but the results weren't there. It's a disappointing season for everybody, but for the older players there are only so many seasons left to get a chance to compete for a Cup and having the worst record in franchise history is disappointing."

Players like Richards, Scottie Upshall, Jeff Carter and R.J. Umberger have enough time to make this year a dim asterisk in their careers.

"You just have to learn from this, see where things went bad and regroup and prepare yourself going into camp," Upshall said. "For the most part, you get back to finding winning ways to play hockey.

"I really just think you have to put the year behind you and focus on getting back to winning and everyone on this team knows how to win games and championships. That's the kind of focus you have to have coming back."

But there is a lot of work to do to make the Flyers a better team.

The goalie position is solidified for the first time in a while with Biron locked in for the next two seasons. But the Flyers need a reliable backup.

There is a burning need for a top center, a scoring forward, and two defensemen. That's the wish list. And it is the goal of management to fill it using the $20 million to $22 million in cap space the Flyers will have, or by trading players or draft picks or both.

There are good players available in the draft and the Flyers have two first-round picks (their own and Nashville's from the Peter Forsberg trade) and will draw for no worse than the second overall pick in the draft lottery tomorrow in New York.

But there are no players in the draft projected to step onto the ice next year and contribute. So a trade that includes a pick is a reality.

"It was a long season and it's time to turn the page and focus on next year," said Gagne, who will have abdominal surgery next week to repair one and possible two abdominal tears. "We have some places to improve on this team and a centerman and a defenseman are, I think, a big part to go after. There is a lot of talent on the [free agent] list and we all hope that we get what we need.

"There are still 29 teams out there that are going to try to do the same thing and we just hope that we get the guys we want."

One person who will be back and will be the center of attention is John Stevens.

He gets a pass on this season for two reasons: He was thrust into the spotlight when Ken Hitchcock was fired as coach and because there is no fair way to evaluate him.

"This season went horribly," he said. "We started out and everyone had high hopes, all 30 teams. We didn't have a good preseason, we got off to a really poor start, and then we went through all the changes.

"And they weren't just changes, they were probably the most major changes in the game when you get the likes of [former general manager] Bob Clarke stepping down and [Hitchcock] getting removed.

"I think the changes made were very positive and I think the guys that weathered the storm through this are going to come out of this better prepared to make amends next year." *