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Broad Street Bully: KATE: MERCI BOUQUET

BEFORE THE FLYERS bludgeoned the Penguins, 8-4, on Sunday to take a commanding 3-0 lead in their best-of-seven Round One playoff, Broad Street Bully watched Ed Slivak place a bouquet of orange tulips in the outstretched left hand of the Kate Smith statue at Xfinity Live! - within singing distance of the Wells Fargo Center.

Flyers fan (could you guess?) Ed Slivak has a date with Kate before Game 3 on Sunday - he brought the statue of the team's lucky charm some flowers. Meanwhile, Justin Sierocinski (above, right) clucked around the parking lot in Crosby jersey and diving mask.
Flyers fan (could you guess?) Ed Slivak has a date with Kate before Game 3 on Sunday - he brought the statue of the team's lucky charm some flowers. Meanwhile, Justin Sierocinski (above, right) clucked around the parking lot in Crosby jersey and diving mask.Read morePHOTOS: DAN GERINGER / DAILY NEWS STAFF
    by BY BROAD STREET BULLY as told to DAN GERINGER, <a href="mailto:geringd@phillynews.com">geringd@phillynews.com</a> 215-854-5961 | Columnist
    Published 

BEFORE THE FLYERS bludgeoned the Penguins, 8-4, on Sunday to take a commanding 3-0 lead in their best-of-seven Round One playoff, Broad Street Bully watched Ed Slivak place a bouquet of orange tulips in the outstretched left hand of the Kate Smith statue at Xfinity Live! - within singing distance of the Wells Fargo Center.

Slivak, of Northeast Philadelphia, said a silent prayer to the Flyers' "God Bless America" lucky charm: "Kate, our hockey friend above, please help the Flyers as they start their run for Lord Stanley's Cup. Please give Bryzgalov the power to stop all pucks like Pelle Lindbergh, and please give Claude Giroux the speed and grace of Peter Zezel."

After the fisticuffs-filled win, Slivak said, "Kate was definitely looking down on us from heaven. Not just Kate. Pelle Lindbergh, Barry Ashbee, Peter Zezel and all the Flyers who are no longer with us were looking down, too."

"That was only the best game I've ever been to," said Shaina Brutosky, who went to Flyers games with her late father, John Brutosky, starting when she was 4, and now goes with her dad's best friend, Slivak. She had bright-orange hair, and not much voice left.

"I was jumping up and screaming for all the Flyers goals," Brutosky said. "And there were a lot of goals. With all the fights, there wasn't a silent moment."

Slivak said, "I've been a Flyers fan since my dad brought me in the '70s. This was the most intense, hard-hitting game I've ever seen.

"Everybody was talking about the Flyers' hitting, but when we hit, we hit clean. The Penguins were hitting dirty, like when Arron Asham cross-checked Brayden Schenn in the throat and then hit him after Schenn was down on the ice. The league's got to look into this."

CHICKEN CROSBY: Justin Sierocinski, 14, of Newark, Del., spent the pre-game flopping all over the parking lot in his chicken suit, Penguins' Sidney Crosby jersey and diving mask. Flyers fans got the joke about the Pens' delicate diva.

"I tried to talk him into wearing his usual Bryz jersey," said Flyered-up dad Stan Sierocinski, while Flyered-up sisters Jenna, 15, and Courtney, 16, laughed. A Penguins fan wearing a Crosby jersey minus the chicken suit walked by and whined, "What are you making fun of us for?"

"Crosby sucks!" Justin shouted. A be-yoo-ti-ful Flyers moment, yo!