Flyers know the task at hand, and that may not be a good thing

BOSTON - Because they are one of the very few teams in history that have actually climbed this mountain, the Flyers know exactly what it would take to win this second-round series against the Boston Bruins.

The real question: Is that a good thing?

As surely as the Flyers know it is possible to win four elimination games in a row, they also know it required a perfect confluence of self-confidence, eye-of-the-hurricane calm, pitch-perfect leadership, timely scoring, and - to be frank - a wilting opponent. It might have actually helped the 2010 Flyers that they didn't know what they were getting into until they were well into it.

By the time they understood how mentally draining and physically exhausting it was, it was over. The team then rode the momentum of that exhilarating comeback through a relatively easy conference final series against Montreal.

This year's team doesn't have the luxury of that ignorance. The Flyers know what it took, and they also know that these Bruins are not nearly as soft as last year's team proved to be.

"Everybody was [ticked] off this morning," defenseman Kimmo Timonen said after Thursday's practice. "It was a tough morning. We're down, 3-0, and we're not where we wanted to be at this time of the year. But you know what? There are ups and downs. This is a down moment for our team, but as long as there's games, there's a chance."

Part of the beauty of The Comeback was the way the Flyers embraced the emptiest of sports cliches and made them profound. One game at a time? That was literally the way they had to live. Each win bought them one more chance.

After losing Game 3 at home, 4-1, the Flyers came back and forced overtime in Game 4. One goal was the difference between elimination and buying that next chance. Simon Gagne, who had missed the previous four games with a foot injury, scored the game-winner. The Flyers then went back to Boston and drubbed the Bruins, 4-0.

That was the game that really planted doubt in the Bruins' minds. At home, with a chance to advance to the conference finals for the first time since 1992, they were booed mercilessly for playing the way the Flyers did in Games 1 and 3 this year.

The rest is Flyers lore. They won Game 6, 2-1, then fell behind, 3-0, early in Game 7 in Boston. Peter Laviolette called his famous timeout, and the Flyers summoned some untapped reserve of energy and will to win. It was great stuff.

Do they have that stuff now? If so, they've showed precious little evidence of it.

"The fight seemed to leave us," Laviolette said, accurately describing the way his team sagged in Game 3 Wednesday night.

It was bad, falling behind by 2-0 in the first minute or so. What was worse was the way the Bruins kept pounding on the Flyers, knocking them over and simply taking the puck off their sticks. The Flyers were the bullied, not the Bullies, in that game.

"We'd rather be in a different situation," Laviolette said. "We're not. This is the situation we're in. You can't change that. You can't pick and choose where you want to be. We're down, 0-3. The only scenario that works is to go out there and fight for something."

That is ultimately the challenge for this team. In 2004, the Flyers lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the conference finals. Keith Primeau led a team that went down fighting with everything it had. The fans were disappointed but admired the effort. Two years later, the Flyers were crushed, 3-0 and 7-1, in the final games of a first-round series against Buffalo. It was a shameful way to go out.

The Flyers may not be able to repeat The Comeback, but they can prove something Friday night.

"It's going to say a lot about us, how we respond to this," Laviolette said.

"I really believe we're going to leave it all on the ice [Friday] night," Danny Briere said.

That is all anyone can ask of a team. The Flyers did not do that, for whatever reasons, in Games 1 and 3. Maybe they thought the Bruins would be pushovers again. Maybe they just miss Chris Pronger that much. Maybe they lack faith in their goaltending and aren't able to commit themselves. Maybe - and this is surely part of it - the Bruins really are just that much better.

Whatever. Since the NHL is unlikely to give them do-overs, all the Flyers can do is play this one game with everything they have. And then? Well, who knows?

"Just one win would give us confidence and make them think about last year," winger Claude Giroux said. "One win would put us back in the mix."

It certainly beats the alternative.