Well that was quick! There was a large part of me that expected the Flyers/Habs series to extend beyond last night, especially after Montreal scored the first goal so quickly... and a bad goal at that. All due to sloppy defense and Michael Leighton making a rare error... then a bad penalty from Kimmo Timonen and anyone rooting for the Flyers had to have disaster looming in their minds.
Then Mike Richards made the kind of effort play that a great captain makes at the right time. The kind of play that fans of some other teams look at and ask "Why doesn't our captain do that?" Taking a rather ordinary clearing pass from Claude Giroux, Richards skated hard after it… then the weirdness happened, an inexplicable collision between Jaroslav Halak and Roman Hamerlik led to Richards sliding under/around the pileup, regaining his feet and tapping a backhander into the empty net for a shortie to tie the game and reignite the crowd in the Wachovia Center.
Early in the second period, the Flyers took the lead for good as Aaron Asham finally banged one home after multiple chances and only 84 seconds later, Jeff Carter made his presence felt scoring his first goal of the series extending the Flyer lead to 3-1.
Montreal refused to go quietly, pulling to within a goal on Scott Gomez’s goal with a little less than seven minutes left in the game, but the night belonged to the Flyers as Leighton stood tall and Jeff Carter put the bow on the win with an empty netter that came off an outstanding effort from, you guessed it… Mike Richards.
The finals are set… which Cup drought breaks? The 49 year drought of the Blackhawks, or the 35 year Flyer Cup-less streak… One thing we know now… one of them will be gone by June 11that the latest.
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I didn’t get to see the game live… I spent a very enjoyable evening hosting the VSA Tennessee Art showcase at the Ryman Auditorium last night. The VSA organization does wonderful work bringing the arts and arts programs to the physically or developmentally challenged.
One of the acts that played last night has been selected to represent Tennessee at the International VSA Competition in Washington, DC in a few weeks. They are a three piece band called Lake Rise Place and will represent us well… good luck boys! We’re rooting for you!
This Week – The Flyers capturing the series last night means we will have a SlapShot Radio tomorrow night. We will be breaking down the finals, talking to Blackhawks radio man John Wiedeman and to Flyers color man Steve Coates, then... the one and only PuckDaddy, Greg Wyshinski will join us to give his particularly warped take on the Finals. It’s all on SlapShot Radio, Live every Wednesday at 6pm on SportsRadio 560 WNSR and online at www.slapshotradio.com.
Also... be on the lookout for the SlapShot Radio Stanley Cup watch party remote broadcast... we're planning a get together to watch a game of the finals and raise money to help restore the inline hockey rinks that have been destroyed by the recent floods. Stay tuned as we will be announcing details within the next day or two.
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You are invited to follow me on Twitter. Search for PredPAPaul… Not only will I be updating when I get news or updates… I’ll also be updating with starting lineups and scratches during Pred home games, also I’ll be supplying information and explanations from the PA box.
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