Get In Line

by Bob Herpen
The Phanatic Magazine

I thought it was over. I was ready to read the last rites.

I was even mentally prepared to stop watching the NHL and pay more attention to the first month of the baseball season and cheer on the defending NL East champion Phillies.

After the Flyers’ lost weekend three weeks ago which featured a 3-2 come-from-ahead overtime loss in Boston followed by the 7-1 embarrassment in Pittsburgh, I had already decided to pack it in. Five straight losses just three weeks removed from a 10-game losing streak, and I was ready to rip the team to shreds.

I said things like: “I want John Stevens fired. Today.” “I want the team to tank it because what would be the worth of a final push to the playoffs only to get torched in the first round?”

I had dreams of another early-morning wake-up call from WIP from my clock-radio announcing Terry Murray as the interim head coach for the remainder of the season.

I take full responsibility. I caved to pressure. Worse still, I broke the faith.

So, line up with your biggest boot with the hardest tip, because I could use a good swift kick in the ass for turning against our boys.

To those legions of Flyers faithful who dared to dream of something greater than merely not finishing in the conference basement this year, I salute you. Your faith plus help from the Hockey Gods got the team a very favorable first-round match-up.

The Washington Capitals are basically a two-man band: 65-goal scorer Alex Ovechkin and the suddenly dangerous goaltending duo of Cristobal Huet and Olaf Kolzig. While still potentially dangerous as the Southeast Division winners, they lack the Flyers’ depth.

Still, while the series is there for the taking, the cynic in me still churns away, thinking of ways the orange and black could foul it up.

What if Danny Briere’s hurt more seriously than the team lets on? What if he comes back but is ineffective, a la Tim Kerr and his shoulder back in 1988? What if Biron takes one of his mental vacations? What if Ovechkin turns into Mario Lemieux and Huet/Kolzig morphs into Martin Brodeur?

After all, the Capitals have nothing to lose. They are a franchise perpetually second class in the DC area. The Flyers carry the weight of their proud history and the memory of last season into Friday.

Who knows? Given enough kicks to the rear and slaps to the face, I can finally snap out of the funk, sit back, drink the orange-tinted Kool Aid, and accept the team whatever happens.

So, step right up. One at a time please, stay behind the crimson-draped rope. One act of aggression per person.

For the record, though, I confess I still want John Stevens fired.

Watching these final games, it was clear that, while he can take blame for the club’s poor performance, he can’t be given too much credit for the season-ending 7-1-1 stretch.

And please, don’t insult me by saying Stevens had anything to do with the franchise-record season-ending back-to-back shutout wins against the Devils and Penguins. You can chalk that up to the presence of one man, and one man only: Ed Snider.

Woe to the team if they came up with anything short of their two masterful performances Friday and Sunday, playoffs or not. You can be certain Snider would have had the ear of GM Paul Holmgren for some “necessary” changes to implement before next season.

Thankfully, all that is past. For now. The next few days are a grace period, forged by the brilliant NHL schedule-makers who decided to begin this series later than all others.

I suspect by then I’ll be bruised enough that I’ll have no choice but to divert my energies for positive thoughts. Call it the Flyers’ version of the Ludovico Treatment.

The fear of retribution is already working I think. Flyers in six.