Flyers Make History

A funny thing happened on the way to the 7th seeded Philadelphia Flyers being ousted from the second round of the NHL playoffs by the 6th seed Boston Bruins - it didn't happen. I don't tend to blog too much on sports despite being a pretty big sports fan, but this was a rare and wonderful thing, and I do love my Flyers.

I must admit that after getting down three games to none in a best of seven series, I wrote my team off. When they won game 4, I said "well, at least we didn't get swept." When we won game 5, I said "well, at least we've made it somewhat competitive." When we won game 6, I said "maybe... just maybe... but now this is going to be heartbreaking when we lose."

My lack of faith was rewarded with a stunning game 7 win in Boston. The Flyers got down 3-0 in the first period.

And I wrote them off again.

Then they scored one goal. Then another. Then another. And we were tied. Then Simon Gagne gathered in a rebound and went top shelf over Tukka Rask's blocker side shoulder to take the lead. On a power play for "too many men on the ice", of all things. Next thing I knew we were celebrating the win and talking about our Eastern Conference Finals opponent, the 8th seeded Montreal Canadiens.

In the aftermath of the game, it turns out that this is only the third time in NHL history that a team has gone down 0-3 in a best of seven series and won 4-3. It has happened only once in baseball. Once. Ever. And it has never happened in basketball. Never.

So for the fourth time in American major pro sports history, a team has accomplished this feat. And to make it even better, not only are we going to the conference finals, but since we are the 7 seed and Montreal is the 8 seed, we have home ice advantage in the series.

Hard to believe...