One thing that irritated me during NBC's national telecast of the clinching Game 6 was how the announcers acted like it was such an upset for the Flyers to eliminate The Penguins. During the regular season the Flyers finished only 5 points behind the Penguins and could have just as easily been the home team for this series. However the vaunted Vegas sports machine picked the Penguins to win the Cup so far be it for a cocky young (6 rookies on the roster) Flyers team to knock them out.
Youth does have it problems tho as the 10-3 loss in Game 4 showed. After that game Sarah Baicker, the Flyers editor for Comcast SportsNet Philly, wrote "There's a fine line between swagger (good) and arrogance (bad)." There is a lot of truth in that but something many of us never learn. What? You don't think I was talking about me do you?
As for the rest of the NHL, it seems it's wide open and Lord Stanley's Cup could be won by almost anybody. The Los Angeles Kings eliminated the Vancouver Canucks last night and with them the league's best record. In the east the Ottawa Senators had a 3-2 lead over the New York Rangers but the Rangers won tonight. Had they lost the two best records would have been out in less than 24 hours. A gem of a series is the Coyote/Blackhawk one. Phoenix leads the series 3-2 but all five games have gone into overtime, something that has never happened before.
Finally Flyers forward Claude Giroux who had a record setting 14 point series against the Penguins. What is there to say? After game 6 coach Peter Laviolette said, "His game tonight was monstrous, it really was. When the best player in the world comes up to you and tells you, 'I don't know who you're planning on starting tonight, but I want that first shift,' that says everything you need to know about Claude Giroux right there."
Welcome to elite status.
