Thoughts: Penguins @ Flyers Gm 3

Fully aware of my ineptitude when it comes to hockey, the Flyers decided to do the exact opposite of just about everything I said they needed to do in order to win. It's usually a solid plan to ignore my advice, but this is one of the few times it might have helped out.

• The tireless hunt for diminuitive Flyer forward Daniel Briere has been called off as authorities believe that further searching would be futile. I guess those milk cartons with his picture on them didn't help out as much as I'd hoped.



• Phil Sheridan of the Philadelphia Inquirer acknowledges the harsh reality of the Flyers' situation.
  
  But he gives more criticism to Steve Downie for his pair of turnovers than anything else--because that subpar hockey player is really counted on for a lot. It's a big surprise when someone of his skill level botches a few plays. Uhm.. Nothing more than a slap on the wrist for Biron and little to no mention of the 52 Million Dollar Man. Although those articles will start to pop up on the web I'm sure.
  
  Sheridan closes by lauding his team for how far they've come:
  

  "'Why not us?'
  
  "Well, because it is too big a leap from the bottom of the NHL, where the Flyers were last year, to the Stanley Cup. The leap from the bottom of the league to the final four is remarkable enough.
  
  "For the Flyers and their fans, that will have to be enough. For now."




• I couldn't imagine being satisfied after this team beat the hottest squad in the league from November on in the Captials and dismantled the top team in the East, Montreal, after that. They should've had a better showing than this. Injuries absolutely hurt them, but the effort in some of these games was brutal. Eight shots through two periods in a do-or-die Game Three? On home ice. Yikes.



• Marc-Andre Fleury has certainly played well, but he hasn't even come close to being assailed with enough rubber. Maybe the Red Wings have the answer to the D in front of this guy with all the "Flower Power" they've got in net. [That photoshop by SteelCity 8771 via Pensblog]

PENGUINS, RED WINGS TIRED OF SEEING OPPONENTS' UGLY FACES; BLOW THROUGH FIRST TWO ROUNDS AT AMAZING CLIP

...I can only assume that's what's going on

These past two rounds have been lacking in drama as the Penguins and the Red Wings have cruised past the their seemingly unworthy Semi-Finals and Conference Finals opponents with relative ease.

That they will meet in the Stanley Cup Final is a foregone conclusion and hopefully they will be a better match for one another. It'd be nice to see a little more of the compelling variety of hockey.

With that in mind, however, I think while we await the coup de grace for the Flyers and Stars, I'm going to do some retro-blogging to remind myself what a little more meaningful playoff hockey is like. I'm going to regularly "live blog" some classic games from the NHL's past--something I've first seen done by ESPN's resident hockey guru John Buccigross.

My first attempt at this will be a post about Game Six of the Stanley Cup Final back in 1972 between Bobby Orr's Boston Bruins and the New York Rangers.

It'll give me some deeper perspective on the Game's history and maybe, in the process, help do the same for some other people.

Come back in the next day or two to check out what I've come up with...