The match-ups are set. Here come the Eastern Conference SemiFinals!
Last night, two Game 7's decided two advancing winners and the fate of two losing Clubs heading home for the long, cold summer. Both the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers skated away from their QuarterFinals series victorious, which means Broadway takes on our Nation's Capital, and our City of Brotherly Love host the Newark Scumbags.
After the Blueshirts had taken care of the Ottawa Senators, Philly was then destined to take on the winner of the Devils @ Panthers tilt which was decided in double-overtime from the stickblade of Calder sensation, Adam Henrique --
I imagine our bench boss, Peter Laviolette, immediately switched off the television after that, looked over to Craig "Chief" Berube and said, "Let's get a strategy together so we can bury these pussies quickly. I'm not looking to spend more than two goddamn nights in fucking Newark, New Jersey."
Also, like a sudden gust of flatulence, when Henrique potted that game-winner you could almost hear the Flyers beat writers drop their bottles of 15 SPF in the garbage simultaneously.
Sorry, Panaccio. Guess you're gonna have to hope for clear skies and sunny days in the pit stain of the East Coast to get some color under that hairpiece of yours.
So now that the dust has settled and our boys have recovered from an awesome Nickelback outing, we can buckle down and focus on some past statistics.
If you can remember correctly, the Philadelphia Flyers split their regular season series with the New Jersey Devils, 3-wins & 3-losses.
Bobrovsky had been in net for all three of our fatalities. But Bryzgalov?
BOOYA!
Now wait a minute, hold your horses. Before you go stroking off to our twine-sitter's tallies against our division rivals, you must remember that Playoff hockey is (say it with me)....A WHOLE DIFFERENT BREED OF HOCKEY!
That's right, class.
Look, did any of us expect the Senators to take the Rangers to seven? No. Before the regular season began, a majority of us had that Ottawan Club finishing somewhere at the bottom of the barrel in the standings, much less take a defensively-powered squad to the max amount of Playoff contests.
Did any of us expect the Capitals -- with Holtby between their pipes -- to defeat the 2011 Stanley Cup Champions? No. We figured Tim Thomas would stop pucks like Neo stopped bullets, and a fleet of enormous Bruins forwards would tear Washington's goaltending apart like a Duke Lacrosse team....
....too soon?
In fact, that Southeast Division is such a joke that no one took the THIRD seeded Florida Panthers seriously, but the Cats carried Marty Brodeur and his team of misfits to double-overtime of a Win-or-Go Home contest.
What am I getting at?
This post-season's been (more or less) all about the underdogs. Look at our boys! They took on and defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins. Need I remind everyone (for the thousandth time) that those bastards were predicted to skate onward to the Finals?
Nay.
So how are our players mentally prepping to face these Dirty Jersey Debbies?
Good to hear, Wayne Train. Very good to hear. But how much needs to be changed in our strategy which was set on Kill Mode against the Penguins?
This Sunday at 3:00pm, the Devils make their way to Pattison and Broad to faceoff against our boys in Game 1 of the SemiFinals. You can grab tickets off of StubHub, which is what I always prefer doing over any vendor. And when checking availability, I noticed the difference in admission between the Wells Fargo Center and The Rock --
No matter what happens in Games 1 & 2, this series is heading to The Prudential Center in Newark, NJ where the Devils organization is doing everything in their power to make sure Flyers fans don't takeover their attendance.
In what means, you ask?
Crossing Broad's reported an emailing campaign that the Devils have announced to the Red & Black faithful. Something about passwords needed to purchase Prudential tickets and asking Devils fans to ONLY resell tickets to OTHER Devils fans.
I'm really not one to plug a CrossingBroad article, but seeing as how that's where I first found out about that pathetic attempt to keep Orange outta their building....I'm inclined to abide by the honor code and source appropriately.
Nevertheless, why would New Jersey's franchise try so hard to keep the gates up at The Rock? Because this past regular season, the Devils ranked 24th in NHL Attendance. Absolutely laughable. In fact, the New Jersey Devils attendance hasn't even broken the Top 20 in attendance since the 2001-02 season....where they ranked 19th.
What a despicable organization. What a despicable fanbase. Then again, at least they never allowed themselves to reach 30th in League Attendance like one team I know...
Where did the Flyers wind up? Like usual, Top 5. Philadelphia ranked 3rd in NHL Attendance this season, and our fans migrate like an apocalyptic virus.
So naturally, a sports franchise who hemorrhages in butt-filled seats like a knifed artery is going to do everything they can to neutralize the stronger fanbase from making them look like assholes in their own barn. But it ain't gonna work.
Flyers in 6.
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