After Thoughts: Habs vs Flyers

The Philadelphia Flyers are going to the Stanley Cup Finals for the 1st time in 13 years, with a 4 to 2 win Monday in Philly. Awaiting them will be the highly touted Chicago Blackhawks. This is an analysis of the Eastern Conference Finals that saw the 3rd Flyers opponent to go down.

Going into the series the Flyers knew that the Habs were a strong team straight through their lineup. But led by their star players, being Slovak goaltender Jaroslav Halak coming in with a .933 save percentage, also LA Kings draft pick Mike Cammalleri who came into the series the NHL's top scorer with 12 goals. The Flyers couldn't over focus on Cammalleri though because his linemates and former long time Devils Scott Gomez and Brian Gionta would be there to capitalize.

The Flyers came in with their guns blazing as well however. Coming off of a incredible comeback versus the Bruins in which the Flyers rallied back with 4 straight wins to become only the 3rd NHL team to comeback from down 3-0. Simon Gagne symbolized that by returning from a broken toe ,suffered in Round 1, in game 4 to score the game winner and to follow up with 3 goals in the next 3 games.

Cammalleri's scoring parade was put on hold until game 3 in Montreal where he finally found the back of the net. But that was all he'd find over the 5 game series as Micheal Leighton rose to the task. Leighton posted 3 shutouts in 5 games, games 1 2 and 4, and bumped his save percentage to .948 and GAA to 1.45 in 8 playoff games. Cammalleri finished the series with 1 goal and 1 assist, both coming in Game 3, and a -5.

Philadelphia's goal scoring continued even though going up against the NHL's hottest goaltender in Jaroslav Halak. As mentioned earlier Simon Gagne had 4 goals in his preivious 4 games, but he wasn't the only sharp-shooter for this Flyers team. Danny Briere was heating up and ready to prove critics who said he is invisible in the late rounds wrong, coming in with 7 goals and 15 points. So with their top guns firing and contributions coming from all ends the Flyers just rode the wave and stuck with what got them there. Mike Richards who was quiet in most of this series picked up a goal and 2 assists in game 5 to add to his team leading 21 points this postseason.

The Flyers are now being called the team of "Destiny", but they won't let this get to their heads. Laviolette said after Monday's Eastern Conference Finals win "we'll be prepared, we'll be ready." You have to expect they will be, with the Flyers it seems to be whatever Lavvy says goes. Flyers defensemen Kimo Timonen said today "His demading level is higher" (than former coach John Stevens) "and we needed that." The combination of Pronger and Richards was starting to look like a match made in hell, but now with their differences settled this team has two different style of leaders and the Flyers are playing at the top of their game.