Team: 2021-22 Philadelphia Flyers

Initial Creation Date: Sep. 23, 2021

Published: Sep. 23, 2021

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

The year is 2000. The Philadelphia Flyers have a commanding 3-1 Series Lead over the New Jersey Devils. Eric Lindros has not played a single game in these playoffs due to injury. The Flyers drop game 5 at home. Eric Lindros to return for Game 6 on the road. He's the only one who shows up. Flyers lose 2-1, Lindros scoring the only goal.

Game 7. In Philadelphia. Early in the first, Scott Stevens essentially ends Eric Lindros' career. The Hart trophy winner of '95 has just played his last game in a Flyer uniform. Flyers lose the game 2-1. The Devils and Martin Brodeur win their 2nd Stanley Cup over the Dallas Stars in 6 games.

2004. Lindros is a distant memory. These Flyers are different. They don't have the top end talent like previous teams, but they are a group of guys that don't quit. Hey look! It's the New Jersey Devils. The Flyers deal with them in 5. Oh yeah, thanks Toronto for beating those pesky Sens in 7... because we got smoked by them a few years prior

Anyways, the Flyers shock the Mats Sundin led Leafs in a road Game 6 overtime thriller under a minute after Sami Kapanen got hit into another universe by Darcy Tucker.

The Flyers are off to the Conference Finals. The top seeded Lightning join them. You know, maybe Eric Lindros would be pretty helpful right now. Especially without a cap! Anyways, the series goes back and forth until Game 6 at Wachovia Center, Philadelphia. The Lightning have a 4-3 lead. Last 2 minutes in the 3rd. A weird bounce goes off the side of the cage, back out front of Khabibulin, right to Keith Primeau. The Flyers tie the game and force overtime. Last couple minutes in the 1st overtime period, a Keith Primeau pass goes right to the tape of Simon Gagne. He ends the game and forces a Game 7...

Where the Flyers lay a complete dud. The score does not represent how ineffective the Flyers were. They only struck when it was too late. 2-1 final. The Tampa Bay Lightning go on to win their first Stanley Cup in their history. No asterisk necessary (the puck wasnt in!!!)

You could talk about the Flyers current 6 Stanley Cup Finals losing streak. All of the teams we had to play were dynasties, don't flatter yourself. The 1st of 4 straight cup Habs. The 1st of 4 straight cup Isles. The 2nd (and 3rd) of 5 cups in a 7 year span Oilers. The 1st of 4 cups in 11 years for Detroit; a team that hadn't won a cup for 42 years... doesnt seem too awful now does it? And then, the 1st of 3 cups in 5 years for the Blackhawks, a team with a 48 year cup drought. Getting pretty close to that one aren't we?

There have been several opportunities for this team to end their cup drought. None of them are much of a stretch, either. Just win Game 5 or 6 against the Devils, and Lindros doesn't have his career ruined for good. If you are able to beat the Devils, and the Stars were unable to beat the Devils, what does that say about your hockey team? If that's not enough, if you are able to muster ANYTHING in that Game 7 against Tampa, you go to the finals. Not much of a stretch there. With a guy like Lindros, that could easily put them over that hump.

Not to mention the fact that the Flyers were one of the best teams in hockey, completely cruising in 2011-12, until they lost the foundation of their defense who had fought so hard to come back from injury, Chris Pronger. In a more than winnable Eastern Conference Playoffs in 2012, who knows what the Flyers can do with Pronger? He WAS their defense. The fact that they beat Pittsburgh without him upsets me even more. Bryz was a trainwreck and without Prongs, he was bought out just over a year later. His confidence was destroyed. The defense without Pronger fell apart. If he doesnt have that freak eye injury, who knows. Like I said, I dont want to stretch here. I would mention us getting completely screwed in the 2007 draft lottery where we lost out on this random scrub named Patrick Kane that may or may not have scored the series winning OT goal against us in our miracle finals run in 2010 and completely dominated throughout the regular season and in the playoffs while the guy that we picked, JVR, didnt play for a lot of those playoffs and had half the point production of said scrub, but mentioning such a thing would be pretty irrelevant.

A lot of teams get screwed. But not many teams have had the opportunities that we have. Toronto hasnt even TOUCHED the finals since 1967. For Vancouver you could say "just win game 7 lol" but thats pretty shallow considering... THE FLYERS HAD 6 FINALS APPEARANCES THEY COULD HAVE JUST WON. The Sabres were privileged to be the team that got carried the absolute hardest by one player in NHL history. "No goal" my ass, you know that rule sucked anyways and they still would have had to A) score the next goal and B) win game 7. All I'm contemplating is... what if we just didnt have the worst luck ever? What would that be like?

Enough ranting. Here are the lines I think we will have with Haysy gone. Give Frost a chance and if he produces, great. If not, we can move G back to primary Center duties even though switching to wing really helped him out. Allison should have made the lineup but the injury bug got him too. This is going to be a great season isnt it? At least we have history on our side! We havent missed the playoffs on an even year since 1994! For context as to how long ago that was, former Flyers coach Mike Keenan won his first cup with the Rangers, ending a disastrous 53 year cup drought! you know, 46 and 53 arent that far off, are they...