NHL 2004

[wip5150]

Sir, you are bitter and you have every right to be. Roenick is haveing one hell of a series and Belfour keeps stealing games.

Leafs and Flyers game 5 is going to be a very rough hard hitting game.It will be a tough one ,but the Leafs will win ..(The leafs in 6 games.)

[SuckaInA3Piece]

Well the Leafs really do have a shot, but I just dont think they can do it. We'll see though, and you're right, it should be a good game tonight. Go Flyers! [img]images/smilies/rock.gif[/img]

[SuckaInA3Piece]

7-2 Flyers [img]images/smilies/woot.gif[/img]

[wip5150]

Belfour played like crap

[SuckaInA3Piece]

The Leafs played like crap. Bryan McCabe was a minus 5! I loved it! [img]images/smilies/icon_dance.gif[/img]

[SuckaInA3Piece]

Go Flames!!! Great game last night by both teams. I can't believe that the Wings couldnt muster up one goal in two games. Unreal.

[SuckaInA3Piece]

Philly.com

Esche seems OK; Malakhov doesn't

IN A HOCKEY LIFE that has seen success at every level, Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock has sold uniforms and equipment and sharpened skates in Edmonton, coached junior hockey in Kamloops, British Columbia, coached minor league hockey in Kalamazoo, Mich., and won a Stanley Cup in Dallas.

And now, he can honestly say his career is complete. Because yesterday, Hitchcock was an NHL pool reporter in Voorhees, N.J.

On Monday, Truth Day, Hitchcock acknowledged the club considered the possibility that goaltender Robert Esche had a concussion but, as it turns out, Esche appears to have suffered from dehydration and dizziness related to some kind of virus or flu, and that he is likely to play in tonight's Game 6 of the Flyers-Leafs playoff series at Air Canada Centre.

But what did Esche say after practicing with a few teammates? How did he feel? Because the goaltender doesn't talk to reporters on off days during the playoffs, the coach interceded. And after disappearing into the shower area at the team's practice facility, Hitchcock emerged with the following report:

"I had a lot of jump out there today. I felt much better this morning after I woke up and my energy level felt back to normal," is what Hitchcock said that Esche said.

And then, after the appropriate dramatic pause, the coach added, "But that was excluding all the bleep-bleep-bleep-bleep-bleeps."

In all, it was just another day at the Stanley Cup circus. Hitchcock said Esche should be fine after leaving Sunday's Game 5 after the first period but, as it turns out, defenseman Vladimir Malakhov is "lightheaded" after getting run into the boards by the Leafs' Darcy Tucker and is "doubtful" for Game 6.

Other than that, there was no news.

That Hitchcock is incredibly good at his business, both on the ice and off the ice, is undeniable. This Flyers team is now one win away from the Eastern Conference finals after laying a ridiculous beating on the Leafs in Sunday's Game 5, a 7-2 victory that was even more lopsided than that, if it's possible.

This Flyers team is resilient, unlike so many teams in the franchise's recent past. This team refuses to drown in the wonderfully septic nonsense that flows freely once the playoffs begin. Most of the credit goes to a veteran group of players who seem to have one eye on the Cup and one eye on the calendar, never losing focus. But Hitchcock orchestrates this stuff as well as anyone this town has seen.

And he's hilarious besides - which is what made Sunday so odd, when Hitchcock did his I'll-tell-you-the-truth-tomorrow thing after Esche and Malakhov didn't play after the first period of Game 5. With Esche, especially, the silence sent reporters scurrying. He had been hit in the mask in Game 4 on Friday night, so was that the cause? Was it possible that, 1 year after starting a goalie named Roman Cechmanek - who used to stop shots with his head on purpose, in a twisted attempt at having fun - that a shot to the mask would knock out the Flyers' most stable playoff goaltender in years?

No one knew for sure. And, well, just as nature abhors a vacuum, media whores really abhor an absence of information.

"We weren't really sure," Hitchcock said, on the morning after. "We were talking [about] the same things you guys were. We saw the shot to the mask.

We thought, 'Well, is this connected?' So there were some

conversations that took place.

"We needed to bring him in and exercise him today and figure it out. They gave him a ton of [flu] medication yesterday when he left, assuming that it was that, and he came back and was in much better spirits today. The head was a lot clearer.

"But when you're dealing with lightheadedness and you're dealing with dizziness, you've got to look at both aspects of it," he said. "Is it from a blow to the head or is it from flulike symptoms, or whatever? We had to go through both paths yesterday."

And now, Hitchcock said, the team is reasonably sure that Esche will be fine - which still leaves him with the Malakhov complication, which isn't nothing. To repeat: This guy has carried the biggest load in the playoffs so far on defense, what with Eric Desjardins being out with a broken arm and Kim Johnsson missing three games with a broken hand. Once again - as when Johnsson was hurt - forward Sami Kapanen will be pressed into defensive service.

You cannot hide defensive injuries forever, though. Remember how the playoffs started with Hitchcock not even wanting to dress rookie Joni Pitkanen very much? Well, Pitkanen is now playing 12 ½ minutes per game and might suddenly be slated for even more. Mattias Timander is playing more than 15 minutes per game, and he played nearly 18 minutes in Game 5. None of this was in the original blueprint but, well, here we are.

And so, Monday was Truth Day. Everybody knows, though, that Tuesday and maybe Thursday will really tell the story.

[SuckaInA3Piece]

Flyers in six. I believe I called that [img]images/smilies/icon_dance.gif[/img] [img]images/smilies/woot.gif[/img]

[SuckaInA3Piece]

Flyers.com

Toronto, Ontario – Jeremy Roenick scored at 7:39 of overtime to give the Flyers a 3-2 win in Game Six of the Eastern Conference Semifinals. The Flyers won their series against the Toronto Maple Leafs, four-games-to-two, and will face the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference Finals beginning on Saturday.

Roenick took a pass from Joni Pitkanen and raced across the blue line on a two-on-one rush with Tony Amonte. He lifted the puck into the top shelf past Toronto goaltender Ed Belfour, giving the Flyers the win.

“He made an unbelievable shot,” said Mark Recchi of the goal. “It’s a pretty nice feeling.”

The home team had won all of the games in the series before Tuesday’s win by the Flyers in Toronto.

“I felt that leaving here after the fourth game, we were kind of rudderless. We were okay, but we weren’t getting that leadership and followship,” said Ken Hitchcock. “I think these guys have just followed what is being led. [Keith] Primeau started it, and I think Roenick was very good today. We needed that to get back in place. We needed some of our leaders to crank up that emotion.”
The Flyers celebrate following Jeremy Roenick's game-winning goal

Philadelphia had to regroup before the start of overtime, as Toronto erased a two-goal third period deficit.

Just when it appeared the Flyers had the game under control, Karel Pilar scored to make it a 2-1 game. After an offensive zone faceoff win, Pilar ripped a slap shot inside the near post from the point midway through.

Pilar was only playing in the game due to an injury to regular defenseman Ken Klee, but his goal got the home crowd back into the game, and Toronto tied it with 4:52 left in regulation.

On the tying goal, Alex Mogilny skated into the zone along the boards and centered a pass to Gary Roberts, who was streaking towards the net. The puck bounced off of Roberts to the high slot, where Mats Sundin was there to slap it in.

Robert Esche robbed Tie Domi with about one minute left in regulation to keep the game knotted at two.

“If you’re going to win on the road in closure games, any veteran team is going to give you an unbelievable push, and that’s exactly what Toronto did,” said Hitchcock.

Like Games Three at Four at the Air Canada Centre, the Maple Leafs came out of the gate strong and very physical. This time, however, the Flyers survived the first half of the first period and totaled their goal output in both of the previous games combined, with two, before the frame was over.

First, Michal Handzus made a brilliant tip pass to Radovan Somik, who then lifted the puck into the top corner of the net at 9:55 over the glove hand of Belfour.

Roenick recorded his first goal of the night with 4:30 left in the frame. On the goal, Roenick brought the puck across the blue line and took a wrist shot on net. The rebound came right back out to him, and he found the five-hole of Belfour to give Philadelphia a two-goal cushion.

Roenick had a great chance to make it 3-0 about two minutes later, again finding his own rebound, but Belfour was able to deflect the attempt to the corner.

Esche made a couple of key saves early in the game when it was scoreless, including one flurry in which stopped Joe Nieuwendyk’s backhanded, between-the-legs shot at the side of the net and the rebound shot by Alexei Ponikarovsky.

Philadelphia’s penalty-killing unit was tested in the second period, as it had to kill off three Toronto power plays.

Midway through the frame, Esche did the splits and got his left pad on a slow backhand shot by Nik Antropov during a scrum in front of the net, and covered up with his glove in the closing moments of one Toronto power play.

Later, in the final seconds of the period, Esche made a save on a wrist shot by Bryan McCabe from the point, keeping the Flyers in front by two goals at the intermission. The Flyers were outshot 13-4 in the frame.

There was a scary moment for the Flyers in the overtime, as Toronto’s Darcy Tucker charged into Sami Kapanen along the boards in what appeared to be not a clean hit. Kapanen looked disoriented and was hardly able to skate under his own power to the Flyers bench, but did so right before Roenick’s game-winning goal.

He looked and felt fine at the conclusion.

“We knew that it wasn’t going to be easy, but it came down to one great play in the overtime to get the win,” said Kapanen.

The Flyers have now advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2000.

FLYERS NOTES
Patrick Sharp, Todd Fedoruk and Vladimir Malakhov were the scratches for the Flyers. Dennis Seidenberg dressed for the game but did not play. … Philadelphia has scored first in 10 of its 11 playoff games.

[SuckaInA3Piece]

NHL.com


DENVER (AP) _ The San Jose Sharks made sure the Colorado Avalanche didn't have a chance to break their hearts again.

Evgeni Nabokov stopped 28 shots, and San Jose scored three goals in the second period to help the Sharks finally finish off the Avalanche 3-1 Tuesday night and reach the conference finals for the first time in their 13-year history.

San Jose had lost the last four times it had a chance to close Colorado out, including the final two games in 2002.

``I've been waiting 10 years to beat that team, and we finally did it,'' San Jose's Mike Rathje said.

San Jose lost to Colorado in the playoffs twice in the past five years and seemed headed toward more disappointment after the Avalanche won consecutive overtime games.

Not wanting the series to be extended to Game 7, the Sharks swarmed Colorado from the start and got goals from Vincent Damphousse, Marcel Goc and Jonathan Cheechoo in an 11-minute span of the second period to close out the series in six games.

``It's a pretty fun roll,'' said Sharks coach Ron Wilson, whose team will face the Calgary Flames in the Western Conference finals. ``For a while there it got to be a roller coaster, but I'm really proud of our team. To all the Sharks fans, hoist one up for our boys tonight, because it was quite an effort out there.''

The Avalanche won Games 4 and 5 in overtime to put themselves in position to become the third team in NHL history to win a series after trailing 3-0. They just fell short.

Colorado was sluggish early and couldn't beat Nabokov again after Milan Hejduk scored late in the second period for a disappointing end to a season that began with hopes of a third Stanley Cup title.

``We had an unbelievable lineup and it's too bad it didn't work out,'' Colorado's Peter Forsberg said. ``We didn't play good enough and they beat us.''

After scoring two goals in three games, San Jose got back to the puck-control style that was so effective in the first two games of the series. The Sharks comfortably set up in Colorado's zone for long stretches to create scoring chances and force the Avalanche to react.

Colorado certainly helped with its sluggishness, spending most of the first period chipping pucks weakly out of its own end and managing just two shots.

``We played the perfect first period,'' Damphousse said. ``Although the score was 0-0, we thought we wore them down and played the style we wanted to play. It was just a matter of time when we cracked their focus.''

He was right.

Damphousse broke through 1:34 into the second period with his fifth goal of the series, lifting a shot over David Aebischer's right shoulder after Niko Dimitrakos' shot from the side bounced through the crease.

Goc made it 2-0 just over seven minutes later, tipping Curtis Brown's shot past Aebischer's stick side.

Cheechoo added to the lead just three minutes later when he kept the puck on a two-on-one, deked Paul Kariya to the ice and beat Aebischer with a wrist shot a few seconds after San Jose killed off a penalty.

``I think that the problem is that when we get down one goal or so, we open up a little bit too much and too early,'' Aebischer said. ``That's when they got the next goals. It's tough to come back from 3-0 against that team.''

Hejduk gave Colorado some hope with 2:26 left in the period, bouncing a shot off Nabokov's mask from the left circle with Colorado on a two-man advantage.

The Avalanche turned up the pressure in the third period, but Nabokov was there each time. He stopped nine shots in the period to finish the series with a 1.01 goals-against average.

``Any time you beat Colorado, it's huge,'' Nabokov said. ``They have so much over there. You've accomplished something when you beat them anywhere.''

Forsberg couldn't get much going in what might have been his final NHL game.

He was physical, as usual, but couldn't find room to create like he did in the previous two games. He also lost control of the puck a few times, and most of his usually crisp passes seemed to just miss.

With his contract up and an NHL lockout possible, Forsberg could be headed home to Sweden to finish his hockey career.

``Right now I really don't want to think about it,'' Forsberg said. ``We'll see what happens over the summer. I'll just sit back and think about it later on.''

[SuckaInA3Piece]

Philly.com

TORONTO - It happened just as Jeremy Roenick envisioned it, only it almost didn't happen at all.

"I decided before the overtime that if I got a chance on a two-on-one, I'm shooting the puck," Roenick said. "No way am I passing if I get the chance. I'm shooting it high on the short side."

The chance came in the midst of a wild and intense overtime period. There were mad rushes up the ice, shots fired from all over, goaltenders sprawling, and defensemen lunging to sweep loose pucks away.

One such play developed in the Toronto zone, not far from the Flyers' bench. Sami Kapanen saw the loose puck and gambled that he could get to it before a Maple Leaf could swipe it past him and start a breakout.

As Kapanen strode full speed toward the puck, Toronto's Darcy Tucker came like some combination of Ronnie Lott, Scott Stevens and the bullet train to Tokyo. He hit Kapanen with all the force he could muster.

Roenick, on the bench, didn't just see it. He felt it.

"Scary," he said. "I got hit just like that here last year. Same guy."

Tucker gave Roenick a concussion during a playoff game at the Air Canada Centre last April. So Roenick knew exactly what was happening as Kapanen struggled to get to the bench.

"If he stays down, they blow the play dead," Roenick said. "As long as the guy is trying to get up, they usually let it go. Sami is tough. He got up."

Kapanen is so tough, he got up three times. That's how many times it took for him to get his legs under him well enough to make it to the bench. His teammates had to pull him over the boards and off the ice. Roenick was one of them, but he had another problem.

"I was supposed to go on for my shift," Roenick said. "So I'm trying to pull Sami in and get past him at the same time."

Roenick made it onto the ice just in time to find the puck loose in the neutral zone. He took it on his stick and, with his old pal Tony Amonte on his left, broke in on a former teammate, Ed Belfour.

Two-on-one. No way does he pass. High to the near side.

Freeze-frame it there and let's talk about what Roenick has been through just to get to this spot. On Sunday, after Game 5, Roenick stood in the locker room and answered waves of questions about the performance of team captain Keith Primeau.

As he took questions, Roenick turned his entire upper body toward a person asking one. His neck was too stiff to turn, thanks to two vicious and clearly illegal cross-checks delivered by Toronto's Nik Antropov.

It was an injury that would have kept a lot of athletes on the sideline for days or weeks. But this is hockey. Roenick got treatment in Voorhees on Monday and scored two goals in Toronto on Tuesday.

A few months ago, Roenick took a high-velocity slapshot directly onto his left jawbone. The puck blew everything in its path to pieces, and Roenick was knocked unconscious. He lay face-down on the Madison Square Garden ice, bleeding.

During his convalescence, he thought about retirement. All those concussions add up. At one point, he said, he was lying in a chair next to his pool in Arizona.

"I had a chocolate shake and a straw," Roenick said. "I sucked."

And maybe, just maybe, he thought about a night like this. Playoff series on the line, puck on his stick, a vision in his mind of the perfect shot beating one of the game's great goaltenders.

Maybe that's what brought him back. Whatever it was, be grateful.

"I'm still tingling," Roenick said.

He had scored earlier, giving the Flyers a 2-0 lead by swiping his own rebound past Belfour. This time, he had a berth in the conference finals on his stick. He whipped his wrists, and the puck followed the same path he had envisioned earlier.

"I saw it all the way," Roenick said. "The conference finals. This is sweet."

He was the game's hero, but all he could talk about was Kapanen, and the monster hit he took, and the sheer will required to get off the ice and make Roenick's shot possible.

"He's the toughest little guy in the league," Roenick said of the 5-foot-9 Kapanen. "He's as tough as anybody I've ever met."

Jeremy Roenick, meet Jeremy Roenick.

[SuckaInA3Piece]

Craig Conroy

[SuckaInA3Piece]

Daily News

The day after, both of Darcy Tucker's victims were on the mend and on track to play in the Eastern Conference finals against Tampa Bay.

Sami Kapanen, knocked woozy by Toronto's Tucker in overtime of Game 6 Tuesday night, was at the Flyers' practice facility briefly yesterday for treatment. So was defenseman Vladimir Malakhov, who missed Game 6 after taking a shot to the head from Tucker in Sunday's Game 4.

"[Kapanen] is feeling great," coach Ken Hitchcock said yesterday. "Malakhov had a good day. Unless something happens overnight, we're expecting all those guys on the ice [today] for practice."

After watching tape of Tucker's hit on Kapanen, Hitchcock was still convinced it was illegal. Tucker drove into Kapanen along the boards in the Toronto zone. Although he didn't leave his feet, Tucker delivered an impact that left Kapanen shaken.

"Scary," Flyers forward Jeremy Roenick said.

Hitchcock had a different word.

"The hits on Malakhov and Kapanen were disappointing," Hitchcock said. "I've known Darcy a long time. I feel those hits were an intent to injure, and that's disappointing."

Nevertheless, Hitchcock felt the Flyers' ability to endure the rough six-game series with the Maple Leafs was a sign the team is ready for the explosive Lightning. Game 1 of that series - winner plays for the Stanley Cup - is scheduled for Saturday in Tampa.

"Right now," Hitchcock said, "we are a very hardened group. We are a group that has gone through two very, very difficult series. Really well-played, intense hockey. We've played better as the series have moved on, and to me that's a sign we're a hardened group. I really believe the series we've gone through have brought out a resiliency in our group and that we'll be ready for this.

"I don't care who we play. I know how good Tampa is and the record against us [4-0 in regular-season games], but we're a group that has gone through a lot and we're not going to get pushed out easily."

Loose pucks. The Flyers will practice in Voorhees today, then fly to Tampa and practice there tomorrow... . Hitchcock likes Smarty Jones to win the Preakness: "Best horse in the field by far, in my opinion," he said. "He wins on fast tracks, he wins on slop. He wins off the pace, he wins running on pace. I just don't see anybody beating him unless somebody is being held back for that race."... Mayor Street plans to "propose a little wager" with Mayor Pam Iorio of Tampa on the outcome of the series, said Luz Cardenas, Street's spokeswoman, who would not identify the wager because the mayors haven't spoken yet.

[SuckaInA3Piece]

Granto's job is safe

ESPN.com news services

DENVER -- Losing to the San Jose Sharks in six games might have been more than just the finish to a disappointing season for the Colorado Avalanche.

It could be the end of an era.

Although general manager Pierre Lacroix told the Denver Post Wednesday that coach Tony Granato will return, other big changes could be in store for the Avalanche, who are at something of a low point after nearly a decade of dominance, including two Stanley Cup titles.

"I'm telling you Tony Granato will be there and should be there a long time, with the way he has worked this year and last year," Lacroix said.

On the other hand, star forward Peter Forsberg could be headed back home to Sweden to finish his career and Teemu Selanne and Paul Kariya could be gone after one less-than-productive season.

"We don't know yet what's going to happen next year," goalie David Aebischer said. "There's probably going to be some change, but there's every year some change."

Lacroix told the Denver newspaper that Forsberg hadn't informed the team of his plans for next season.

"I have no clue," the GM said. "And as you know, he isn't the kind of guy who is going to turn around today and say, 'I'm going to do this.' I am sure he is going to take the time to reflect."

If the NHL reaches a new labor agreement that includes a salary cap, Colorado will have no choice but to make changes to its high-priced roster.

"If it's going to be that, you're not going to have these players like you had and it's going to be much more even than it is now," Forsberg said. "I don't think that we can keep the line that we have right now."

Forsberg represents the biggest question.

He's tired of the pounding he has taken for a decade and has said he would like to finish his career in Sweden, where skill is preferred to the clutching and grabbing of the NHL. He doesn't plan to make a decision until this summer, however.

"If you ask anyone in the league who the most dominant player is, they will say Peter Forsberg," San Jose coach Ron Wilson said. "That is no slight to Joe Sakic. Sakic is a clutch player, but Forsberg drives the boat here."

He just couldn't steer it away from trouble.

Colorado overcame injuries to Kariya and Forsberg early in the season to get off to a great start, but couldn't maintain its momentum. With Forsberg and Alex Tanguay out with injuries, the Avalanche struggled the last month of the season and failed to win their division for the first time in a decade.

Colorado pulled it together in time to knock off Dallas easily in the first round of the playoffs, but the Avs scored just seven goals in six games against the Sharks. It wasn't what the Avalanche had in mind when they put together the best collection of scorers in recent memory.

"Our expectations when this team was put together was to win a Stanley Cup," Granato said. "Everyone is going to feel disappointment, everyone is going to feel like we didn't live up to our expectations, which is true."

Signing Selanne and Kariya on the same day only added to the expectations, but neither had the impact the Avalanche had hoped.

Kariya missed 31 of the first 33 games with a wrist injury and played just once in the playoffs because of a sprained ankle. His contract is up, but he has said he wouldn't mind coming back.

Selanne almost certainly is gone. He never got into a rhythm and became frustrated late in the season when he was a healthy scratch a couple of times and spent time on the third and fourth lines.

"Personally, this year was a nightmare for me. I'm not going to hide it," said Selanne, who had just 16 goals and 16 assists this season. "I think it's too early to say anything [about returning]. Right now, it didn't work out."

Lacroix agreed, telling the Post that the signings of Kariya and Selanne hadn't worked out -- for different reasons -- but saying that he would make the same decision again if he had the same opportunity.

"It was a frustrating year for him, no doubt ... " he said of Kariya. "It didn't work out, but it was nobody's fault."

As for Selanne, Lacroix told the paper that the Avs were disappointed not to get more from the player but that he was proud of Selanne's reaction.

"He didn't look around for a culprit ... he just blamed it on himself and said it didn't work out. ... " the GM said. "It wasn't anything malicious with us or him. It didn't work out."

Colorado overhauled its roster through free agency and trades, adding 13 players who weren't on the team a year ago. Players such as Steve Konowalchuk, Matthew Barnaby, Chris Gratton and Ossi Vaananen were supposed to give the Avalanche a boost headed into the playoffs, but that didn't work out, either.

However, the coach won't be bearing the brunt of the blame.

Granato was given some leeway after Colorado blew a 3-2 series lead against Minnesota in the first round last year, and another playoff disappointment in his first full season doesn't have him in hot water, either, according to Lacroix.

Still, both the coach and the GM are disappointed.

"We didn't find a way to win enough games to live up to our expectations," Granato said. "I'm not worried about my future right now. I didn't think I would be standing up here talking about a loss right now. It was not the year we expected it to be."

Lacroix told the Denver paper he thought the players and coaches did a terrific job overall, what with accumulating 100 points despite losing more than 400 man-games to injury.

And he had high praise for Granato, pointing out that his regular-season record was one of the best in the business for a young coach and saying it never crossed the Colorado management's minds that any of the coaches didn't do a great job this past season.

"Tony did a great job, and we're very pleased about what he delivered to this organization," Lacroix told the Post. "If someone wants to put the blame on the coach, that is not the route we're going to take."

He was quoted in the Rocky Mountain News as pinning the blame for the Avs' disappointing finish squarely on Evgeni Nabokov and the Sharks, although in that case it was a compliment.

"If people want to commend somebody responsible for what happened to the Avalanche, it's the San Jose Sharks," the News quoted Lacroix as saying. "Their goaltender played great. ... The San Jose Sharks are the reason we're not playing anymore."

Still ... "You have to be disappointed, because we have had only one goal for the 10 years that I've been doing this, and that's to win the ultimate," the GM told the Post. "When you don't get it, there's a form of disappointment.