With the weight of the city of Philadelphia on his shoulders, Flyers defenseman Cam York was able to finish off the Pittsburgh Penguins in dramatic fashion. Potentially ending that entire era of Penguins hockey with one quick flick of his wrist from the point in an improbable overtime period. And of course, he celebrated like a mad man.
The Flyers and Penguins were butting heads for the entire 60 minutes through regulation — trading off brief glimpses of high-event hockey as both teams had some chances that could have put the game away fairly easily. But they were forced to go and play some more hockey and it was frankly a disastrous overtime for the Flyers.
With their season on the line, the visiting Penguins threw everything at their opponent. In the 17 minutes and 32 seconds before York laid the hammer down, the Penguins had a 23-9 advantage in shot attempts, four more scoring chances, had seven high-danger attempts to the Flyers’ three, and over 67 percent of the expected goals share. Basically, the Flyers were holding on for dear life as the Penguins ran around trying to win and force Game 7 back in Pittsburgh.
Thankfully, that did not happen. As with under three minutes left in the first overtime period, the Flyers had an offensive zone faceoff. Noah Cates won the draw, sent it back to York, who passed it off to Matvei Michkov, who drew some attention and backhanded it to the defenseman at the point. York then quickly whipped the puck towards the net with heavy traffic in front and, ding, series done. Penguins’ season finished. Era over.
Cam York did what the moment called for
The milliseconds between the sound of the puck hitting the post and the crowd erupting into immense jubilation is something that will never get old. And justifiably, York decided to make the most out of the spotlight being on him.
While skating back to the Flyers zone after scoring the goal that sent the Flyers to their first second round appearance in front of an actual crowd since 2012, York was screaming and waiting for his teammates to catch up. Staring out in the sea of fans and yelling in excitement with the fans, the 25-year-old blueliner then tossed his stick into the crowd.
It is just pure rockstar.
A moment that might not ever happen again for York and he took full advantage of it. With that immense and powerful weight now lifted off of his shoulders and the suffocating feeling of pressure to not mess up any further all gone, the only thing was to celebrate and thrash around in a way that the moment called for.
There is really nothing like it. It is the bat flip equivalent in hockey, and it was a moment that deserved something of that magnitude.
For the Penguins to wish so badly to have one of their several potential scoring opportunities during that overtime period cross the goal line and make the improbable comeback, and then for York — who barely scores any goals ever — to just walk in and throw something towards the net that beats Arturs Silovs for the first time on Wednesday night, is pure magic. It’s something that most Flyers fans dream of — to put a stop to everything the Penguins and their fans hope and dream for.
Add in the factor that Evgeni Malkin is a free agent this summer and Kris Letang still looks like a shadow of himself, and it only becomes sweeter. With one shot and one goal, Cam York might have ended this generation of the Penguins. The trio of legendary players across the sport have been put to an end by a 25-year-old Californian guy.
York hopes no one got hurt by his stick toss
But thankfully, after the game and after the emotions were settled down, York did come to terms that he just tossed a hockey stick into a crowd of people and he may have caught someone by surprise.
“I just hope everybody’s okay. I don’t want a lawsuit,” York said via PHLY’s Charlie O’Connor.
Now that’s just looking out for everyone and being a thoughtful and hilarious guy.
York will have another chance to maybe have a rockstar moment when his Philadelphia Flyers face off against the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round. The schedule has not been released but with the other Eastern Conference series scheduled to go through Sunday, the Flyers’ series start should be around there, maybe a couple days later.
It is going to be eventful no matter what and maybe York will score another goal and throw his helmet and gloves into the crowd, too.
