That’s it. The dream of the Philadelphia Flyers somehow making an appearance in the playoffs during a rebuilding year is dead and gone. And it wasn’t just them losing one game to eventually knock them out of contention a week or so before the regular season finished — no, that would have been merciful. The Flyers had to suffer and in the final minutes of the season, it all came crashing down.
As the Flyers hosted the Capitals on Tuesday night in their final game of the regular season, they had to do one thing and depend on others to get that second Wild Card spot. First, they had to simply win their game in regulation — simple enough — but to stay alive in the hunt with 89 points after 82 games, they had to have the Capitals, Detroit Red Wings, and Pittsburgh Penguins earn zero points for the remainder of their season.
That possibility seemed alive until the final minutes of the third period in Philadelphia.
With the game tied 1-1 against the Capitals, the oncoming pressure of potentially pulling Sam Ersson out of the net going 6-on-5 in an even scenario, to prevent Washington from earning any loser point, was piling up. Just as we logically thought that Flyers head coach John Tortorella could call his netminder to the bench and have a wild few minutes to close the season out, we got heartbreaking news.
Over in Montreal, the Canadiens were leading 4-3 and keeping the Red Wings at bay to keep the Flyers in the hunt. Everything seemed fine and dandy if the Flyers could score in their own game. It was all up to them. It was supposed to be all up to them winning this game in regulation.
With 3.4 seconds remaining, David Perron scored for Detroit to force overtime and they earned one single point. Meaning, the Flyers were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs.
As this news hit the airwaves and the Flyers’ own broadcast became more and more disheartened at the news, the Flyers just kept on playing.
In an empty sort of way, just seeing two teams meander around the ice, not knowing if they have heard the news or not, was kind of beautiful. For a moment, the pain of loving a specific hockey team was frozen and exposed. Our chests broken open and its innards spilled in front of our screens.
Maybe the worst thing is that the final playoff team was actually decided because of the result in Philadelphia. The Capitals scored an empty-net goal to earn two points and put them into that second Wild Card spot and in a position to face the New York Rangers in the first round, starting this weekend.
The Flyers kept belief and a portion of fans fully embrace the chance of playing some cool playoff games, even if they might have been killed in the first round, right up until the end. Every game ended up mattering and we did not have weeks of meaningless hockey as we wanted our favorite hockey team to lose and sink to the bottom of the standings for some draft lottery balls to go our way.
At least we have that, and even more of a reason to believe that this team is cursed.
