The Flyers didn’t make the playoffs so we won’t have any games to relive, revisit or forget this April and May. However, there are a horde of Flyers playoff games that meant something, whether it was an individual player, to the team or the franchise itself. Here then is a series of games (each cherry-picked) from various eras and playoff rounds, but each game being that game in that particular round of the playoffs.
Round 1, Game 4
Flyers 3, Maple Leafs 2 (3 OT) (April 16, 2003)
In 2003 the Flyers ended the regular season with 107 points, good enough for second in the Atlantic Division. Their opponents to start off the playoffs were the Toronto Maple Leafs. Although the Leafs finished behind the Flyers in the standings, many figured the Leafs would defeat the Flyers on account of riding goaltender Ed Belfour, 37 years old, to the promised land. Belfour played 62 games that season, a ton of minutes for a keeper that age yet ended up with a .922 save percentage. With the traditional narrative of the Flyers having crappy goaltenders often repeated among Leafs beat reporters, many suggested it was the key to beating the Flyers and Roman Cechmanek.
So after splitting the first two games, the Flyers found themselves needing to win at least one of the next two to retain home ice advantage. A double-overtime win by the Leafs in game 3 made game 4 almost a must. And the Flyers did just that. But man it wasn’t easy. The Flyers took the lead with a Mark Recchi goal on a horrible angle Belfour should’ve had 76 seconds in. Early in the second Philadelphia Belfour made a huge gaffe stickhandlng behind his net, leading to Jeremy Roenick scoring on another bad angle that was a gimme. But the Leafs tied it up again and after 60 minutes the game was up for grabs despite the shots being 37-11 for the Flyers. Domination but not on the scoreboard.
By now starting their ninth period of hockey in just over 48 hours, the Flyers kept plugging and plugging, trying to find that goal to put by Belfour. It would not happen after 80 minutes. Nor 100 minutes. Finally, after 46 minutes of extra time the Flyers’ Recchi would beat Belfour with a shot (the Flyers’ 75th of the night and 38th in extra time) that almost looked like it was a curling rock just getting into the rings rather than a puck crossing the line. But cross the line it did, leaving the Flyers with a split and a second wind after nearly four games of heavy, physical hockey in two nights.
“We played so hard that we forced them to spend time where they didn’t want to — in their own end,” Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock said according to the CBC. “In the third overtime, I thought our players could sniff something. The guys were standing on the bench every time we got a rush going. It felt like we were getting our 11th wind or something.”
As for Recchi, it was a game-winner that was of secondary concern in his life that evening. “I’ve got to get home,” Recchi said after the marathon contest. “My wife’s going to have a child. It’s the greatest thing in life. I’m looking forward to it.”
The win certainly didn’t win the series but it planted just enough confidence in the Flyers and doubt in the Leafs that Ed Belfour could be beaten. The Flyers went on to rout Toronto in game seven 6-1 and win the series. It also showed the Flyers that if they could destroy an opponent with that much offensive pressure eventually they would be victorious, regardless of who they had in goal themselves.
