Thank You Flyers

Like the eye of a storm, there is a calm that settles in when you know your team is going to lose.  Oh sure you go through the seven stages of grief, most of which involve putting the batteries back into the remote after smashing it against the floor.  But once your passed anger, no matter how long it lasts, you come to peace with your plight.

“It’s only a game, really what’s the sense of getting upset about a game.  I should be focusing on bigger things like austerity in Europe or figuring out the perfect gift idea for Blue Ivy.” 

And really that’s all it is; a game.  99% of teams won’t end up winning.  So unlike the ‘Hunger Games’ slogan, the odds really aren’t in our favor.

I’m writing this now while the Flyers are playing.  I felt there was no reason to watch.  While we probably are the better team, the Devils are just skating circles around us.  I have the gamecast up and will follow only with a mild sense of intrigue, but I’ve already buried this team.

But that doesn’t mean this season was a waste.  Quite the contrary this team overachieved well beyond anything I thought they were capable of.  A team with an average age of younger than me in reality had very little chance of success.  This was supposed to be our rebuilding year.  We traded our two superstars for a couple of pups.  A team where more than half the forwards weren’t on the team a year before doesn’t have the continuity to win in the playoffs.  Not to mention they haven’t had their captain skating with them for the past five months.

So this team already won their Stanley Cup.  They made such a loud, reverberating statement beating the Penguins that they just ran out of steam.  They put everything into that series and really it was unfair for everyone to put even more pressure on them afterwards.  Of course there was going to be a letdown.  Who knew it would come so soon?

So thank you Flyers.  As usual you did your job of steering me through the cold winter months, and then safely handing me off to the Phillies.  You made me happy showing me what’s to come with Giroux, Schennn, Couturier, Voracek, Simmonds, Read and JVR  as our leaders.  Thank you Laviolette for constantly proving to be the most entertaining, best manager in Philadelphia.  And thank you Bryzgalov, you certainly made the season much more interesting, I guess is the world I’m looking for; you aren’t the reason we lost the series. 

And so as the seconds tick down, as Kovalchuk puts the finishing touches on the season I want you all to know that while today is said I will remember this team fondly.

Except for Bryz, I really am not looking forward to eight more years of you.