"I just hope the news covers the riots in Montreal." -My boyfriend at the end of the 2nd period.
Most of my fellow Pittsburgh Penguins fan friends have allied themselves with the Montreal Canadiens for the duration of this 3rd round series. I have opted to follow the road less traveled and have started... watching... the Philadelphia Flyers a little more closely.
I know, I can't believe it either. It comes down to this: Ron Hextall was a fucking badass and the Flyers haven't been good since the 70s.
Ok maybe it doesn't completely come down to that but here's my attempt to explain exactly where my allegiances lay.
Most importantly, this bears reiteration: I hate the Flyers!!!! But right now, I hate Marion Hossa and the Habs fans way more.
I haven't been following hockey quite that long, only just over a year, so I really have no idea what year the Hawks last made the finals. I know that they lost to the Pens in '92. I know that I called them to win it all this season. I know that with talent like Hossa, Kane and Toews it seems like a no brainer that the Hawks will take the Cup without breaking a sweat when facing players like Pronger, Hartnell and Richards.
But I also know that the last time the Flyers were good, I wasn't even born yet.
I know that I don't agree with how Toews pronounces his name and that the prospect of Hossa losing in the finals 3 years in a row with 3 different teams is too just too tasty for words. How could you not want to see that?
I know that the Flyers were shitty this year. I was pissed when Hartnell bit Letang. I laughed when Stevens got fired, management brought in Laviolette and they got even worse. I gasped for air when the rumors of Carcillo sleeping with Scotty Hartnell's wife bounced off the corners of the internet. I snickered when the Pens embarrassed them in a Home and Home. I ignored them because I didn't care.
But then April rolled around. The Flyers' season rode on their last game against the Rangers, which went into overtime and then to a shoot out. Somehow they won. I was baffled that somehow they won. I texted my Flyers fan friend, knowing he was happy. I shrugged it off and went about life secretly hoping the Flyers would win so the Pens could see them in a later round.
Marty rolled over (literally) in their opening series versus the Devils but the Bruins didn't make life easy on the Flyers. In the end, I chucked it up to luck that the Flyers had made it to the 3rd round. Sometimes fortune favors the foolish and Carcillo is usually pretty foolish.
The Pens lost and being a fan of the sport, I had to make quick work of figuring out a way to keep myself interested through the Cup Finals. I needed to find a team to cheer on to victory. Since the beginning of the season, the Hawks were my personal favorite so I needed to find an underdog: I tried bandwagoning the Sharks but they got swept faster than I could find a website to order a Nabokov shersey. I hated the Flyers but when sizing them up against the Habs' fans, Philadelphia was a close 2nd place.
I started considering what history has been made for the Flyers this season. I thought about Hossa's contract. I was overwhelmed by a feeling of schadenfreude that outweighed my disgust for anyone that wears orange and the answer seemed pretty simple.
Coupling that with the fact that should the Blackhawks actually win, Toews will kick Sidney Crosby out of the "Youngest Captain to ever hoist the Cup" spot. I know its trivial and I know its dumb but if the Pens can't win it this year, I don't want it to effect anything else other than them not winning it this year.
That last paragraph doesn't make much sense but you get my drift.
The Flyers play an older brand of hockey that you don't really see in many other teams. During the regular season, I'd call them thugs who between fights might figure out a way to score but during the playoffs their physicality is unmatched. You put the Broad Street Bullies up against finesse teams like the Bruins or the Canadiens and its obvious who the winner is going to be.
So yes, I can look myself in the mirror and say I am a Pens fan that wants to see her favorite team's arch rival do well. I am able to set my personal biases aside to enjoy my favorite sport before it closes up shop until October.
After all, the greatest thing about playoff hockey is that all the rules are redefined. You never know what's going to be around the corner. You never know what you're gonna get.
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