A few weeks back, I was sitting on twitter and noticed that some bloggers were talking about the teams that they hated the most. Some hated the Rangers because they have a bunch of high priced players and every year they try and buy a championship. Then we got the Maple Leafs. Honestly, they have sucked for so long that the only angst that comes out of it has to do with the close proximity. How about Boston? Well, they are making a comeback. During the late 80s and early 90’s, they were the team for fans to hate. After losing to them last year, and seeing their stupid Jabba “The Hutt” looking coach complain about Lindy, and Johnny Boychuck (The name alone tells me that he’s a member of the Cobra Kai dojo.) injure Thomas Vanek, were reasons enough to help them make the climb up the hate charts. However, there’s still too much of a gap between the early 90’s and today.
However, when the smoke clears, and you combine memories, playoffs, the teams today and the hatred, I can’t help but see orange and black. Yes, Philly fans probably look more towards the Pens and Rangers as their rivals, but for this fan/blogger, it’s all about Philly. I’ve been a Sabres fan since 1990, and I think it’s safe to say that I’ve hated Philly for about 15 of those years. I mean, all you have to do is youtube Flyers vs Sabres and presto:
You get Garth Snow fighting Steve Shields.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV9YHIx9_Ms&w=480&h=390]
Then you get Matt Barnaby playing possum against Garth Snow.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOD-kyvL_J8&w=480&h=390]
You get Jay McKee scoring the game-winning goal in the 2001 playoffs.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMOsvAoj5Kg&w=480&h=390]
You get Brian Campbell destroying RJ Umberger.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3Gvfr9GUC0&w=480&h=390]
I’d have to say, the over/under for me watching all of these clips during the calender year is around, say…10 times. They are just awesome clips. It’s funny with the Flyers, because they are kind of the same team year in and year out. They can score and they can hit. Hell, Bobby Clarke has been the man in charge since Seymour Knox was running the Sabres. He always makes sure he has a couple of troublemakers on the club. It wouldn’t shock me if Bobby walks into a dive bar in Philly with a hockey stick and just yells, “Alright, which one of you punks can take me on!?” And whoever takes him on, gets on the Flyers. I just picture the movie Fight Club. Yes, they’ve gone away from having big, slow bruisers like John LeClair and Eric Lindross, but they always have a bunch of dirty, scummy, filthy, don’t shower unless they are in the rain, scumbag players.
Anyways, they are so easy to hate. With that being said, I think a lot of my memories are fixated around the playoffs. Since 1995, the Flyers and Sabres have met six times, with the series being even at three games a piece. So, without looking up the series, sorry, but I don’t believe in doing a retrospect and having the ability to google stuff. I mean, if you are at a bar and you’re talking about your childhood memories for a sports team, do you google the team? Hell, no. You just take a trip down memory lane. Of course, this gives me a legit excuse to totally mess up my facts 😛
1995: Sabres vs Flyers- This is one of those series that a lot of fans don’t remember much about. I think a lot of it has to do with how lame the 1995 hockey season was. In case you didn’t know, the season didn’t start until January because the league locked the players out. It’s crazy, but when you look at our roster, we had Hasek in his absolute prime and Mogilny and LaFontaine were only two years removed from their record breaking year of 1993. The match-up was a 7th vs 2nd seed, and we just got destroyed. I just remember that the Flyers pushed us all over the ice and we were way too small. I also remember how our games were broadcast on Fox. Ugh. In case you didn’t know, Fox had these lame, ass machines/robots celebrate whenever someone scored a goal. Oh, and they had the terrible glowing puck. Anyways, we got smoked in five games. Now, even though I’m downplaying how fans don’t remember this series all that much, it actually ended up being the final nail in the coffin for the LaFontaine/Mogilny teams. Mogilny was traded in the off-season, along with Doug Bodger and Dale Hawerchuk. I think the Sabres were in financial trouble, so they started dealing a lot of high priced guys. The next year, the team didn’t even qualify for the playoffs under Ted Nolan.
1997: Sabres vs Flyers- Yes, this was that magical run by Ted Nolan, which some fans will never let go. Alright, I’ll admit, it was a fun team and a great year. No one saw us coming. Everyone thought it was going to take us like another 2 years to get back to the playoffs. I think that’s what makes Nolan’s tenure here so special to some, because it was miracle that we won the division. Seriously, we had no one! Derek Plante was our best offensive player for god sakes?! Anyways, back to the series, and like in 1995, the Flyers beat us 4 games to 1. As far as memories go, obviously, the biggest one is the Shields vs Snow fight. Just an awesome call by RJ. Seriously, can you imagine what life would be like if RJ was your narrator? Better yet, how about if RJ went to a bar with you and you started a bar fight, while he called the action. As far as the other memories, we probably should have been swept, but some no-name player scored the game-winner in OT. Damn, I want to google it and find out. It was like Ronan? Or Ndur? I don’t know. Also, it was like Hasek watch 24/7 for that series. After he got hurt against the Sens, fans were clamoring/waiting for Dom to return. But he never did. Hasek’s groin was on the clock and the alarm never went off. I’m still not sure if it would have mattered. Philly was loaded that season.
1998: Sabres vs Flyers- This was Lindy Ruff’s first year on the job. The Sabres actually stormed there way into the playoffs on a hot streak, kind of like the way they did this year. Philly had home ice and I really didn’t have much hope. Yes, we were hot, but the Flyers had been kicking our asses for years. I hate to say it, but it kind of felt the same way the Bills vs Patriots rivalry is today. Maybe, it’s how the Sens fans felt about us for so many years. Anyways, I remember how happy I was that we had split the games in Philly. After that, I don’t really remember the games in Buffalo. Obviously, I know we swept them in the B-low, but nothing sticks out. However, game 5 sure as hell does. I still kind of felt uneasy about this series. I mean, it was the Flyers?! They always kicked our asses. The game went to OT, and I think it was Curtis Brown who totally beat whoever the hell the Flyers goalie was that year (Hell, it might have been Boucher, Hextall or Garth from Wayne’s World). However, the puck hit the post and at that second, I was like, “NOOOOOOOOOOOOO, WE ARE CURSED?!” Then, all of sudden, Michal “Stinky” Grosek banged in the rebound. Series over. The hex is over. Flyers blow!
2000: Sabres vs Flyers- This was the hangover year. The Sabres were coming off the Stanley Cup Finals and for the entire year, the team totally underachieved. The team didn’t qualify for the playoffs until the last day of the regular season, and if memory serves me correctly, they were in the top 8 for like five days during that season. Luckily, the last day of season counted the most and they were in as the 8th seed. However, even though we were the 8th seed, I was pretty confident going in. We had been hot since the trade deadline, when the Sabres traded for Doug Gilmour and Chris Gratton. At the time, these were arguably the biggest trades that Regier pulled off. For god sakes, #93 was making 6 million bucks a year (Side note: Chicago was picking up most of the tab on his deal). Gilmour came in and he was smoking. I just remember him and Satan were lethal on the same line. Series started, and you could just tell that we didn’t have anything left in the tank. All season long, every game seemed to be like a must win for us (On a side note, I know a number of fans {myself included} have stated that it’s great to see the current team peak. However, the 2000 Sabres peaked towards the end of the season and they ran out of gas. I am just saying.) The memory I have is obvious…No Goal II. How many No Goals are we on btw? Like 4? Anyways, this one was such BS. Pretty much, John LeClair shot the puck and it clearly went through a hole in the side of the net. Now, no one realized it at first, but it totally showed how stupid Toronto is (Not the city, even though they are), because the fools, who review the goals at NHL headquarters, weren’t watching obviously. “Oh, yeah. We review every single goal scored. Like Gare Bear is hanging out in his hot tub, watching the goals. His servant even carries a portable TV around to show him all the goals on a nightly basis.” BS! Anyways, even if that goal didn’t count, we would have lost the series. We just didn’t have any gas and Philly was better. We lost, 4 games to 1.
2001: Sabres vs Flyers- This is probably my favorite series of the bunch. I believe that the 2001 Sabres will go down in history as one of the more underrated squads. We had a ton of depth. We could roll four lines. We could score. We could hit. We could play defense. We had Dom. If it weren’t for a puck staying in the air for an hour, and then landing in front of Dom and Mario in the Pittsburgh series, I think we beat the Devils and goto the Finals. Arrr! That series still haunts me just as much as the 2006 Eastern Conference Finals. Anyways, back to Philly. This series was all about solving the riddle of Roman Cechmanek. For the entire season, this unknown Czech or Russian spy, owned the Sabres. I think we scored like two goals in four games during that season. However, that’s why playoff hockey is different from regular season hockey. I watched the game during Spring Break in Panama City. I can only assume I was hammered. I remember Gratton scored on a blue line laser. Oh, I just remembered! This was the Gratton series! For all the fans who came on after the lockout, before there was the frustrating talent of Tim Connolly, there was only one Chris Gratton. For whatever reason, this guy couldn’t put it together to save his life. The guy had everything: Size, speed and a killer shot. But he just didn’t have the killer instinct. However, for this series, he was totally pissed off, because he had a cup of coffee with Philly a few years back, and they hated his ass and the feeling was mutual. Gratton was totally on. He scored like 6 goals in the series and was hitting everything in sight. He was the MVP of that series. Anyways, McKee scored the OT game winner, and that totally made my day in Florida. Alright, it was the third best moment of the day, next to seeing scantily, clad women in hot body contests. Sorry, but I’m not going to the first moment. I mean, kids read this..I think? Anyways, Fast forward to game six and Buffalo had the series lead, 3 games to 2. This game was awesome! We destroyed Rome in one period. Everyone scored. It was awesome! We won 8-0. Series over. Roman goes back to being a spy in Europe. Flyers stink. On a very cool side note, I actually saw JP Dumont that night at Soho. I was trashed, and I went up to him and said, “Dude, you totally kicked the Flyers asses today. Thanks so much! Go kill Mario!” JP looked at me, shook my hand and said thanks. I’m assuming he must have been mortified.
2006: Sabres vs Flyers- This was definitely the coming out party for the Sabres. At this point, I think the team was starting to get some buzz in Buffalo, but after this series, the buzz went to being crunked. I honestly don’t remember how I felt going into this series. I think I felt great. Yeah..I just thought the Flyers were too old and too slow. This series probably has the most highlights for any of them. There’s the Campbell hit. Briere’s OT winner in game 1. Robert Esche “Losing it.” Ken Hitchcock telling Lindy to F-off. The two blowout games, where we scored like 15 goals. We just smoked them out of the arena. It was a lot of fun, because my old roommate was a Flyers fan and he was none to pleased about it. Ha! I love talking junk to other fans. It’s ironic, because like the first series that I detailed, where the Sabres decided to rebuild after losing, the Flyers did the same.
Yeah. Going down memory lane felt pretty cool. Just detailing what I remembered about the stupid Flyers, brings out my intensity for the playoffs. It’s like watching the Rocky IV training video and then deciding to go workout. It pumps you up!! It’s a little different than going down memory lane with the Sens or Bruins. The Flyers are truly my least favorite team right now. Yeah..this is going to be fun!
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