The Philadelphia Flyers: Cathartic Ramblings Written After Game 3 That I Never Added On To

(After the Flyers lost Game 3, I decided I would write a season retrospective on the Flyers, conceding that the chances the Flyers had of coming back were likely minimal at best. I had a part of it written with the attempt to add more to it, but once everything ended, even though nothing changed, I could not think of anything else to write. So here is a half-completed 2010-2011 Flyers retrospective that I wrote for catharsis after Game 3. Enjoy it, if such things are to be enjoyed.)

Fatigue

Fatigue. Mental fatigue. Physical fatigue.

Exhaustion. Mental exhaustion. Physical fatigue.

It is the most reasonable explanation there is. After dominating the Buffalo Sabres in a 7-game series that saw the Sabres get a lot of luck, the Flyers got thoroughly manhandled by the Boston Bruins, who thoroughly manhandled the Flyers in 3 out of 4 games. Of course, the only game the Bruins did not dominate, Tim Thomas transformed himself into a brick wall that stopped everything in sight.

But let's go back and see what the Flyers have been through.

May 2010: Flyers comeback from 0-3 down to eliminate the Bruins.
June 2010: Flyers play a 6-game Stanley Cup Finals.
October 2010: Regular season starts after an abbreviated off-season for a team that had not been in the Stanley Cup Finals since 1997.
Late Winter 2011: Flyers hit a slump that almost costs them their division lead.
April 2011: Flyers need Game 82 to clinch the Atlantic Division. No regular season game could be used for rest.
Late April 2011: The Flyers play a 7-game series with the Buffalo Sabres that saw multiple comeback attempts, thanks in large part to some boneheaded decision making by Peter Laviolette.
May 2011: Flyers bow out to Boston in a sweep
May 2010-May 2011: Peter Laviolette works his team tirelessly in practice, perhaps more so than most coaches.

And when it is the playoffs and everyone plays in spite of the minor injuries, it is a recipe for disaster. And disaster is certainly one way to describe that series against the Bruins. When a team is physically and mentally drained like the Flyers were, and you are facing a good team with a good goalie, you could see the disaster coming a mile away. I did, I had hopelessly hoped that my feelings were deceiving me, but I had seen this loss coming. And sure enough, it did. The Bruins are hungry. The Flyers had no room left to store their food. It is not that they quit, or lacked Heart, or did not "want it," they simply had nothing left to give.

If Wishes Were Fishes, The World Would Be An Ocean

"If the Flyers would have gotten a franchise goalie, they would have won the Stanley Cup!"

This is a statement that you will likely see a lot of in the upcoming days.  Whether it be from frustrated fans or members of the mainstream media looking to expand upon their narrative.  But it is also something that you, no matter how certain of it you are in your mind, you cannot say in an intelligent discussion and still be taken seriously.

The above statement is what is known as a counter-factual argument.  "If the Capitals had fired Bruce Boudreau last season, they would have eliminated the Lightning."  "If the Flyers would have traded their 2011 1st round draft pick for Vokoun instead of Versteeg, they would still be playing hockey now."  "If Peter Laviolette played match-ups better, the Flyers would have won this series easily."

The answer to all of those is simple:  But they didn't.  If the Flyers got a franchise goalie...but they didn't.  If the Capitals fired Boudreau last year....but they didn't.  If the Flyers got Vokoun instead of Versteeg....but they didn't.  If Laviolette played match-ups better....but he didn't.

You can say the Flyers do not have elite goaltenders, but the problem comes not when you make that statement, but when you make the jump from that statement to saying that elite goaltending would have put them over the top this year.  It is something you do not know, it is something you cannot go back and fix to see if you are right, and therefore, it is an argument that holds no ground.  Is it a possibility that if the Flyers traded for Vokoun instead of Versteeg that they make the Stanley Cup?  Yes it is.  Is it a possibility that if the Flyers traded for Vokoun instead of Versteeg, they would have had a different playoff match-up, for better or worse?  Yes it is.  These are all possibilities, they are not givens.  It is possible that without Kris Versteeg, the Flyers do not beat Buffalo.  It is possible that with Vokoun they would have win the Stanley Cup.  It is possible they would have gotten Vokoun, he gets injured, and the Flyers are without a 2011 draft pick, an elite goaltender, and Kris Versteeg.  But just because something is possible, does not mean it would happen under a given set of conditions when that given set of conditions never materialized.