It's Mondays like these where you don't even care that you're up early for work, and you will be for the next four days too. For the past three days, there's only been reason to celebrate.
The Flyers pulled off the comeback of all comebacks, winning a game 7 that was not only a microcosm of the series, but also their season. Two days later, they opened a new series with a 6-0 thrashing. The Union played their second-ever home game, and they too had a dramatic finish, tying the game in stoppage time. And the Phillies played and won three games on the road, extending their lead in the NL East to four games and their record to 10 games over .500.
Yeah I'd say the last three days went alright.
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The Microcosmic Series Win
No matter what happens the rest of the way, we'll be talking about the Flyers' defeat of the Bruins for years. Down 3-0 in the series, they came back to win the next four games, becoming only the third team to ever pull that off. As if that alone weren't dramatic enough, they were down 3-0 in the first period of game 7—yet still managed to win it.
This team does have a flair for the dramatic. As soon as the sharks are circling, they tighten up and become unstoppable.
With the way that head coaches are hired and fired in the NHL, it's become hard to quantify their actual value to a team. The tenure on the position is simply laughable anymore. Yet there's no one in Philadelphia today who is unable to pinpoint just how valuable Peter Laviolette has been to this team; without him, we're not even watching playoff hockey at all this season, much less being in the conference finals despite a plethora of key injuries. One minute, Lavvy is firing up the troops. The next, he's settling them down. He is the Maestro.
If you're a casual fan of hockey, there's probably a chance you didn't even know there were timeouts in the sport. That's how infrequently they're called. Something tells me that could change in near future, and it's all due to the masterful way Laviolette employs them. On Friday night, down three goals in a hostile building, with only a handful of minutes left before the first intermission, Laviolette called his timeout. I admit—I thought it was a weird time to call it, that maybe he was desperate. The break was coming anyway, and there wasn't much that could be done to stop the bleeding before then. And that's why I am not coaching the Flyers...
Lavvy stopped the game, was seen speaking hurriedly but not furiously, seeming to say "just one goal." The next shift after went pretty terribly, but almost immediately after that, the Flyers took over. With less than three minutes in the period, James van Riemsdyk put the Flyers on the board. The Flyers would score the next three too, while holding the Bruins scoreless for the rest of the game. Not such a bad time to call a timeout, huh? The Maestro.
It was also somewhat fitting that the Flyers were in that hole to begin with because of bad penalties. Scott Hartnell and Danny Briere are known for it, and both left the refs with no choice but to raise the arm and send them off. Each resulted in a powerplay goal for the Bruins, and it kinda seemed fitting in the context of this team's struggles during the regular season. So too was it fitting that each of those guys, Hartnell and Briere, would score in the second period, atoning for their mistakes to start the third with both teams—with the series—dead even.
Hell, to really ram home the microcosm point, there was even a controversial goal call. The Flyers seemed to have beaten Tuukka Rask, but it was called a non-goal on the ice, and the replay was deemed to be inconclusive, although most of Philadelphia would agree the puck had to have crossed the line based on the location of the leg pad it hit at the time. Still, we've seen it so many times this season, we knew it was coming back a dud. The flaws in that review system have dogged the Flyers multiple times this season, so why not once more, with the season on the line? Fortunately, Simon Gagne found the net on a later powerplay, and the Flyers held on for one of the greatest wins in franchise history.
The game was won in Boston, but more than 11,000 people showed up to watch it at the Wachovia Center. More on that here.
We Are the Union
As you might expect, I woke up exultant and exhausted on Saturday morning. A small group of the great hockey fans of Philadelphia were at my place for the game on Friday night, and let's just say we enjoyed celebrating that one. But we had to snap to pretty quickly on Saturday, because two of us are newly minted Philadelphia Union season ticket holders, and the club was hosting its second ever game down at the Linc. The weather was perfect for tailgating, so we hit up the lot a few hours early and tossed the frisbee around, met some people. After a great first experience for the inaugural game, it was quickly apparent this wouldn't be a let down. The lot was pretty packed, with kids kicking the ball around and the usual tailgate games being played everywhere.
Inside, the atmosphere was great again too.
FC Dallas' keeper was the story through 90 minutes, making save after save on some pretty great opportunities for the Union. It wasn't until extra time that the place really got to erupt, with Danny Mwanga, the team's first overall pick in this year's entry draft, scored his first career goal. For that, we got to go home more than content with a tie, but also overall pretty excited that we have a soccer team here and all that comes with it. The best moment of this game for me wasn't the goal. It was walking into the stadium, with chants all around and people generally just going crazy, but in a rather polite way. I was thinking to myself, this is so great. We finally have soccer in Philly.
Afterwards, we were kicked down a few beers by the group that parked next to us—who by the way were bumping Exile on Main Street for the hour leading up to the game—and someone busted out a ball and we all kicked it around for a good hour before heading home. (For more pics from Saturday, check out Garrett Field's entries on The700Level's Flickr group. Thanks, Garrett.)
The Good Fightins
Full disclosure: I didn't get to watch the Phils much this weekend. They were unfortunately the Sunday Night Baseball game, which put them opposite the Flyers, which I couldn't miss a minute of. Not this time of year, not with what's happening with that team.
But I did check in pretty frequently and read up the next day after each game, and what'd the Phils go and do? Swept the Brewers in Milwaukee. They continue to weather a terrible DL storm, with Jimmy Rollins out of the lineup since the home opener, his replacement nicked up too, their closer and setup man disappearing for who knows how long, and their catcher banged up. Yep, all that and they still come away with a series sweep. Cole Hamels managed to limit the damage to two solo shots, which came back to back, and the makeshift bullpen took care of the rest. Knowing they'd taken two of three already, Charlie Manuel rolled the dice with his relievers, handing the ball over in a close game to two guys who've been shaky so far this season to see what they had in them.
Danys Baez had some tough luck on balls that missed gloves and fell into play, but worked his way out of it for a harmless eighth with a little help from his friends; relief pitching ain't always pretty. JC Romero threw a perfect ninth, including a strikeout. The third-string SS doubled in a run. So did the starting pitcher. Cole had a decent start to win his fourth game, and the bullpen didn't blow it while the de facto closer got a night off. Say what you will about Win and Loss stats, but I'll take three straight wins by our starters anytime.
Oh and look, the Mets are back in last place.
Yeah overall it wasn't a bad little weekend for Philly sports fans.