Flyers' Post-Mortem: A Lesson In Destiny

I came to an important realization recently, and I'd like to share it. You may want to write this down for future reference, because it may be the most profound thing I ever come up with:

One's final destiny only becomes known after the fact.

This is probably obvious, but we're always looking to tell ourselves something will happen because it's our destiny. If it were that easy, we'd have a society full of actors. "It's my destiny to win an Oscar!" How many misguided souls think it's their destiny to be the next American Idol? Now imagine if it were true. "American Idol winner William Hung/Sanjaya Malakar/anyone from Season 9." And, of course, it's my destiny to win a huge lotto jackpot and never have to worry about money again. (Still waiting on that last one, keepers of the karma...)

In sports, we tend to proclaim destiny at the drop of a hat, but especially when our team hasn't won in a long time and something amazing happens that we take as a sign, an indicator, a guarantee of future success.
An example: the Eagles' 2002 season. It was their final season at the Vet and, coming off a close loss in the NFC Championship Game to the mighty Rams the previous season, expectations were high until Donovan McNabb broke his ankle in Week 11, sidelining him for the rest of the regular season. While almost everyone preached doom, I wrote my first article for Outsports.com in which I explained how the Eagles could still make the playoffs despite the loss of their star quarterback.

The next week, the Eagles went into Candlestick Park and buried a San Francisco 49ers team that was still a near-perennial contender back then. During that game backup Koy Detmer dislocated his shoulder, leaving untested third-stringer A.J. Feeley as the starter. Thanks in large part to their defense, not only did the Eagles survive, but they went on to win the next four with Feeley at the helm, clinching the NFC East title with two weeks to spare and gaining home-field advantage throughout the postseason. McNabb returned for the playoffs and the Eagles beat Atlanta in the Divisional Round playoff, setting up an NFC title game matchup vs. Tampa Bay. I, like many others, bought into the whole "destiny" thing. The last football game at the Vet. The Eagles' amazing run without McNabb. Past playoff success against the Buccaneers, The Bucs' woeful record in cold weather. It was our destiny to reach the Super Bowl for the first time in 22 years!

Uh, no. Tampa Bay won, 27-10. A humiliating loss.

Okay. Try again in 2003. First year at the Linc. An ugly 0-2 start was overcome, and another NFC East was won. But Brian Westbrook was injured in the final game and out for the playoffs. Things looked bleak when the Green Bay Packers had a 17-14 lead and the Eagles were faced with a 4th-and-26 at their own 26 in the last two minutes. Then, suddenly, a miracle! Somehow McNabb found Freddie Mitchell for 28 yards and a first down. A few play later, David Akers kicked a field goal and the game was tied. Then Brett Favre threw an interception in overtime and it led to Akers winning it with another field goal. Thanks to an upset, instead of tough St. Louis it would be the Carolina Panthers coming into the Linc for the NFC title game. This time, we can't lose! No team gets a 4th-and-26 miracle unless they're destined to win it all! The third time's the charm! Destiny!

Carolina 14, Philadelphia 3. It was perhaps even more humiliating than the Tampa Bay loss; the play of the wide receivers was so hideous that it led to the arrival of the Terrell Owens circus. And hey, it actually worked for a few months, and the Eagles actually got to the Super Bowl the following season, until they lost to New England and things started to fall apart.

Well, now I'm depressed. So let's take a quick look at a happy example. 2007 Phillies, down 7 games with 17 to play, the Mets lose like crazy, the Phils win like crazy, win the NL East but are swept in the NLDS by Colorado. 2008. The Mets, up 3.5 games with 17 left, fall apart again, the Phils storm to the NL East title again. This time, it's Milwaukee in the NLDS. The big issue: their midseason acquistion, C.C. Sabathia. If he wins Game 2 (after the Phils won the first) he could come back for a Game 5 clincher. Second inning, 1-1 score. Runner on third, two outs, Brett Myers at bat. Myers sucks as a hitter. He falls behind 1-2, somehow fouls off pitch after pitch while getting the count full, then walks! Rollins walks, and Victorino rips a grand slam! Phils go on to win the game, series, NL pennant and World Series! The walk to Brett Myers, for most people, was that sign that the Phils were destined to break the city's 25-year championship drought. Destiny. For once, fulfilled.

Finally (and if you've read this far, bless you) we get to the point of this essay. The Flyers' appearance in the Stanley Cup playoffs was, after the travails of their regular season, a surprise. They fired coach John Stevens, they used seven different goalies, they had lots of injuries. Then came the final day of the season against the Rangers, with Brian Boucher in goal. The winner goes to the playoffs. The loser is done. The Flyers win -- in the shootout, of all things. That was followed by a 5-game series win over New Jersey, despite being stuck with Boucher in goal against the Devils' Martin Brodeur.

Then came Boston. The Bruins took a 3-0 series lead. In the three big leagues with seven-game playoff series, only 3 times had a team ever come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a series. The Flyers led Game 4 but were tied in the closing seconds, yet won in overtime. In Game 5 Boucher hurt both knees and had to be replaced by Michael Leighton, who was coming off his own injury and hadn't played in weeks. The Flyers won it, then tied the series and went back to Boston for the deciding 7th game. The Bruins promptly ran out to a 3-0 lead in the first 14 minutes. But before the first period ended, the Flyers got one back, opening the door to complete a comeback for the ages. History will be made, the league's TV ads kept promising, and it was.

A win over Montreal in five games, with Leighton getting three shutouts, sent the Flyers into the finals. And we all got caught up in the "D" word again. A team that is down 3-0 in a series, rallies to tie it, then falls behind by 3 goals in the 7th game, and still wins? And all those guys who were hurt were back in the lineup! The Cup is ours! So they lose the first two games to the Blackhawks in Chicago. No problem! We win Game 3 in overtime, then take Game 4 as well -- although that one got hairy after we had that 4-1 lead, but no matter! The series is tied now, and Chicago is going to crack under the pressure now! Destiny!

Destiny cracked under the pressure. A subtle move of switching around a couple of lines made the already dangerous Blackhawks even that much more difficult to handle. They roared to a 3-0 first-period lead in Game 5 and traded goals with the Flyers the rest of the way. In Game 6 they were even better at the start, yet somehow the first period ended in a 1-1 tie and the Flyers took a 2-1 lead early in the second. The Hawks, unbowed, got two and tried to make a 3-2 lead stand up the rest of the way. With their last ounces of gas, the Flyers kept pressing and tied the game with 4 minutes left, kept surging and had chances to win, both at the end of regulation and early in overtime. But Chicago's Patrick Kane took a pass from the point, skated almost to the side of the net and just put the puck on net. Leighton let it through his pads, and the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup.

In the end, the Flyers weren't destined to win. Sure, at the start of the year many "experts" thought they were serious challengers. But the inconsistency that got John Stevens fired continued to flare up well after Peter Laviolette took over. So many first periods, even in the playoffs, even after talking about how important a great start would be, the Flyers were flat. And the talent gap between the Flyers and Blackhawks was noticeable. The Flyers have too many guys like Arron Asham and Blair Betts. They're role players at best. You want to have a couple of them, but a team with too many role players can't compete with teams like Chicago, or Pittsburgh or Washington, for that matter -- thanks to the Canadiens' surprising run the Flyers avoided both Eastern Conference powers in the playoffs.

Then there's the goaltending. Ray Emery briefly showed promise in his return to the NHL after a year in Russia, until he got hurt. His career is in jeopardy. Leighton and Boucher are no moe than backups. As well as Leighton played in the regular season after both Emery and Boucher went down -- there's no doubt that he saved the Flyers' bacon -- he was just on a hot streak. That hot streak ended against the Blackhawks. He let in a number of soft goals, and the Kane goal that clinched the Cup might have been the worst of all. There's a reason he's bounced around to so many teams in his career.

While the Flyers are not without young talent -- Claude Giroux blossomed during the playoffs and midseason pickup Ville Leino was a stunning success -- they can still use some upgrades. They need to find a truly reliable goaltender (again). And they have to do it while constrained by salary cap limits thanks to large contracts of people like Mike Richards, Chris Pronger and Danny Briere.

It will not be easy to win the Cup next season, or even to get back to the finals. It never is. But who knows? Perhaps it's the Flyers' destiny. We'll know for sure in no more than 365 days or so.