For the fourth game in a row, the Flyers held the lead for well over 50 minutes. In fact, they nearly held it the entire game which is amazing considering the Habs scored 2 goals.
The kicker is the Habs did (as they have often done in this series) it within the span of two minutes and in the third period once again.
Marty Biron played out of his mind last night and would've had a shutout if not for a few defensive breakdowns by the Flyers in that third period.
And, once the game was knotted I could hear the collective gasping by everybody at the Pub last night as I watched the game with some friends.
But, there's something about this Flyers team, much like the Phillies of last summer and the Eagles in 2003 (during their 9-game winning streak) that makes you believe. While the Phillies and Eagles did come up short ultimately there's something intangible about this group of players that makes you believe they'll go all the way.
I think at the heart of it is Marty Biron's stellar play. He's on a roll right now much like J.S. Giguere was a few years back and Hextall was in '87. Ironically, both of those goalies ended up losing in the Finals and winning MVP honors though.
The scary thing is the Flyers haven't even played their best game yet. Either of these four games could have gone either way, but the two constants have been the stellar play of Biron and the Flyers' ability to strike back quickly once a lead has been relinquished.
The series heads back to Montreal on Friday night and if they don't win up there it will come back to Philly on Sunday.
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A Banner Special
Let me expand the current definition of what a "banner special" is.
The original definition per Eagles message boards (namely the only one I go to because it's awesome-a.k.a Igglephans.com) is the following:
banner special-a contract Joe Banner hands out to young players when they're two to three years into their careers in which he signs them to a bargain deal, but it's good for them at the time because they get a nice signing bonus. Upon which, three years later they become underpaid and disgruntled.
Lito Sheppard accepted the banner special, to the tune of 5 years and $25 million with $8.7 million up front.
Now, on the surface this banner special contract affords the player some security and many times they get more money than they've ever seen in their lives. Take Sheppard for example who was picked at the bottom of round one in 2002. He was given a signing bonus around $4-$5 million. Then, he gets offered the banner special a few years later and get $8 million up front. That's twice as much money as he had before.
Good deal right. Well sure, but after a few years and now we're seeing how underpaid he really is when players like Asante Samuel get $50 million over 5 years and close to $30 million up front.
Listen I don't like to hear players bitch about their money as much as the next guy, but being in the real world if I find out somebody is doing the same job as me and getting paid a lot more I'm going to be pissed and look for another job.
It's human nature. And, it's only magnified with these millionaire athletes.
Now, I shall amend the definition for the banner special by saying it also means you publicly criticize one of your players for not towing the company line.
As you may have heard Brian Dawkins commented on the situation involving Lito and said he doesn't see he, Samuel, and Brown all being here. In other words, he doesn't see Lito showing up.
"The way it has played out, I don't see those three guys being here at the same time," Dawkins said. "It's a tough situation to be in, and this is somebody I'm close to and I consider a close friend. I don't like it for him. Whatever happens, I hope it works out best for Lito. I hate that this is happening to him."
Banner retorted by basically telling Dawkins to mind his own business and keep quiet.
"I'm not sure what Brian is talking about or if he knows what exactly has happened," Banner said. "I don't really agree that three guys of this caliber can't play together. There are certainly plenty of situations where three quality players at the same position have played together. Look at Randy Moss, Wes Welker and Donté Stallworth with the Patriots last year."
This can't be good for anybody. We have ourselves yet another ugly situation playing itself out and it's been handled horrendously by the Eagles.
They should done the following and that's trade Lito Sheppard simultaneously as they were locking up Asante Samuel up to a deal.
I know it's hard to multitask and it must be torture to lock up a premiere free agent and at the same time pull off a trade for one of your top players on defense.
But, had they done both at the same time, they would have gotten a better market value deal for Sheppard before people knew they were signing Samuel and they would have had their ducks in a row, locked up Samuel, gotten something for Sheppard and we wouldn't be watching this saga play itself out.
Reportedly the Eagles were offered no better than a third round pick for Sheppard.
What are we going to say if this drags out into the summer and they're forced to trade him for a future 4th rounder, some bum named Michael Clayton, or even worse they have to cut him?
That will top most of the blunders in the history of Philadelphia sports and be 1a to the #1 blunder, which is the handling of the TO Debacle.
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