>OK, fair enough. I missed the game but have seen similar games in soccer and football. Sometimes one soccer team is on the attack most of the time, or one football team gains way more yards than the other, but they just can't punch it in enough to win.
>
>Oh, just a reminder to you and Charles -- only another week until the start of the World Cup <g>.
>
>The first period of Game 2 belonged to Chicago, but Philly was the strong team the rest of the way. Niemi played well. For the Flyers to win, they will need to continue to rattle Niemi, and they will also need to protect Leighton. For what seems like the millionth season in a row, Philly has a goaltender who is good but not great. For some reason, goaltenders come to Philly and give up soft goals. I remember when John Vanbiesbrouck came to Philly. Everyone thought he'd be a star and take the Flyers to the cup - well, he wound up being the king of the soft goal.
>
>Here's the history of Flyer goalie misfortunes:
>
>- Bernie Parent, eye injury in 1979 that ended his career (though he was getting old)
>
>- Bob Froese - great in the regular season, choked in the post season...always
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>- Pelle Lindbergh, by 1985 he won a Vezina and was the best in the game....and died in a car crash
>
>- Ron Hextall, never knew which was bigger, his intensity or the five-hole through which he surrendered hundreds of goals...a huge choker
>
>- Garth Snow - strong as an ox, and almost as smart
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>- John Vanbiesbrouck - could make a ten-bell save on a breakaway....and then would surrender a wrist-shot from center ice
>
>- Brian Boucher - an amazing run in 2000.....looked like the Flyers FINALLY found a solid franchise goalie...then wanted more money....then got injured...then got traded....then came back, then got injured
>
>- Roman Cechmanek - good think he didn't speak much English, otherwise the other 80% of the team would have hated his guts as well.
>
>- Robert Esche - see Brian Boucher
>
>- Marty Biron - amazing what you can find in a garage sale
>
>- Ray Emery - actually a bold move for Philly - and a smart one - right up until Emery messed up his hip and his groin

The man knows his Flyers.

Hextall was also one of the legendary feisty goaltenders. If there is a record book for fights by a goalie, he has to be on the short list. He thought nothing of slashing an opponent across the legs with his goalie stick if the guy came within range.

Although I was a Bruins fan growing up, and thus hated the Flyers, for a brief period of time was a Flyers fan. That was because when I was in college they moved their top minor league team to Portland, Maine and named them the Maine Mariners. My dad had great seats at center ice and I went to a bunch of games. Lots of guys who later played for the Flyers were on those teams. One of the nice things about minor league sports is you enjoy following the players and seeing them make it to "the show."

One night the Mariners were playing an AHL opponent, I don't even remember which one, which included a player you surely remember: Dave Schultz. For the unaware, Schultz was one of the legendary "goons" in hockey. Put more politely, an enforcer, a player whose role is not necessarily to score goals but to mess with the other team's best players and protect your own best players. In hockey the goonhood is an honorable profession and continues to this day. Anyway, Schultz was nearing the end of his career, hanging on in the minors. Almost inevitably, during the course of the game one of the Mariners' apprentice goons, Dave Hoyda, provoked a fight with Schultz. It wasn't much of a fight -- Schultz pulled Hoyda's jersey over his head and wrapped him up until the referees broke it up. The weary experession on Schultz's face was Lear-ian. You sensed he got that everywhere he went, the young gunslingers wanting to take on Dave Schultz.

Another memory of Hoyda (who made no impact in the NHL as far as I know). At one game my brother and I went through the turnstiles just as Hoyda emerged from a side door, in full uniform other than skates, to hand a hockey stick to a gorgeous young woman who I found out worked in the Mariners' publicity department. "Oh, what did I do to deserve this?" she said jokingly. "Nothing, yet," he said with a wink, and went back through the door.

Dave Schultz lifetime NHL stats: 79 goals (more than I thought), 2294 penalty minutes. He still holds the single season record with 472 penalty minutes in 1974-75. That's almost six minutes a game, LOL.