The Flyers fans are now seeing the light. It took them many decades but it is time for Flyers GM to be shown the door. Unfortunately for Flyers fans, Clarke is married to the owner's daughter. That's why he's stayed so long and has been permitted to build a team in his image. That image is from the prehistoric age of NHL hockey.

The Broad Street Bullies can no longer survive in this NHL. Clarke may be able to escape the Turk one more season, but the fans may now see that he is the reason for their constant failure.

Mike Grier got the Sabres on the board first, making it every game in this series that the Sabres had scored first. Then the final two minutes and 30 seconds did the Flyers in big time.

Ales Kotalik’s wrist shot from the left dot got past Robert Esche. Just a short while later, Derek Roy intercepted a Peter Forsberg pass and blasted it past Esche, making it suddenly 3-0 Sabres. A lot of the packed house of orange and black filed past the concession stands and left the building after that. They weren’t staying any longer to spend their hard-earned money on beer and snacks. They had enough of this slow and ancient Flyers team.

"From one of the loudest buildings, it went very quiet in the second half of the game," said Sabres co-Captain Daniel Briere. "It means you did your job on the road."

The Sabres continued to pour on the pressure and tallied two more in the second period before Branko Radivojevic spoiled Ryan Miller's second shutout bid with just over a minute remaining in the second stanza. The Sabres answered right back when Chris Drury scored on a pass from Grier with only 14 ticks left on the clock to make it 6-1. Drury added his second tally of the night when he scored a shorthanded goal in the second minute of the third period.

Miller played another solid game, making 21 saves. He was at his absolute best when he needed to be, at the start of the game when the Flyers poured it on in an effort to score first. They failed when Miller stopped 4 point blank shots and sucked the wind out of the Flyers attack. From then on, it was all Buffalo.
Hitchcock was somber after the game and gave the Sabres full marks.

"It was just bang, bang, bang and it’s over," bemoaned Hitchcock after the game.

"Everybody was in shock, especially the way we played for the first 10 or 12 minutes. The deflation was unbelievable."

Hitchcock is a good coach. Unfortunately for him and the Flyers fans, he was saddled with the big, but slow team that Bobby Clarke built in the image of the old Broad Street Bullies. Until Clarke gets out of the Neanderthal times and builds his team to match today's game, the Flyers will always get blown out like this by smaller, but speedier teams.

Now the Sabres must prepare for the team that manhandled them most of the season...the Ottawa Senators. It will be no easy task, but the fact that the Sabres beat the Sens the last two games will help build their confidence some.

This is a fun time of the year if you are either a hockey fan or a player, especially if your team has just won a series. On the flip side, it can be a downright nightmare if your team was just eliminated and face a spring and summer swinging golf clubs rather than hockey sticks.

The Sabres are having fun right now. They know that they will have to get down to even more serious business this weekend as they face possibly the strongest team still remaining in the competition for Lord Stanley's Silver.

Lindy Ruff was not going to let his players celebrate too long. They have a much harder task at hand than beating the extinct dinosaurs called the Philadelphia Flyers. The Ottawa Senators were the cream of the crop, especially early in the NHL season. They were the top team in the East and gave the Sabres fits every time they played them. However, the Sabres did beat the Sens two times in a row at the end of the year and they hope that's something they can build on.

"We told the guys we'd give them the morning to celebrate and then we'd get back to work by noon," said Ruff right before the 12:30 p.m. workout.

The Sabres gained their playoff experience, especially rookie goalie Miller. Miller was having troubles coping with the extreme pressure of playoff hockey, especially in a rowdy Philly arena. After allowing 2 or 3 soft goals in the first two games there, Miller got his confidence and edge back to shut down the Flyers to only 1 goal in two games.

Now if the Sabres hope to compete with the high-flying Sens, Miller has to play his absolute best.

"It's going to be a tough series," Miller admitted. "Both of our teams can skate. We both have defenses that can move the puck. We've identified how we have to play. Now we have to execute."

Ruff was trying to prepare his troops for a much different opponent in the next round.

"We're definitely the underdog going into this series with the year Ottawa had and the offence they piled up and their record against us," explained Ruff. "We've got a challenge."

While the Flyers fans and the scoreboard operator were mocking the Sabres in the first few games in Philly, the Sabres retaliated the best way they know how...scoring goals and winning games. They showed Scott Norwood missing his infamous 47-yarder during Super Bowl XXV about 5 times in a row and then had the slogan, "Buffalo, city of chokers."

What goes around comes around. The city of Philly is probably the biggest choker of any sports city in pro sports. They haven't won anything since around 1980 with the Phillies (the 76ers won in 1983, but that's the NBA).

All the Flyers and their fans have to do is to took at the scores of the last 3 Sabres victories..... 8-2, 3-0 & 7-1...to get the message.

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