~Sorry for the lack of update here. The Flyers loss depressed me and a lot has gone down in the Flyers organization here. The shit has hit the fan. And the reason I got this up is because people take the time to kick me and the ass and tell me to update. Thank you for that.~
“Didn’t I. Didn’t I see you crying. I want you to want me. I need you to need me. I’m begging you to beg me. And I want you now. I want you to want me. I need you to need me. I’m begging you to beg me. I’d love you to love me. Buy a brand new shirt. Put on brand new shoes. I would do anything if you’d say that you love me…” AJ sings bouncing around the locker room in the First Union Center dressed in his Flyers home uniform.
“Didn’t I didn’t I didn’t I see ya crying?” Brian Littrell sings from his perch on a stool fully dressed in his goalie equipment and uniform.
Kevin comes out of the locker room and looks at them both before shaking his head, “And so it begins,” Kevin smiles.
Game One:
“Spiderman. Spiderman. Does whatever a spider can. Spins a web. Sweet surprise. Catches thieves just like flies. Look out…here comes a Spiderman,” AJ sings bouncing his head a long to the music in his head on the Flyers bench.
Nick looks at him and shakes his head. The game had been held scoreless and the teams were now playing in the end of the third quarter. Brian Littrell was in the pipes for the Flyers and Lalime was in the pipes for the Senators. The Flyers had come out expecting an easy game…they underestimated too much. Nick was still convinced they would win this game…they had to they were at home. Brian was keeping them in the game though. AJ had managed to get off the most shots on goal for the team, but they were still stuck in a 0-0 game.
Nick watches as Williams heads down the ice and gets hit heavy into the boards by an Ottawa Senator. The balance of power shifts again as the Ottawa senator heads down the ice and Kevin checks him hard into the boards sending him falling to the ice. The crowd erupts in cheers as Kevin lays the hit on still standing on his skates unfazed. Nick looks at the ice down at the other end as AJ heads down the ice with the puck fresh off a line change. AJ skates as hard as he can towards the net letting off a wide wrist shot as he is hit from the side by a Senator sending him crashing to the ice. Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to the playoffs.
“Line switch ups!” Kevin yells from the ice a minute into overtime as Barber begins to scuffle his lines mix and matching player combinations trying to get anything to work. AJ hits the ice with Williams and Recchi in the first line mix up as the three get a few shots on goal, which are only denied by the goaltending of Lalime. Mix matching lines was always a lastage effort for the Flyers when they were trying to get anything going. They needed something to happen and quick. For the past four years the Flyers had been knocked out three times in the first round. The time they made it to the east coast finals was two years ago under the rule of Boucher’s rookie goaltending.
Nick hops over the bench and hits the ice with Murray and Fedetenko as Kevin crushes another player into the boards and swats the puck up to Nick. Nick heads down the ice with Murray and Fedetenko by his sides. Nick hated playing center. Nick turns on the jets and heads down the ice giving the puck to Marty Murray in the left hand corner as Fedetenko and him head towards the net. Murray skates around the corner only to be pulled down by a Senator letting off a pass to Fedetenko from the ice. Redirection. Goal number one for the Flyers and their first win of the playoffs.
Nick looks over at Fedetenko and skates up to him screaming as the Center goes crazy and Murray gets up from the ice to go over and hug his teammates. Brian looks down from the other end of the ice and throws off his helmet as he skates down to the others smiling widely. The Flyers bench erupts into cheers as the whole team gets to their feet and make their way on to the ice to find Fedetenko. AJ jumps over the bench with Williams by his side who gets his skate caught sending him falling over the bench onto the ice. Kevin skates up to the others from his defensive position and takes Nick into a hug.
“One down fourteen more to go!” Jeremy Roenick yells.
Flyers led the series 1-0.
Game Two:
“This isn’t good,” AJ says as he watches the Senators head down the ice in the third of the second playoff game.
The Flyers were down three to zero by now and there was hardly any coming back from a score that low. Brian had been working hard in the net, but the rest of the team didn’t see to be with him on it. The shots on goal were too small compared to Ottawa’s and they weren’t good shots at that. Kevin and his defense weren’t playing as well as Kevin wanted them too and it seemed like a loss was going to happen. In a series where the best out of seven counted the Flyers were about to be tied in the series one to one as the buzzer for the third sounded the end of the game and the it was Ottawa’s turn to celebrate.
AJ stares at them from his position on the bench before shaking his head and standing up. His head hangs slightly as the rest of the team files from the bench into the tunnel and towards the dressing room.
Series was now tied 1-1.
Game Three:
“Life officially sucks,” AJ says as he bounces a ball against the wall of the Flyers dressing room in Ottawa.
Todd Fedoruk looks up at him and shrugs, “Why?”
“I dunno,” AJ says as he catches the ball.
“Bad day?”
“I guess you can say that,” AJ sighs throwing the ball against the wall again, “You ever just get one of those bad feelings in your stomach before a game, Todd?”
Fedoruk nods, “Playoff jitters don’t worry about it,” Fedoruk smiles at him pulling on his helmet with his two front teeth missing.
“You really don’t like wearing your false teeth huh?” AJ asks him smiling.
Todd shakes his head, “I’m fine with who I am.”
AJ nods, “You’re a good man Todd,” he says getting up off the floor and adjusting his pads that had shifted slightly.
“Good luck Spaniard,” Todd says to AJ.
“I shall cheer for you,” AJ nods at him.
AJ looks out over the ice and shakes his head again looking up at the rafters of the Ottawa Senators home as the Senator fans cheer them on. Now he knew why he felt like shit before the game. Fedoruk said he jinxed him. AJ told him to shutup. It was a reoccurring performance from the night before. Bam. Bam. Bam. Three Ottawa goals. The Flyers sounded like a cling as their shots hit the cross bar, the far boards, or the goalie…anything but the net. Barber was having a kanipshit on the bench yelling at everyone as they got back to the bench. AJ couldn’t take much more of the man.
The offense was sloppy yet again and the defense was not up to par. The only thing keeping them form getting completely annihilated was the fact that Brian was bailing out them all massively. AJ was mad. Mad at himself for playing so piss poor. They had played three games counting this one and AJ was in the negative range for points currently. He needed a goal. He wanted a goal.
AJ looks down the ice as the buzzer for the third period sounds the end of the game and the Ottawa Senators celebrate once again. He could see Kevin sigh heavily looking at the ice as he skated back over to the bench with the others on the bench. Brian was coming back from the net with his mask perched up on his head as he looked down at the ice with a somber expression on his face. The players once again file from the bench silently back to the tunnel and into the locker room. It was official life sucked.
Ottawa Senators led the series 2-1.
Game Four:
“What are you all doing!” Kevin yells from his position on the ice as the Ottawa Senators score on Brian Littrell again. They were up 2-0 and the Flyers were once again behind. Well it wasn’t a new occurrence. Barber was going to flip out after this game.
Same old same old for the team too, lack of offense and defense except for Brian in net. The straw that broke the camels back hit in the second though when Ottawa scored on Brian for the third time. It was a crushing blow to the team as a whole, but then the unexpected happen. Brian who had contained his anger for so long through a fit. He through his helmet up over his face and skated to the center of the ice yelling at his teammates who were leaving him out in the open to get scored on. The team sat and stared at him with shocked faces and not even Kevin knew what to do from his position on the ice. Brian Boucher would come in in the third in net for Brian to finish the game. The game would end with the score of 3-0 in favor of the Senators.
Senators led the series now 3-1. One more game and the Flyers were done.
Game Five:
AJ stares up at the seats of the First Union Center. Not a seat was empty. They were a crumpling team, but the fans were still there. They would be there again the next year too and the year after that and the year after that. AJ takes a deep breath before looking down at his own net as Brian Boucher stretches. Do or die now.
Brian stares from his seat on the bench next to Nick chewing his gum lightly, “They hate me don’t they?”
Nick looks over at him, “Who?”
“Everyone,” Brian mumbles looking at the ground, “I blew.”
“You had a right to,” Nick says, “Barber is just trying Boosh in net. Trying to get something going you know?”
Brian nods as the game begins and the First Union Center erupts into cheers, “I’ll make it up to them,” Brian says, “Just watch me.”
Nick looks over at him and nods. He would.
AJ skates down the ice hard making his move around a Senator defensemen early in the first and lets off a high slap shot towards the upper corner of the net. He didn’t even have time to figure out what was happening until the crowd erupted and LeClaire skated up to him screaming and hugging him. He had scored the first Flyers regulation goal of the series and the Flyers took the lead for once 1-0.
It remained 1-0 until the third when the Senators scored their tying goal on Boucher. Retaliation is a bitch though as Kevin let off a sharp high slap shot from the blue line in the Senator zone scoring the winning goal. The crowd erupted at the goal and the team went flying from their spots on the ice to congratulate him. AJ stands up with the rest of his team on the bench and screamed as the buzzer for the third sounded and ended the game. Flyers win 2-1.
Senators led the series 3-2 now.
AJ sits on the bench squirming back and forth as his line change gets close, “Rock out. Do it quick. My my my let it rip. Rock out. Feeling good. Break your heart. Shake your blood,” AJ sings bouncing his head along to an imaginary beat.
Nick looks at him and smiles, “What song it that?”
“Probot,” AJ says, “Dave Grohl side project. Those are the only lyrics I know.”
Nick looks at him and shakes his head looking up at the First Union Center. Thank God for the home ice advantage.
Brian Boucher was back in net again as Brian Littrell once again took to the bench much to his dislike. Barber was going to ride with Boucher as long as he thought they had a chance with him. This game was do or die though. If they won the game the series would be forced into a seventh and deciding game. If they lost that was it. It was all over. All year working gone in the course of sixty minutes on the ice. None of them wanted to go home, but they knew the Senators felt the same way.
Kevin was stepping up his defense now. Crush any and everything in site was the motto now. That and if it takes a puck in the head you stop that puck from getting on Boucher. The offense was fore-checking and letting off as many shots as they could. Boucher was doing his part though keeping everything he could out of the net.
First period. Zero goals.
Second period. Zero goals.
Third period. Zero goals.
Overtime.
“No one take any stupid penalties please,” Kevin says talking to his teammates around the bench before they hit the ice again as they nod in agreement, “C’mon boys this is it. We aren’t gonna go down without a fight. Rusty, Mur, Nick…work some magic ok,” he says to the three of them who were the starting line up on the overtime, “Lets go then,” he smiles at them as they take out onto the ice for the beginning of the overtime.
“I can’t watch. I can’t watch,” AJ says moving his knee up and down on the bench in the middle of the twenty-minute overtime.
“Calm down you’re making me nervous,” JR says to him.
“I’m gonna puke I know it,” AJ says.
“Bend over the ice then,” Brian Littrell says from his seat next to AJ.
AJ shakes his head, “Not making any promises,” he says as the center erupts into the Boosh chant as Boucher makes another save.
Boucher stops a puck in the corner and passes it over to Kevin canceling the icing call. Kevin skates back behind the net and heads up with ice with McGillis towards the offense. Kevin passes it over to McGillis as he heads up to the blue line and passes it to Nick. Nick skates around before getting slammed into the boards and giving it back to McGillis as McGillis lets off a slapshot. Kevin sucks in his breath as the shot heads on net towards the goalie. John LeClaire looks up from his position in front of the net and in a split second lifts his stick slightly redirecting the puck into the net for the winning goal. Kevin throws his stick onto the ice and makes a line for John LeClaire as the Center erupts and the Flyers bench clears once again for an overtime goal.
The series was tied 3-3. It was time for a seventh and deciding game.
Game Seven:
“Oh dear Lord,” Nick says looking at AJ as he crashes into the Ottawa goalie as he is dragged down in front of the net in the second.
The game was tied 1-1 now with both team scoring an early goal. The Flyers came at the hand of Justin Williams. Notch one more in for Justin’s count of goals until he reached his goal of 20. He was at 18 and counting now. The team knew they needed to play the best game of their lives now. They needed to turn on their jets and plow through Ottawa even with the home ice advantage in favor of Ottawa.
AJ got back up from the drag down and had a few choice words for Chara before heading back to the Flyers bench. AJ was in full scoring mode now. He wanted a goal. He could smell it even. Nick could see it in his eyes how seriously he was taking this game. No smile crossed his lips except for when Williams got the first goal.
Kevin…thank God Kevin was on Nick’s team. Nick did not want to be on the receiving end of Kevin’s checks. A Senator had felt it badly when he got caught with his head down and didn’t come back for the game since early in the first.
“Lob it Boosh!” AJ yells down the ice as Boucher gets the puck and nods flipping it up into the air into the Ottawa zone. AJ heads down the ice hard with Simone Gagne and Adam Oates. AJ’s eyes stare up at the puck and head down the ice crashing into the boards as he scrapes the puck away from an Ottawa defensemen back to Simone Gagne at the point. Simone doesn’t even look up, but lets off a quick shot at the net which comes off the goalie’s blocker out to the side of the ice where AJ makes a diving move flinging it back onto the net from the ice. Lalime makes an effort to get over to the other side, but is to late as Adam Oates makes the final move and knocks the puck into the net. The Flyers bench gets on its feet and cheers their teammates on as the guys on the ice congratulate each other.
The game would end 2-1 as Boucher stood on his head in net securing the win.
Flyers win the series 4-3 in the seventh and final game.
On to the Maple Leafs.
“BOOSH!” AJ yells running up to him in the locker room and jumping on him hanging on to his equipment and kissing him on the cheek, “I love you!” he yells at him before letting go and running off over to Adam Oates and doing the same to him.
“Never say die,” Kevin smiles at Nick who smiles back.
“If this is what he is like only after the first round remind me to hide in the finals,” Nick says motioning to AJ.
Kevin nods smiling, “A game well fought for boys. A damned good game.”
AJ runs over to Brian Littrell and hugs him, “Thank you for the first win.”
Brian looks at him and smiles brightly.
“On to TORONTO!” AJ yells.
