*May I just say Bobby Clarke is an ass. Brian Boucher is GONE. DAMN YOU! He's on his way to Phoenix for the Coyotes. Damnit! I hope becomes a starter there. Now I gotte get center ice to watch him play. The Flyers season is going to be boring next season. We only have Justin to stalk now. Let's have one more chant for the Boosh.*
“Cause I hate every beautiful day,” AJ sings to himself as the team walks through the lobby of the hotel in Carolina.
“I can feel the change. I can feel. Can you feel it? I see it on the street watching heat through the pavement. Cause I am ready to take it all in. Everything is feeling unclear. I wish it was raining. Cause I hate every beautiful day,” Nick sings.
“You know we really should make it a point to realize where we are now,” Kevin says.
“Why?” AJ asks looking over at him.
“Because we have only made it this far once in the past five years,” Kevin says shaking his head.
AJ nods making a face, “We look good on paper, but these guys look good on the ice without it.”
“Anyone you guys know who moved here from the Whalers?” Brian Littrell asks looking at Nick and Justin.
Justin looks at Nick and shrugs.
Nick shrugs, “I dunno. Mike Rucinski was. ”
Justin nods.
“The Whalers are owned by the same guy who owns Carolina?” AJ asks.
“Affiliates,” Justin says, “People under 20 can’t play on the AHL teams, but they can play on a junior team and then get drafted right into the NHL…”
“Like someone we know right?” Nick butts in.
“Haha,” Justin says looking at him, “You crack me up Carter,” he says sarcastically.
Nick smiles at him, “I know.”
“Where did Kevin run off to?” Brian asks.
AJ looks around, “Dunno.”
“Brind’Amour,” Boosh says looking over in the corner as Kevin stands talking to Rod Brind’Amour.”
“Kevin knows people on every team,” Brian Littrell says, “He’s been here long enough to know them.”
“How long has Kevin been playing in the NHL?” AJ asks.
Brian brings his brows together as he thinks, “Well he started when he was eighteen so around twelve years.”
“Now I do feel young,” Justin says shaking his head and walking off as Nick follows.
“Supposedly there is a new you on the Whalers,” Nick says in Justin.
“What do you mean?” Justin asks.
“A seventeen year old is on the team now.”
“Who told you this?” Justin asks looking at him, “It wasn’t your old man was it?”
Nick shrugs.
“Please don’t listen to him Nick,” Justin says, “He does nothing, but put you down. Why can’t you just be normal and hate him like AJ hates his dad.”
Nick smiles and shakes his head, “I know. I know.”
“Another day another playoff knock out game huh?” Justin sighs.
Nick nods, “Never would have picked the Hurricanes to come this far either.”
Justin nods, “They’re a bunch of fighters. If we win this game though we move out into the West right?”
Nick nods, “I’m guessing we’ll play the Avalanche.”
“You know what that means right?” Justin says.
Nick nods.
“Roy,” they say together.
“Seven game series I’m betting on it,” Nick says.
“Six or seven,” Justin says, “Hoping six.”
Nick nods, “I say we focus on this series for right now though.”
“Yeah that might be a good idea,” Justin nods, “Hey we got AJ back though.”
“Yeah,” Nick says, “we need him too.”
Game One:
Brian looks at the ice chewing his gum quickly and making a slight snapping sound.
“You’re driving me insane,” Nick says looking at him.
“Huh?” Brian looks at him.
“That,” Nick says and snaps his mouth recreating the sound of the snapping gum.
“Ohhhh,” Brian says.
“Yeah,” Nick says.
Brian nods and turns to watch the game again snapping his gum still.
Nick rolls his eyes slightly and turns his attention back to the game too.
It was the middle of the second and the game was deadlocked at 1-1. Boosh was once again in net and by now it didn’t surprise Brian when he found that out. He was always ready to jump into the net again. The first goal for the Flyers had been courtesy of Nick Carter early in the first and they still hadn’t scored again. Kevin was trying to control his defense and at the same time keep dips on his offense as well as the other teams. Unfortunately they had left captain Ron Francis wide open and as a result the Canes had scored on Boosh. Kevin would allow one mistake though.
The game was a clean game though, that much Kevin was glad about. The Canes played clean, so in turn the Flyers did too. Kevin was just happy there were no cheap shots during this game. There were still issues about the officiating though, but of course when aren’t there.
During the third period though things started picking up again. Pretty soon the speed had picked up to playoff caliber and bodies were hitting the boards and ice all over. AJ took a mean hit into the boards at one point that had to be shaken off as the game stopped for a moment. Barber and Kevin were the ones concerned with it the most though. They didn’t want AJ to sustain any more injuries to the head. As each hit was delivered the Carolina crowd grew louder and louder it seemed and their team was feeding off the energy almost. The only point at which the game faltered was when Fedetenko split down the ice with Nick and Marty Murray with him. The puck cycled between the three of them for a moment before bouncing back to Fedetenko who let off a hard slap shot that beat Irbe in the upper right hand corner. The stars of the series were turning out to be the ones that no one had counted on. Kevin wouldn’t have had it any other way. The future of the team was in their hands after all.
Flyers would win the game 2-1.
Flyers lead the series 1-0 over the Hurricanes.
Game Two:
AJ sits on the bench turning his head sharply to either side cracking his neck loudly as Nick shivered each time he heard the sound.
“Would you stop that,” Nick says, “I hate that sound. I swear its either gum or cracking joints.”
AJ snickers, “You get pissed off so easily.”
Nick rolls his eyes, “And you find this amusing?”
“Of course what else is there to do on the bench?”
“Watch the game.”
“Eh,” AJ says, “Gets kinda boring after a while,” he says before laughing and focusing on the game again.
Nick shakes his head and smiles slightly. Well AJ had scored a goal already. He was aloud a few jabs.
By halftime though the Flyers were down two to one. The team had gotten too comfortable too soon again…and everything had crumbled around them. They were lucky enough that it wasn’t more thanks to Boucher in net. Yet again the team had fallen into the same loll they fell into before in previous games and it was an unwanted one. Oh Barber was not going to be happy.
By the third they had scored another goal thanks to Kevin with a shot from the point, but the tie had lasted a matter of five minutes as the Canes scored one of their own thanks to Adams. The defense was making small mistakes that ended up with large drawbacks and the offense was giving up too many turnovers in their own zone. Nick could only watch it and shake his head as the hometown fans booed their own team again. Such support when you are losing in Philly. The team tried to rally at the end of the third by pulling Boucher, but nothing happened except for the Canes almost scoring yet another goal on them.
The Flyers would lose the game 3-2.
The Flyers and Canes were tied in the series 1-1.
Game Three:
“You know that loll isn’t a good thing,” Kevin says in the locker room as the team gets changed for the next game.
“No it’s not,” AJ says sighing.
“Everyone sharp for tonight?” Kevin asks the guys as they all nod return, “Nick you ok?” he asks looking over at Nick who is staring down at the floor on his stool.
“Yeah my arm just hurts a little,” Nick says stretching out his right arm.
“You need the trainer to look at it?” Kevin asks looking at him.
“Nah I’m fine,” Nick says.
“Ok, know your limits though,” Kevin says to him before turning around and continuing to get dressed.
“You sure you’re ok?” Justin asks Nick.
Nick nods, “Just bruised it up a little. I took a pretty bad hit in the last game.”
Justin nods before walking off and over to where Fedetenko is sitting.
Nick looks up at the others before looking down at his arm and pulling up his pads so a large purple and blue bruise covers the inside of his lower arm past his joint. He closes his eyes as he pulls the pads back down over it and shakes off the pain. Being hurt was a bitch.
Kevin looks over at Nick on the bench and shakes his head standing up and walking up behind Nick, “You need to go see the trainer.”
“What? Why?” Nick says turning to look at him, “We’re tied I can’t.”
Kevin shakes his head, “We’ll get someone to take up your spot. Now go ice your arm. C’mon kid.”
Nick looks at him and shakes his head.
“Don’t be stubborn like AJ Nick,” Kevin says, “Get off the bench and go into the locker room. You need help.”
Nick looks up at him and sighs.
“Bend your arm Nick. Straight up at a ninety-degree angle. If you can…you can stay.”
Nick looks at him and stands up making his way across the bench and over to the exit to the tunnel into the locker room.
Kevin pats Nick on the back as he walks by and sighs as he realize they are losing another man to injury just as soon as AJ got back. Kevin sits back down on the bench as suddenly everyone else stands up and cheers as Justin smiles brightly before being hugged by AJ and Roenick as the goal buzzer rings loudly.
“Yeah Willy!” Brian Littrell yells from the bench as the rest of the team cheers.
Flyers would win the game 2-1.
Flyers lead the series 2-1 over the Canes.
Game Four:
“And that’s about the time she walked away from me. Nobody loves you when you’re twenty-three. And you still act like you’re in freshmen year. What the hell is wrong with me? My friends say I should act my age. What’s my age again? What’s my age again? And that’s about the time that she broke up with me. No one should take themselves so seriously…” AJ sings as Todd Fedoruk bounces his head along to the beat in the locker room.
Nick looks at them and shakes his head as he wraps his right arm in padding.
“You ok Nicky?” JR asks him.
Nick nods, “As good as I can be.”
JR nods, “C’mon you gotta come play.”
“I know,” Nick laughs, “I know.”
“Ladies and Gentlemen we are going into double overtime,” the voice over the loudspeaker says as the Canes and the Flyers skate over to their benches after the first overtime buzzer rings sounding the beginning of another overtime to try and break the two scoreless teams dead lock.
Both the Flyers and the Canes were stuck at zero goals and the teams had fought hard through all the periods and the first overtime. Boucher and Irbe were standing strong for the teams, but there were still multiple chances for both teams to score. Only thing they had to do now was making that final move and put the puck into the back of the net. It was a hell of a lot harder than it sounds though.
As the second overtime started the teams skated back onto the ice for another twenty minutes. The signs of fatigue were starting to show now on both sides though. The Flyers were just thankful that they knew Boucher could hold them strong for hours more thanks to the test he had run into in his rookie season. All the teams’ effort went into that overtime though. The line that broke the scoreless drought was on the ice in the last two minutes of the game though. The goal came courtesy of Jeremy Roenick of a feed from AJ at center ice. He didn’t get good wood on the puck, but it had spun into a knuckler because of it and ended up in the back of the net.
Flyers won the game in double overtime ending the game at 1-0.
Flyers led the series 3-1 over the Hurricanes. It was do or die time for the Hurricanes now and the Flyers knew through personnel experience that a team could come back from that to take the series.
The Hurricanes would win game Five 3-1 making the series 3-2 with the Flyers in the lead and game six coming up.
Game Six:
“Your arm still doing ok?” AJ asks Nick as the two sit side by side on the bench.
Nick nods.
AJ sighs and looks at the ice as Kevin levels a Hurricanes player into the boards, “Every time I see him hit someone I am more glad every day I am on his team.”
Nick smirks and looks at AJ, “You’d be broken all over if you weren’t on his team.”
AJ nods, “Oh I know. I know.”
Nick focuses his attention back on the ice as Kevin shovels the puck up to LeClaire as he heads down the ice with Recchi by his side. LeClaire takes a hard hit as he shoots on the puck on the net and Recchi gets his stick on it slightly redirecting it by Irbe into the back of Canes’ net. It was the beginning of the first period and the Flyers were up one to zero. Nick takes the ice as the line switch up and he races behind a Canes player as he goes racing on a break away towards Boosh in net. Nick gets to the player and pushes him over enough that Boucher has time to come out of the net and steal the puck as Nick and the other player go tumbling into the net. Boucher stands up holding the puck and looks back as Nick and the Canes player pull themselves off the ice.
“You ok there Nicky?” Boosh asks him.
Nick looks at him and nods as Boucher hands the puck back to the official.
“C’mon Nick,” Kevin says as he skates with over to the circle as Fedoruk begins to get in a scrap with some Canes players, “We gotta keep our heads in this game. The team hasn’t made it into the semis in a long time. We lost it in game seven to the Devils the last time we made it this far. We were up by three games too. I don’t wanna loose this series like that one.”
Nick looks at him and nods. That’s all he could ever do now was nod in agreement with things.
“You gonna take the draw?” Kevin asks him.
“Yeah,” Nick says as he skates over to the center of the circle to the right of Boucher.
It was the third and the Flyers and the Canes were deadlocked in the game one to one as AJ stares at Kevin from his seat on the bench, “I need room. They got two guys gunning for me whenever I get out there.”
“I can see it,” Kevin says nodding, “Got any ideas.”
AJ nods, “I need enforcers. Put me out there with Todd and keep Preems put there for the next line. They can take care the front guys. I need you and McGillis in the back. We need everyone we can to help me.”
“Should we pull Boosh?” Kevin asks him.
AJ shakes his head no, “Too risky right now.”
Kevin nods, “Ok. You got your guys on for the next line. We got three minutes left in this AJ. I don’t want to go into overtime again.”
AJ nods, “Just let me get some room.”
“I got full faith in you buddy,” Kevin says to him.
AJ smiles, “Those who do that are often disappointed.”
“I haven’t been yet,” Kevin says as Barber singles for a line change and they head out onto the ice.
As soon as AJ touches the ice a Hurricanes player makes his way over to him and begins shadowing him. Todd looks over at AJ as AJ shakes his head no. Not yet, he mouths to Todd as Todd nods. Kevin looks back as a puck skims down the ice heading down the ice for icing to be called on the Hurricanes.
“Save it,” Kevin yells to Boucher as Boucher skates out of his net and stops the puck setting it up for Kevin.
Kevin skates to their end of the ice and picks up the puck heading behind the goal and skating down the ice beside McGillis. AJ looks at Todd and nods as Preems picks up his man and Kevin skates down the ice carrying the puck. McGillis picks up Todd’s loose man as Todd skates over to help AJ. Kevin passes the puck over to AJ as AJ heads into the Hurricanes end of the ice. Todd looks up as a Canes player goes skating for AJ and puts his body between the area where he would have met AJ’s side. AJ heads down the ice quickly as he prepares to take on the last open man himself. AJ looks at the defender and shovels the puck behind him through his legs as it comes into contact with Kevin’s wrist shot. The puck shoots across the ice two inches above the ground as AJ touches it barely with his own stick redirecting it past Irbe as the team erupts into a series of cheers. The whole sequence had take up one of the last three minutes and now they had two minutes to kill. Easy enough.
The game ends with the score of two to one and the Flyers were on their way out west to meet the Colorado Avalanche.
On to the semis.
