Saturday, May 01, 2010

That Can't Be Right... Can It?

On TSN just now, they said that the Boston Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers are meeting in the playoffs for the first time since... 1978?! How could two Eastern Conference teams who make the postseason on such a regular basis possibly go more than three decades without encountering each other in the playoffs? That's pretty weird!

In the first year that I followed hockey - 1973/74 - my Rangers played in a thrilling 7-game Semi-Final series against the Flyers in which the home team won every game (unfortunately the Rangers only got 3 home games). Game 7 finished 4-3 for the Broadstreet Bullies and featured one of the most exciting final few minutes I've ever seen, with the visitors doing everything but tying the game up.

The victorious Flyers then went on to meet Boston in the Cup Final, and took home their first of two back-to-back championships (their only ones, to date). It's hard to believe those two teams had not matched up against each other since a mere 4 years after that memorable playoff season. And yet here we are.

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