During this uncertain time, many people have developed coping exercises to help them relax. For my fellow hockey fans, let me suggest an exercise to help us cope with the absence of seeing the Flyers on the ice in the midst of playoff hockey.
Let’s sit back and imagine what could be happening now if the orange and black were in the midst of a heated first-round playoff series.
(Dream sequence)
Picture this — the Flyers are matched up with their heated rivals from the other side of the state. This, of course, means plenty of extracurriculars and chirping with Travis Konecny at the forefront of the post-whistle scrums, which are a virtually guarantees when these teams get together. By the end of Game 1, the series has reached a boiling point, to nobody’s surprise.
The Flyers, by virtue of the standings when we left off, have home-ice advantage. Carter Hart is doing what he does best — dominating at home, even when tasked with stopping the likes of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. This is what the fans have been waiting to see — Hart asserting himself in the playoffs and taking that next step in becoming the Flyers' franchise goaltender. The electric Wells Fargo Center crowd can sense the light at the end of the Stanley Cup drought tunnel and know that if it’s not this year, it will be in the near future.
Now picture this — would there be anything more appealing to Flyers fans than Kevin Hayes scoring a game-winning goal and doing the belt celebration on the ice at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh? Much like the 5OT goal in Pittsburgh 20 years before, this serves as a turning point in the series. The series then culminates into a climactic Game 7 on home ice.
Claude Giroux sets the tone on his first shift, with shades of 2012, and opens the scoring. The Flyers never look back, eliminating the Penguins and continuing into the second round of the playoffs with the momentum of an epic series win over their hated rivals.
NHL
(End dream sequence)
While the likelihood that things pan out this way is not high, in this time of uncertainty, positive thinking goes a long way. One can hope the dreams of playoff hockey become a reality in the near future.
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