Game 7 adversity won’t affect these Philadelphia Flyers

The Philadelphia Flyers have nothing left to prove this season.

Across the world of sports, Game 7 is regarded as the time when teams and individual players show what they are made of.

But, really, what else does this Philadelphia Flyers team have to prove to anyone?

I’m not saying that Game 7 against the New York Islanders isn’t monumentally important. It obviously is. But this Flyers team has been through so much during the 2019-20 NHL season that started OVER ELEVEN MONTHS AGO that Saturday’s Game 7 is basically just another day at the office for this club. The fact that the Flyers have gotten this far is a testament to everything they’ve faced, and overcome, this season.

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Look at what they’ve dealt with in this round alone. The Islanders have hit them with everything they’ve got, overcoming multi-goal deficits three times. Yet, on each occasion, the Flyers have dug deep enough to emerge victorious in overtime. Even when the Isles poured on 53 shots during Thursday’s Game 5, the Flyers and their young goaltender simply would not allow the season to end.

And then there have been the questionable calls. New York has seen multiple goals stand up under review in this series, which has had the double whammy effect of putting the Flyers shorthanded for losing their challenge. It’s frankly amazing that the Flyers haven’t crumbled yet after coming out on the short end of borderline calls so many times, yet here we are.

Meanwhile, the Islanders also managed to retain top pairing defenseman Adam Pelech, who avoided both a penalty and a suspension for a concussion-inducing hit directly to the head of the Flyers’ Joel Farabee. The Flyers deserved to get a lengthy power play and/or have a key opposing player miss the next game (or two), but they didn’t get either. This was especially egregious in light of Matt Niskanen being suspended against Montreal last round after the Canadiens cried about it publicly and posted a slow motion video of the play on their Twitter account to lobby for his suspension (a video which they’ve since taken down because they are a bunch of weasels).

It’s a mark of fandom to always think that the refs and the league have it in for your team. It’s usually a conspiracy theory of sorts, but if this whole situation doesn’t prove it, I don’t know what does. And the challenges haven’t stopped there.

The Flyers’ supposed best players have been largely underwhelming for most of the playoffs, yet they’re one win away from the Eastern Conference Finals. And they’re doing it with a positively atrocious power play that truly should have spelled their doom already. It’s the kind of thing that almost always cripples a team, but they have persevered.

Carter Hart arrived in his first postseason with big question marks about how he would handle the extra pressure, but he has excelled. He’s not a rookie, but he’s still so young that it was reasonable to expect the pressure cooker of playoff hockey (and especially playoff overtime) to have gotten to him. He’s bent a bit at times, but he has shown himself to be fully capable, something that bodes exceptionally well for his future.

The team’s leadership, mostly captain Claude Giroux, was largely questioned as the Flyers fell behind in this series, but they have stepped up since then. Sean Couturier is a big concern of course, as he will seemingly remain out with an injury for the time being. Still, it stands to reason that if the team can win one elimination game without the services of their best overall player, they can do it again. It’s not exactly the easy way to get things done, but it’s how the Flyers seem to operate.

Finally, there has been the biggest adversity of all:  Oskar Lindblom and his fight against cancer. It’s nothing short of amazing that he was able to come back and participate in these playoffs, some nine months after his diagnosis and two months after his final treatment. It’s simply unbelievable, an inspiration to all of us. It really puts things into perspective and, suddenly, winning a “do or die” hockey game doesn’t seem so daunting in the grand scheme.

Win or lose, the Flyers and their fans can be proud of what they’ve accomplished this year and how the team has time and time again answered the bell when it needed to. It seems like everyone got Alain Vigneault’s preseason message loud and clear.

If there was ever a Philadelphia Flyers team built for a Game 7, it’s this one. And even if they lose, at least then we’ll all have some free time to start following our dreams into taxidermy.