Here we are. The Cup will be in the house tonight at the Wachovia Center for the Blackhawks to take. Will the Flyers be man enough to force a Game 7? You may remember that I predicted a Blackhawks win in 6 games. I’m sticking with that pick. The wheels came off the Flyers in Game 5 and I don’t think the Hawks are going to let their skates off the Flyers’ throats. Of course, I would be happy as hell with a Flyers win because that would mean one more hockey game. But I don’t think it’s going to happen.

And you’d better believe that Chris Pronger will be a touch agitated for this game. Coming off his worst performance of the season in Game 5, Pronger will be looking to silence the city of Chicago and its recent portrayal of him in a skirt. Hopefully for the Flyers, that will prove to be the edge they need to keep themselves alive.

The Flyers will add another chapter to their historic 2010 playoffs on Saturday when they open the Stanley Cup Finals in Chicago against the Blackhawks. It’s been a combined 84 years since the people of Philadelphia and Chicago have had a Cup to call their own and that streak will obviously be coming to an end in 7 games or fewer. The Flyers postseason was born in a shootout victory against the Rangers on the last day of the season. And it was most notably defined by their improbable return form a 3-0 grave to beat the Bruins. Teams adding themselves as notches on the Flyers belt were the Devils and most recently the Canadiens.

You play whom you are scheduled against and your mission is to win those series. To that extent, the Flyers have done what they’ve needed to do and are have their lips close to the Cup. But while nobody expected the Flyers to make the Cup at the conclusion of the season, nobody really expected the teams they beat to make it either. That can’t be said for the Blackhawks. After beating Nashville in the first round, they took out the 3rd-seeded Canucks in 6 games and then they went on the road and crushed the top-seeded San Jose Sharks in a 4-game sweep.

Why am I mentioning this? Well, because for as great a run as the Flyers have been on, it will come to an end against the Hawks. They’re too talented, too fast and too tough. Not that the Flyers aren’t any of these things, it’s just Chicago has more in just about every department. For example, the Flyers have Chris Pronger, one of the NHL’s best defensemen. But the Hawks have Duncan Keith, one of the 3 finalists for this year’s Norris Trophy (and a guy who got 7 teeth knocked out in Game 4 of the San Jose series and still logged the most ice time of any player in that game). The Flyers have Kimmo Timonen, one of the NHL’s better #2 defensemen. But the Hawks have Brent Seabrook as their number two (both he and Keith blue-lined Team Canada to gold in Vancouver) as well as Brian Campbell, one of the better puck-moving d-men in the game. Again, no knock against the Flyers merely a slightly better crew dressed in red and black.

And take a look at how the offenses compare. For as well as Mike Richards has played and for as great Danny Briere and Simon Gagne have been, they’re probably not Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. The Hawks also have Dustin Byfuglien, who’s being mentioned as the front runner for the Conn Smythe Trophy (playoff MVP). Couple that with names like John Madden, Marian Hossa and Kris Versteeg and the Flyers are up against a pretty formidable squad.

There are two fulcrums upon which this series can swing the Flyers way. The first is in the goaltending department. For as unknown as Michael Leighton and Antti Niemi are, they’ve both been rock solid in net. If Leighton can significantly outplay Niemi, he takes away a big part of Chicago’s potent offense. The ability to stand on his head could be just the edge the Flyers are looking for. And the second thing the Hawks may have working against them is the curse of Marian Hossa. For as great a scorer as Hossa has been (he’s averaged over 30 goals per year for his career), he is about to play in the Cup Finals for the 3rd consecutive year with his 3rd different team. He fell short in 2008 with the Penguins and subsequently jumped ship to the Red Wings, where the heavily-favored Detroit team proceeded to lose last year to the Pens. Hossa seems like a black cat for his teams; for the Flyers sake we should hope this trend continues.

I’m not interested in raining on parades. But I really believe this series will be over in fewer than 6 games and that the magic the Flyers have enjoyed thus far will end against the Hawks. The Hawks are a better team on paper, but more importantly their accomplishments this postseason have been more impressive given the quality of their opponents (one needs to look no further than their Conference Finals sweep of San Jose) than the Flyers. I’m not saying I think the Flyers can’t win, but I don’t see enough evidence for a reasonable observer to go the other way. Sorry, Philly, (and I’m being conservative with this games total): Blackhawks in 6.

Let me put it bluntly: the Flyers performance last night against the New York Islanders was a fucking disgrace. For a team sitting on the playoff fence, the Flyers could have asked for nothing better than Game #76 of the season to be against a team they had beaten 15 straight times. Not to mention an Islanders team that is playing for nothing as they’re all-but eliminated from playoff contention. But for a team that represents a city where heart and passion in sports are everything, the Flyers have neither.

Nor does their general manager have much intelligence. In a completely unnecessary mid-season move, Paul Holmgren fired John Stevens and replaced him with Peter Laviolette. His coup de grace in the offseason was signing Chris Pronger but the upside to that defensive-zone improvement was the acquistion of the injury-prone and heartless Ray Emery. By the grace of god, the Flyers got a reprieve in the middle of the season with a stab-in-the-dark signing of Michael Leighton who turned out to be great but with no backup plan, Leighton’s injury has made the Flyers goaltending situation a side-splitting comedy.

And here’s the punchline: today the Flyers signed Sebastien Caron. Haven’t heard of him? That’s probably because he’s coming over from the Swiss Elite League. I guess Holmgren feels pretty confident in Brian Boucher (the clown who gave up 4 goals last night before the Flyers were even on the board) because…get this: because Caron was signed after the playoff deadline, he won’t be eligible for the playoffs. That’s brilliant, Paul, absolutely brilliant. Why the Flyers passed on Thomas Vokoun et al at the deadline is beyond me, but what the hell, there’s an ample supply of playoff-ineligible goalies in Switzerland if a problem comes up. The Flyers don’t deserve to make the playoffs and I’ll be rooting against them if they do on account of their organizational ineptitude, lack of leadership and general on-ice incompetence.

Because you only look at this website while you’re at your desk job, by the time you see this post tomorrow (today to you) you’ll already know that the USA put a whoopin’ on Team Canada last night (err, tonight–whatever). Point is, the prospect of a gold medal on home ice for the Canadian people would be about as wonderful to them as when France shut out Brazil to win the World Cup in Paris in 1998. An uninspired performance last week against Switzerland aside, the gold medal favorite, Canada, will face its first real test from an American team that is as good a bet as anyone to grab an Olympic medal.

Tonight’s game is a rematch of the 2002 gold medal game won by Canada in Salt Lake City in 2002. The ’02 Canadian team featured only one Flyer, Simon Gagne, while the American team had 2 Flyers, John LeClair and Jeremy Roenick. Both Flyers playing in tonight’s game will skate for Team Canada and they are Chris Pronger and Mike Richards.

Pictured above is Team USA’s starting goalie, Ryan Miller of the Buffalo Sabres. Because one of the best goaltenders in the history of hockey will be about 190 feet away in the person of Martin Brodeur, a significant chunk of the U.S. hopes will rest on Miller’s shoulders. The Canadian roster features an abundance of scoring talent; Rick Nash, Sidney Crosby, Jarome Iginla, Joe Thornton and Dany Heatley headline the Canadian forwards so Miller and his defensemen had better be sharp. For whatever it’s worth, I think they will be and I’m predicting a 3-2 American victory.

It’s only natural that the teams that bookend the State of Pennsylvania hate each other. As both the Flyers and the Penguins have come into their own in the past few seasons, their dislike for each other has grown even stronger. Among a variety of on-ice fireworks, some Tabasco was spilled into the rivalry’s jock strap earlier this month when it was reported that the Penguins’ TV affiliate failed to provide all replay angles on a goal scored by Simon Gagne that was under review.

Well today the National Post of Canada is reporting that they are officially blood rivals. Flyers’ forward, Aaron Asham, is accusing Pittsburgh forward, Matt Cooke, of biting him. The two were involved in a scrum when Cooke allegedly bit Asham on the finger. Said Asham: “there were 2 guys on Harts (Scott Hartnell) and my glove got tangled in his mouth and he bit me, so I lost it…he’s a gutless guy…I have no respect for him at all…I just have no use for him.”

You’ll remember that it was Scott Hartnell who was accused back in October of biting Penguins’ defenseman, Kris Latang’s finger. With the mutual hatred at an all-time high, we can expect a straight-up war when the two teams meet for the final time on March 27.

The Penguins have had the upper hand this season, winning 4 of 5 contests which may help to explain why Scott Hartnell made a point of nibbling on it. With so many points going the Penguins’ way thanks to the Flyers, it was Matt Cooke this time who chose to bite the hand that feeds him. Perhaps there’s a Shakespearean angle to all this with both teams referencing literature’s greatest story of cross-town rivalry, Romeo and Juliet. One can only image Chris Pronger asking Sergei Gonchar “do you bite your thumb at us sir?” I could go on and on with these childish cliches but I should probably just bite my tongue.

The Latvian Olympic hockey team has been announced and defenseman Oskars Bartulis will be on the roster. This is news because apparently he plays for the Flyers. As exciting as this is, he’s not the only Flyer who will be taking part in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Mike Richards and Chris Pronger will be playing for Team Canada (presumably under very little pressure to win gold with the Olympics on native soil) and Ole-Kristian Tollefsen will be in the red, white and blue for the Norwegian team while Kimmo Timonen will suit up for the Finns.

The U.S. roster will be announced on Friday, though Brian Boucher and James van Riemsdyk are the only American-born Flyers, so don’t expect any orange and black representation on Team USA. As disappointing as this may be, if you’re blue about it just think about what an honor it is to have Oskars Bartulis on the Flyers and you’ll be merry in no time.

The Flyers are 3-11 in their last 14 games. At the risk of sounding ridiculous, part of that disgraceful record has to do with the fact they’ve played a brutal schedule. 7 of those losses came to teams that are either first or second in their divisions and 3 of the losses came to 3rd-place teams. In short, they haven’t exactly been playing a lot of patsies (though 2 of their 3 wins were against the Islanders).

None of this excuses a pathetic performance from a team that many thought would contend for the Cup this season. During this 14-game skid, the Flyers have been outscord 26-49. Neither the off-season addition of Ray Emery nor Chris Pronger has proven to make them any better than they were last year. And the Flyers nominally-powerful scorers have done little this year; the highest-ranked scorer on the Flyers is Mike Richards. His 26 points are good for 49th-place in the NHL.

Last night’s 6-1 drubbing at the hands of the Penguins was a good indication of how far removed from the League’s elite teams the Flyers are. And that game put the issue of the Flyers personnel into stark contrast with one of the NHL’s best rosters. Offensively, the Flyers don’t have anyone as good as Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin. Defensively they don’t have anyone as good as Sergei Gonchar. And their goaltender (whoever that may be) isn’t as good as Marc-Andre Fleury. With the better part of the season remaining, the Flyers need to start looking at making some moves on their bench, not just behind it.

John Stevens was fired on Friday by the Flyers. In four seasons behind the Flyers bench, Stevens was 120-109-34 and his playoff record was 11-12. True, these numbers aren’t stellar but they aren’t terrible either. Stevens took over in ’06 with a team that was historically awful, posting a record of 21-42-11. In his next two seasons he took the team to the playoffs, reaching the Conference Finals in ’07-’08 and getting bounced last year in the first round by the eventual champion Pittsburgh Penguins.

His replacement is the fiery Peter Laviolette, most recently of Versus TV coverage fame. The upside to this hiring is that Laviolette has a Stanley Cup under his belt (2006 Carolina Hurricanes) and his career winning percentage is 21 points higher than Stevens’ (.562-.541). And maybe most importantly he’s known to be a hot-tempered coach with lots of personality, something Stevens lacked in the way Andy Reid lacks a clear throat.

While Laviolette has 7 years of coaching under his belt, the only season he won a playoff series was the year the ‘Canes went all the way. His teams missed the playoffs in 4 of his 7 years and he was bounced in the 1st round twice while with the Islanders.

The bottom line for the Flyers is that they’re not as good as 9 other Eastern Conference teams right now. Their scoring has cooled: they’ve scored 8 goals in their last 5 games and have been shutout twice during that stretch. And their goaltending is, once again, in flux: of the 9 teams ahead of the Flyers, 7 of them have starting goalies with lower GAAs than Ray Emery (the Islanders’ Dwayne Roloson and the Senators’ Pascal Leclaire are worse) and 7 of them have goaltenders with better save percentages than Emery (only Leclaire and Pittsburgh’s Marc-Andre Fleury are worse).

If the players continue playing below their collective ability, the Flyers won’t be any better off with Laviolette. Of course, merely the act of changing leadership often times is enough to turn it around. With rumors swirling that Mike Richards will lose his captaincy to Chris Pronger, there’s a lot more than simply the head coaching that needs to improve if this team is going to realize its potential.

The road to the Stanley Cup goes through Pittsburgh. Whether you like that statement doesn’t matter; the Penguins are the defending champions and there’s no reason to think they won’t do it again, other than the high hopes of Eastern Conference aspirants like the Capitals, Rangers, Bruins and Flyers. Tonight at the Wachovia Center will be the first installment of the Flyers’ season-long test to see whether they can unseat the Pens.

Barry Melrose and E.J. Hradek have a pretty good piece today about the impact that Chris Pronger will have on the Flyers hopes. There’s no two ways about it: the addition of Pronger in the off-season was made largely because of the need to shut down Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. To boot, Pronger becomes the point man on the power play and (along with Matt Carle) will make the man-advantage a whole lot more productive for the Orange and Black.

Through the first 3 games the Flyers hold the statistical edge on the Penguins in just about every department. They’ve scored more goals, allowed fewer, have a better power play %, a better penalty kill percentage and are 3-0 while the Pens are 2-1. Of course, 3-games into a season doesn’t tell much of a story other than being representative of the Flyers doing their homework for their first big test. And that’ll be tonight at 7 pm at the Wachovia Center.

UPDATE: In case you haven’t heard, the Flyers are giving remaining tickets to tonight’s game away for $25 if you have a Phillies ticket. If the Phils are successful this afternoon, that spillover crowd could make the arena even louder and more raucous than usual.