The Flyers are unlike Tampa Bay's first two opponents: They hit and they're quite good at it.
By TOM JONES
Published May 7, 2004
[AP photo]
Philadelphia's Michal Handzus checks Cory Satrick during a regular-season game Feb. 2. The Lightning can expect similar play this series. Life imitates Lightning Lightning coverage 10 News: (56k
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TAMPA - For the Lightning players, this Eastern Conference final could be like walking down a dark alley at midnight in the sketchy part of town. They will need to peek around every turn, be aware of their surroundings, have eyes in the back their heads.
Not fun.
The Philadelphia Flyers are big, mean, nasty. They play the game like it's demolition derby, pretty much crashing into anything that moves. Forget that finesse jazz. Forget intricate weaving up the ice. Forget fancy drop passes and dipsy-doodle moves.
The Flyers are strictly north-south. Hit the other guy. Find the puck. Get the puck. Crash. Boom. Go.
The story line of this series is set: the Flyers' muscle vs. the Lightning's speed. From all the talk going on, the Flyers surely must be in some lab right now sharpening their elbows and pouring cement in their shoulder pads.
"They are a big team and they try to play big," Lightning coach John Tortorella said. "We understand that."
The Lightning might know that, but it hasn't seen or felt anything like it this postseason. Neither the Islanders nor the Canadiens is considered physical, yet at times, those teams pushed around a Lightning team based on speed not brawn. If the Lightning is going to survive the Flyers, it is going to have survive one of the more physical teams in the NHL.
"I think we're going to see another level of it," Lightning defenseman Nolan Pratt said. "It's a step up from one series to another, but as far as physical play goes, I think it's going to be more physical than we're played so far."
The Lightning will give its critics this: Yes, it isn't as physical as the Flyers. But the Lightning preaches there is a difference between being physical and being tough, and being tough is more than just dishing out hits.
"There is physical play and there is hitting, but as far as what we consider toughness, it's winning the battles," Tortorella said. "That's what we feel it comes down to. That's what determines the whole flow of the game. Are you willing to get involved? And are you going to win the majority of those battles?"
For the Lightning, toughness is taking a cross-check in the back to deflect a puck. It's throwing your body in front of a slap shot. It's racing to a loose puck knowning full well you're going to get creamed all for the sake of chipping it out of the zone.
It's sweating, bleeding, dehydrating and coming back for more.
"It's you whacking me in the face and me not hitting you back and sitting in the (penalty) box," Tortorella said. "That's being tough.
"I think when you start talking about physical play, people equate that with the big hits and running across the ice and getting a big hit. It's something the announcers can jump on and get excited about and it looks great. But when it comes down to toughness, it's making the big play in traffic."
As tough and big as the Flyers are, Tortorella used a play by one of Philadelphia's smallest players - 5-foot-10 Sami Kapanen - to show what the term hockey tough means. It wasn't a fight or a big hit. It was a guy doing something as simple as getting off the ice.
Kapanen was crunched into the boards in overtime of the Game 6 clincher against the Maple Leafs. He looked drunk as he searched for the bench. With legs like spaghetti, a woozy Kapanen somehow made it off the ice just moments before Jeremy Roenick scored the overtime winner.
To have a chance to beat the Flyers, the Lightning will have to make such plays.
"You got to know you're going to get hit and that's the end of it," Lightning defenseman Brad Lukowich said. "We have to be willing to take the hits and the bumps and get through it. Just play the game."
The Flyers won't be the first team to try to outmuscle the Lightning. This isn't some new formula the Flyers have discovered. Teams have been trying it all season.
"It's not like it's something we're not ready for," Lightning forward Martin St. Louis said.
"We've answered the bell when we had to," Pratt said.
Interesting, though, that Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock already is playing possum, going as far as saying his Flyers are a "small, finesse hockey club."
True, the Flyers have skill and their knuckles don't drag on the ice when they skate. But Hitchcock would have you believe the Flyers are a bunch of peewees.
"(Some people) still have black and white televisions," Hitchcock said.
"They look at the 1970s, they think we're the Broad Street Bullies. ... We're not that big of a team. We've got a couple of big players, but so do they. But the people that are talking about it, they're still watching tapes from the '70s. This is the DVD age."
Ignore Hitchcock. The Lightning knows the trash talk, the agitations, the bone-crunching hits are coming.
"I don't think they can be intimidated," the Flyers' Mark Recchi said. "They've had two series that were maybe not as physical and we've had two series that were and that's our game. We have to play that way."
And the Lightning has to be ready for it. Only an invitation to the Stanley Cup final is at stake.
