4
PHILADELPHIA — When their NHL playoff series switched to Philadelphia's Wachovia Center, the Pittsburgh Penguins heard the same questions they did in their previous series.
Are you intimidated by the noisy Philadelphia Flyer fans? Is that why you didn't win a game here during the regular season?
And the Penguins responded the same way they did in the previous round against the New York Rangers, by winning for the first time this season at Madison Square Garden, another rink where they failed to win a game in the regular season.
Last night, they left the Wachovia Center with a 4-1 win, which placed their feet firmly on the necks of the Flyers. The Penguins hold a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference final.
Earlier in the day, Penguins forward Jarkko Ruutu turned aside questions about the intimidation factor.
“No I don't think there is any such thing,” he said. “When you're focused, you don't hear what is happening around you.
“When fans are emotionally into it, it's loud. But other than that, it's no different than playing at home.”
The emotion level of the crowd was jacked up considerably by the time of the opening faceoff. There was an emotional tribute to Sergeant Stephen Liczbinski, a Philadelphia police officer and loyal Flyers fan who was murdered in the line of duty last Saturday.
Then the Flyers dusted off an old chestnut, God Bless America, when it was time for the national anthem. Lauren Hart, the regular anthem singer, sang a few bars and then a video image of the late Kate Smith appeared on the scoreboard and took over. Smith, as hockey fans of a certain age know, brought the Flyers a lot of luck, starting back in the 1970s, whenever her version of God Bless America was used.
In those days, there really were such things as intimidating buildings. Few teams relished a trip to Philadelphia. The Philly flu was a common illness among players in the mid-1970s when they wanted to get out of a game at the old Spectrum against the brawling Broad Street Bullies.
Bill Clement, now a television broadcaster, played for the Flyers when they fought their way to Stanley Cup wins in 1974 and 1975. He also had to come into the Spectrum as the enemy when he was traded to the Atlanta Flames and said it was a much different atmosphere back then than it is today. But, he added, the fans and players needed each other to create it.
“Most of the tough buildings were not only tough because of the fans, they were tough because the teams themselves were extremely intimidating,” he said. “I don't think there was such a thing as a tough building with a soft team. They go hand-in-hand. It was the same at the old Boston Garden, with the fans right on top of you because of the way the stands were built.”
Now that the NHL is mostly a league of new and bigger arenas, the intimacy that created such an intense atmosphere is lost. There is no longer a wall of sound in Chicago now that the cavernous United Center replaced Chicago Stadium. And while there is the odd incident where a fan dumps popcorn or a beer on a player or even falls into the penalty box, as one Flyers loon did during a game against the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2001, the days when players found themselves in the stands fighting fans are gone, too.
However, by the time the puck was dropped, the 19,965 fans, almost all clad in orange t-shirts supplied by the Flyers, were roaring. Not that this had any effect on the Penguins.
They took a 2-0 lead by the eight-minute mark and held the edge in play after the Flyers cut their lead with a goal a few minutes later.
Shortly after that goal, when Penguins winger Petr Sykora took a penalty, the Flyers pulled the crowd to its feet again during the break in play.
The Flyer scoreboard showed Keith Primeau scoring one of the most famous goals in team history, an overtime winner against the Penguins in the fifth overtime period of the 2000 playoffs. Then Primeau was brought out for a bow and the crowd went wild.
However, the Flyers were unable to translate the emotion to their advantage. The Penguins shut down their power play again.
Even when the Flyers did create a chance to pull even, the Penguins calmly fought them off. Whitney coughed up the puck to Mike Richards for a shorthanded breakaway and then chased him down and knocked the puck off his stick.
Maybe the Penguins are right: There are no intimidating buildings any more.
