For the Philadelphia Flyers, their game six Stanley Cup Final loss to the Chicago Blackhawks ended what many have called a “Cinderella” run for the Orange and Black. And, as is the case with any team that falls short of their goals, the re-tooling process will begin immediately, with plenty of question marks surrounding the Flyers. As good as Daniel Briere was throughout the playoffs, will he ever be able to duplicate that drive, determination and vigor that he showed all playoff long for an entire regular season? Briere, who has struggled for much of his time with the Flyers, still has five years left on his contract that goes through the 2015-16 season, the bulk of which will be paid in the next three seasons at a salary of $7 million per. Another question the Flyers will have to

Fresh off their Stanley Cup victory over the tough-luck Philadelphia Flyers, many Chicago Blackhawk fans are tweeting that their beloved Hawks could be the NHL’s next dynasty. Super-star players such as Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Marian Hossa, Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook gives the Blackhawks a wonderful stable of talent from which to build around. The Question is—given the changes the Blackhawks will have to make this summer, will there be enough for them to repeat their Stanley Cup drive in 2010-11? Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman will have to show some tough love to a number of current roster players this off-season, including, restricted free agents Ben eager, Colin Fraser, Jordan Hendry, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Andrew Ladd and Antti Niemi, as well as unrestricted free agents, Adam Burish, Nick Boynton, Kim Johnsson and veteran forward John Madden—who had a very

Throughout these playoffs the Philadelphia Flyers have made the impossible, well, possible. Friday night was no exception as the Flyers handed the Chicago Blackhawks their second straight road loss, taking game four by a final tally of 5-3. For the most part the Flyers dominated the Hawks in every facet of the game; that is until the third period when, with the benefit of a five-on-three power play, the Hawks got back into the game, narrowing a 4-1 deficit to 4-2 on their first power play goal of the entire series. The Hawks managed to score another goal just under four minutes later when Hawks defenseman Brian Campbell shot the puck through a ton of traffic, a shot that eventually eluded Flyers goaltender Michael Leighton—who, despite giving up three goals, was excellent on the night. From a Flyers perspective the

Heading into game three of the Stanley Cup Final there were two streaks at risk—the Chicago Blackhawks seven game unbeaten streak on the road and the Flyers 7-1 record at home during the playoffs. In games one and two the Chicago Blackhawk crowd rocked the arena—reaching decibel ratings over 110-115 on the scale. In Philadelphia, the Wachovia Center was rocking on Wednesday night, as a solid pro-Flyers crowd, decked out in Orange t-shirts, were as boisterous as they come to start game three. The Flyers responded with some solid forechecking and great pressure in the Hawks zone. Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger “rocked” Hawks forward Jonathan Toews at 15:55 of the first period (who made the poor decision to try to run Pronger). Toews ended up on his “Butt”, which was actually rather humorous as Pronger barely budged on the play,

Despite his overall stellar performance throughout the 2008-09 playoffs, Pittsburgh Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby took a lot of heat last summer for his lack of results in last year’s Stanley Cup Finals against the Detroit Red Wings. Given his lack of point production against Detroit in the finals—scoring just one goal in seven games, finishing with just three points in the series—Crosby was passed over for the Conn Smythe Trophy in favor of teammate Evgeni Malkin. This, despite Crosby leading all NHL players with 15 goals and finishing second overall in points with 31. Malkin, who finished with 14 goals (second overall) and 36 points (first overall) in last year’s playoffs, took home the coveted Conn Smythe trophy because of his superior performance in the Cup Final—there was a lot of weight attached to the Finals, many believe the defining

Psst…Wanna Puck? There has been an awful lot of chatter about Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger stealing the pucks from games one and two of the Stanley Cup Final. As one of our BR readers pointed out, it’s a brilliant move by Pronger as his actions have deflected a ton of media attention away from the fact that the Flyers are down two games to none in the series. Say what you will about Pronger—he’s one smart cookie if you ask me. Record Run? When the Chicago Blackhawks take to the ice tonight in Philadelphia they will be in hot pursuit of their eighth straight playoff road victory. If the Hawks can pull out a win they would set an NHL record for most consecutive playoff road wins; pretty impressive to say the least. “Lap” It Up: I don’t know