Football
Damien Cox, NHL 21y

Bumps, bruises and breaks add up to Game 7

TORONTO -- It's not often you catch an NHL coach in the middle of the playoffs with his sense of bravado down.

But while Philadelphia Flyers head coach Ken Hitchcock was able to appreciate the six struggles that have brought his team to a Game 7 situation tonight against the Toronto Maple Leafs, he clearly understands that the cost to the victor may in the end be too much.

"The only team that is liking this series is Ottawa," said Hitchcock after the Leafs avoided elimination by beating the Flyers 2-1 in double overtime Monday night.

That is, after all, the "prize" that awaits the victor, a date with the NHL's best team with only 24 hours to rest and recuperate from a bone-jarring confrontation that on Monday became only the second NHL playoff series ever to have included three multiple OT contests.

Yes, there will be immediate relief and exhilaration for the tonight's winner, for both teams have immense pride and losing in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs is, arguably, worse than not making the playoff field at all.

But the costs of this collision have been significant. The Leafs lost center Nikolai Antropov to a broken foot in Game 1, then Alexander Mogilny to a mouth full of stitches and a concussion in Game 3. Mogilny had five goals before he was injured, none in the two games for which he has returned.

Philadelphia, meanwhile, saw standout blueliner Eric Desjardins subtracted from its blueline in Game 5 with, like Antropov, a cracked foot caused by a enemy shot. In Game 6, Desjardins' replacement, Jim Vandermeer, was knocked out of the contest in the third period after a blow to the head from Leafs forward Tom Fitzgerald.

Toronto forward Owen Nolan has been on the limp since the series began. Flyers center Jeremy Roenick, on the other side, has taken a terrific beating, including quasi-legal hits from Darcy Tucker and Robert Svehla in different games that left him dazed and confused but haven't cost him a shift.

Both teams have had chances to put a stranglehold on their opponent. The Leafs had multiple chances to win Game 4 and take a 3-1 series lead but ultimately succumbed to Mark Recchi's wrist shot winner in triple OT.

The Flyers, meanwhile, missed an enormous opportunity to erase the Leafs from the postseason on Monday, an achievement that would have earned them an extra day of rest before taking on the Senators. After thoroughly outplaying the Leafs in a Saturday afternoon matinee that gave them Game 5, the Flyers weren't nearly as powerful-looking last night.

Leafs head coach Pat Quinn certainly wasn't in the mood to suggest his team's ability to avoid elimination in Game 6 gives it an edge tonight.

"We're going to have to play even better to win," he said.

In some ways, this series has been in the works for months, with the two wealthy Eastern powers eying each other as possible playoff opponents from the time Ottawa jumped far ahead in the conference and with either Tampa or Washington set to take the No. 3 seed by virtue of winning the Southeast Division.

That Hitchcock and Quinn had collaborated to coach Canada's gold medal winning team at the Salt Lake Olympics last year helped set the stage. As the final days of NHL trading came to a close in March, the Flyers grabbed winger Tony Amonte, forward Sami Kapanen and ex-Leafs defenseman Dmitry Yushkevich, while the Leafs went on a spending spree to match the Philly buildup and added Nolan, defenseman Glen Wesley, former captain Doug Gilmour and veteran blueliner Phil Housley.

While the Leafs entered the series with more recent playoff success and an established postseason goaltender in Ed Belfour, none of their pre-trade deadline moves have paid great dividends. Nolan hasn't scored, Wesley returned from a broken foot in Game 3, Gilmour hasn't played at all because of a knee injury and Housley played two games and one final shift in Game 3 before being shelved.

The Flyers, by contrast, have also not received a goal from Amonte, but have gotten great mileage from Yushkevich and Kapanen, part of the reason they had dominated most of the series leading up to Game 6.

The loss of Desjardins, however, may prove to be a crippling blow. Eric Weinrich, 36, and Kim Johnsson must now shoulder the duties of a No. 1 pair, and in Game 6 they had to skate 46 shifts each. Yushkevich, Marcus Ragnarsson and Chris Therien were required to do more as well, while rookie Dennis Seidenberg may be pressed into duty tonight.

"(Desjardins) is one of those dependable guys you sure like to have, but when you lose them, they're not replaceable," said Quinn.

Hitchcock seemed slightly displeased with the desperation level of his team in Game 6, and said afterwards he may dress "two, maybe three" new forwards for Game 7, a group that could include Joe Sacco, Radovan Somik and Todd Fedoruk.

The Leafs, meanwhile, were stunned to get Antropov back for Game 6 after the initial prognosis following his injury in the series opener was that he would be lost for up to four weeks. Instead, he was a surprise inclusion in yesterday morning's pregame skate, then played an effective 30 minutes in the Leafs' victory.

Travis Green missed the first two games with a rib injury but scored the winner in Game 6, and Wesley has helped settle down the erratic Bryan McCabe ever since he was activated.

Belfour, under heavy fire for much of the series, played his best game in Game 6, allowing only a laser off the stick of Roenick to elude him, and has been playing the puck with more authority than earlier in the series when it seemed Hitchcock had devised an effective plan to neutralize that part of the veteran goalie's game.

Roman Cechmanek, meanwhile, made some brilliantly unconventional saves in the overtime sessions of Game 6, and in the first five games might have outplayed Belfour. But he was at his peculiar best in Game 6, allowing a first-period shot by Robert Reichel to whiz into the net past his left ear while he was bending to retrieve his catching mitt, and later giving up a penalty shot to the same Leafs forward for throwing his stick during a Leafs attack.

Reichel, however, did his own strange thing, pulling up and firing a slapshot on the freebie that Cechmanek easily turned away.

The Leafs have had far more success recently in the playoffs. They won two Game 7s last year, including one against Ottawa after falling behind 3-2 in that series.

The Flyers, meanwhile, have won only two of seven playoff series since being swept in the 1997 Stanley Cup final by Detroit. In their most recent Game 7 appearance, they were beaten by New Jersey to lose the 2000 Eastern Conference final after earlier holding a 3-1 series advantage.

It's a dead heat. The loser goes home, the winner gets an all expenses paid trip to Ottawa.

Damien Cox, a columnist for the Toronto Star, is a frequent contributor to ESPN.com.

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