PHILADELPHIA -- During a pre-game tailgate party outside the Wachovia Center, Philadelphia Flyers great Bernie Parent was up on stage bopping to tunes being played by a live band.
Even in his golden years, Parent, with his white Santa Claus-like beard, moved faster than many of the Flyers did last night.
In being booted out of the playoffs in humiliating fashion by a 7-1 score to the Buffalo Sabres in Game 6 of an Eastern Conference quarter-final, the lead-footed Flyers learned the same valuable lesson that Maple Leafs general manager John Ferguson did several months ago.
In a well-known children's tale, the tortoise beats the hare.
In the new NHL, where speed kills, the rabbit leaves the turtle in its dust.
Like the Leafs, the Flyers miscalculated the way the game would be played when the lockout finally came to an end.
Like the Leafs, they brought in plodding veterans like Mike Rathje and Derian Hatcher to augment physical plough horses Mike Knuble and Michal Handzus.
It was the wrong call.
You can't hit what you can't catch.
And with the crackdown on obstruction wiping out the ability for checkers to clutch, grab and waterski behind skill players -- a habit the Flyers perfected for decades -- Philly never had a chance against the younger faster Sabres.
"When they got to use their speed, they were very good," dejected Flyers superstar Peter Forsberg said.
Ferguson has one thing in his favour. By handing out a number of one-year deals last summer, he has the flexibility to carry about $20 million US into the free-agent market this summer.
The Flyers, on the other hand, are shackled by a number of hefty contracts, including those of Rathje and Hatcher, which combine to chew up $7 million of the salary cap next season.
Rathje is under contract for four more years; Hatcher three.
Chairman Ed Snider has stated coach Ken Hitchcock's job is not in jeopardy. Nor should it be. What Hitchcock needs is for GM Bob Clarke to bring in more raw talent to help Forsberg before the natives get too restless.
"Being an athlete in Philadelphia means there are high expectations of you," Knuble said. "The fans demand it, the city demands it, the organization demands it. When you don't deliver you question yourself as a player."
Of course, being thrashed by the Sabres is nothing new to Leaf fans who witnessed it on a number of occasions this season.
Give Sabres general manager Darcy Regier credit. Most of the so-called experts didn't think the Sabres would reach the post-season, let alone make the second round.
"All the sports writers picked us to finish around 27th at the start of the season, so this is extremely satisfying," jubilant Sabres owner Tom Galisano said in the Buffalo dressing room.
Goalie Ryan Miller, despite having some shaky moments in the series, allowed just one goal in the final two games.
And there might be no team remaining in the playoffs that has more balanced scoring than the Sabres, who got a pair of goals from Chris Drury and singles from Mike Grier, Ales Kotalik, Derek Roy, Jason Pominville and Maxim Afinogenov last night.
For the Sabres, it is time to make more noise in their Eastern Conference semi-final against the Ottawa Senators.
For the Flyers, the pre-season pick of many to win the Stanley Cup, it is time to lick their wounds and become faster.
