Flyers’ playoff run galvanizes fans

    Fans are getting behind the team that could be Philadelphia’s next great Champions.

    The Flyers lost to the Boston Bruins last night in Boston. It’s the second series in a playoffs run that many fans believe will take the Flyers all the way to the Stanley Cup. Fans are getting behind the team that could be Philadelphia’s next great Champions.

    While Philadelphia sports fans were waiting 25 years to see one of their teams win a championship, few predicted that it would be the Phillies that broke the drought in 2008. Many believed it would be the Flyers. Local hockey fans are hopeful this is the year of the Flyer.

    Coincidentally, on Tuesday night HBO will air a new documentary about the 1975 champions, one of the most hated teams in the league: the “Broad Street Bullies.”

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    “In any great drama – you need heroes and villain,” the film declares. “The Flyers are both!”

    This season, few believed the Flyers would get even this far – the second round of the playoffs.

    Frank Thorpe was not one of them. The director of the fan site OrangeAndBlack.net says the change in the coaching regime has made for an unstoppable team.

    But he says the chat forums on his website are bipolar.

    “They lose a game in the playoffs and everyone’s on the Ben Franklin Bridge ready to jump off,” says Thorpe. “They win a game, ‘Oh my God, the Cup is ours.’ Typical fan reaction you see on a day to day basis.”

    The Flyers play the Bruins at home in Philadelphia on Wednesday and Friday. Coincidentally, at the same times the Phillies play the St. Louis Cardinals and the Atlanta Braves right across the parking lot.

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