It is one of the moments that will live forever in Flyers history. It is the night when Patrick Kane's shot went between the legs of Michael Leighton and the Chicago Blackhawks claimed the Stanley Cup on the Flyers home ice.
It has been six years since that disappointing night and the Flyers have not come close to playing a Stanley Cup Final game since. However, as Ron Hextall continues to work on the construction of a potential Cup contender, are the Flyers getting closer to that mold than the upstart team that made an unlikely playoff run?
It's fair to remember that in 2010, the Flyers really left it all on the ice. They didn't make the playoffs until the season's final day, winning a shootout against the New York Rangers of all things. They handled the New Jersey Devils in five, but then fell behind the Boston Bruins, 3-0, in the series.
Reality was starting to set in. It was a great run, but it easily could have been over in early May. Instead, it lasted an extra week as the Flyers won the next three games in the series and forced a Game 7. They allowed three first-period goals to fall behind 3-0 in that game.
Again, reality set in. What a comeback in the series regardless. There was pride in the team for just getting the series that far. Then, the unthinkable happened. They scored one goal late in the first. They scored another early in the second. And by the end of the second period, the game was tied.
That set up the game-winning goal in the third and the Flyers were on to the Eastern Conference Final. They made quick work of the Montreal Canadiens, another team riding the wave of playoff success as the eighth seed.
Then came the Chicago Blackhawks, a team now widely considered to be a hockey dynasty. 2010 was the first Stanley Cup win for players like Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane on their way to three in six years.
As for the Flyers, times have changed quite a bit since the 2010 run. Let's take a look at some of the main differences.
One of the first things that stands out is the number of players still left from that run: one. Claude Giroux stands alone as the only Flyer to have played in the 2010 Playoffs. A number of players from that team are now retired, most notably Danny Briere and Kimmo Timonen, who are both still constantly around the Flyers organization, Ian Laperriere, an assistant coach with the Flyers, and Riley Cote, an assistant coach with the Flyers AHL affiliate Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
Other retired Flyers from that team include Chris Pronger, Simon Gagne, Brian Boucher and Daniel Carcillo.
Two of the leaders of the 2010 Flyers helped produce five current Flyers players. Jeff Carter was traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets, which helped the Flyers acquire Jake Voracek and two draft picks used to select Sean Couturier and Nick Cousins. Mike Richards was traded to the Los Angeles Kings in a deal that acquired Wayne Simmonds and Brayden Schenn.
Carter is one of the Kings leaders and has won two Stanley Cups since then. Mike Richards was also part of the Cup runs for the Kings, but his career has taken a massive fall to his drug use and he managed to resurface in the NHL this past season as a fourth-line player with the Washington Capitals.
Still, for the Flyers to get massively younger and essentially gain five players for two is no small feat.
The Flyers certainly don't have the goaltending situation they did in 2010. Leighton was between the pipes for the Flyers in that series because of an injury to Boucher. Leighton was essentially the third-string goalie behind Boucher and Ray Emery, who was signed by the Flyers prior to that season. Leighton today is still picking up wins at the AHL level, but hasn't had much of a taste of the NHL since.
The Flyers now have Steve Mason and Michal Neuvirth between the pipes and a good pipeline of goalies in the system.
Similarly, the Flyers defensive pipeline is starting to take shape as they building back to the defense they had that season. The Flyers top four consisted of Timonen, Pronger, Matt Carle and Braydon Coburn six years ago, a defense that would certainly have a lot of teams jealous with all four in their prime. The Flyers have started a solid core with Shayne Gostisbehere already at the NHL level and talents like Ivan Provorov, Travis Sanheim and Sam Morin waiting in the wings.
At forward, the Flyers don't have the scoring depth that this team had — see Giroux, Briere, Carter, Richards and Scott Hartnell. The five combined for 120 goals that season and another 42 in the playoffs. Last season, the Flyers top five scoring forwards combined for 104 goals in the regular season and were held to just two goals in the playoffs.
Overall, looking at the Flyers pipeline as compared to the current roster, you can see signs of a team actually being slightly closer to a playoff run than the 2010 Flyers. What made the 2010 Flyers a better team was scoring depth, which is coming for the Flyers of today. In 2010, the Flyers got 120 goals from the likes of Carter, Richards, Briere, Hartnell and Giroux. That team's remaining forwards on the roster still scored 80 goals on the season. The 2015-16 Flyers got 104 goals from their top five forwards in scoring, but only 66 goals from the remaining forwards that played at some point during the season.
So are the Flyers getting closer to that mold? Yes, because unlike a team catching fire at the right time, they are a team that has started to build it from the ground up, to be a team that has year-round success, not just a timely run that leads to the playoffs.
They may have a ways to go, but after a surprise playoff run, the signs that the Flyers are on their way are there. More of the long-term pieces are in place and with that comes a team that the city can start to get to know, get to love the way they did with the 2010 team that had so much to like and a fighter's heart. It may not happen for another few seasons, but the Flyers are working toward that kind of excitement and energy again.
Kevin Durso is managing editor for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.
