The Sports Granola

DURING THE LAST game of the Flyers’ regular season, Simon Gagne was standing in the Wachovia Center press box listening to some of the talk about the way the Pittsburgh Penguins were playing.

There was a healthy dose of suspicion that Pittsburgh didn’t want to beat the Flyers. A win would have given the Penguins the Eastern Conference title and landed the Flyers in the eighth spot. That would have meant a first-round matchup between the Flyers and Penguins. Sidney Crosby was a healthy scratch and the Penguins just weren’t going after the Flyers the way they had just a few nights before, when they won in Mellon Arena.

The suspicion was that the Penguins wanted to face the fading and struggling Ottawa Senators and have an easier time in the opening round rather than play a more physical series with the Flyers.

“I don’t know about that,” Gagne said, reacting to the suggestion. “You don’t want to try and pick your opponent. It can come back and bite you.”

Now, with the Eastern Conference final set, you have to wonder if the Penguins really were trying to avoid the Flyers and whether it will come back to bite them. While the Flyers are the underdog in the series, the Penguins have to realize that they are nothing like the team they played in the regular season. That Flyers team had a tendency to play for just portions of a game; this one brings it for 60 minutes.

Look at the Flyers’ series-clinching Game 5 victory Saturday night in the conference quarterfinals at Montreal. The Flyers trailed, 3-1, but rallied to take the lead and then won it, 6-4, after Montreal tied it again. There wasn’t ever a hint of quit or an emotional letdown anywhere on the bench.

Before the playoffs began, defenseman Derian Hatcher still was trying to recover from a broken tibia and wasn’t available. Martin Biron was still a goalie with a playoff question mark over his head, and there were questions about the Flyers’ slower defense keeping pace with Washington’s talented forwards, especially Alex Ovechkin.

Well, Hatcher is back and playing well, Biron is the story of the playoffs so far, the fabled “hot goalie,” and the defense has handled the Capitals’ stars and the waves of speedy and talented Canadiens up front.

So now the Penguins, who eliminated the Rangers in overtime yesterday, are facing a ramped-up, confident, healthy Flyers team that loves to play physical - especially against the Penguins. This is a far more dangerous version of the 2007-08 Flyers than at any time during the regular season, and this could be biteback time.

That is, of course, if you believe the Penguins were trying to lose that last game.

For John Stevens, none of it matters.

“To be honest, we just kind of moved on,” the Flyers coach said. “We were excited to be in the playoffs. Ottawa was obviously banged up. [Pittsburgh] got out of that series quickly and I actually thought the Ranger series would go longer. So Pittsburgh is obviously playing well.

“They’ve made good work of the situation that they’re in and now we’re both in the conference final. It doesn’t really matter how we got here. We’re both here and to me there is not much more motivation needed this time of year. Just being here is enough motivation.

“We’re excited with the opportunity,” Stevens added. “It doesn’t matter who you’re playing; the fact that you’re playing is the main thing. It makes for a great series and it’s one we’re excited to be a part of.”

Not buying it 

Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren doesn’t believe the theory that the Penguins laid down in the last regular-season game.

“I don’t think that happened,” he said. “I thought Biron made a lot of good saves in that game. I just don’t think that was the case. They didn’t have Crosby, but you don’t know what was going on there. He had a high ankle sprain [earlier in the season that limited him to 53 games].”

Speaking of Gagne 

The Flyers star forward, who called it a season weeks before it was time because of his head injury, has been around the Flyers and traveling with them. He was with the team in Montreal on Saturday night.

But according to Holmgren, there is no chance Gagne will return to play in the postseason.

“He hasn’t done anything in terms of fitness,” Holmgren said yesterday. “I don’t see him being an option no matter how long this thing goes. He’s around and he went to Montreal and it’s probably eating at him, but it’s in his best interest for him to wait.

“I feel bad for him because when you’re an injured player you don’t feel part of the team. I’ve been through it myself and it isn’t easy.”

Big club-little club 

Now that it’s official that the Flyers will play the Penguins in the conference final starting this week, it marks the first time since 2002 that both the NHL and AHL teams from the same two franchises have met for a playoff series at the same time.

The Phantoms, the Flyers’ AHL affiliate, are tied, 1-1, with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, Pittsburgh’s affiliate, in the AHL quarterfinals.

The Flyers-Penguins series will start in Pittsburgh. The Phantoms and Baby Pens will meet in the Wachovia Center tonight and Wednesday for Games 3 and 4.

In 2002, the Toronto Maple Leafs played the New York Islanders while their AHL teams, St. John’s and Bridgeport, also played. *