And yet there it was again last night, that rivalry that has time-lined the lives of fans in their late teens or early 20s.
The Devils always seem to be the litmus test for the latest Flyers edition, measuring things like smarts, guts and resilience, measuring legitimacy really. Yeah, the Flyers won the last playoff series the teams played, in five games, but the Devils won those three Stanley Cups, and with Martin Brodeur still in their net after all those years, a slight inferiority complex still exists each time the two teams meet.
That's what gave last night's 4-0 victory importance. The Flyers beat Jersey handily despite being outshot by a 2-to-1 margin, beat the Devils with a disciplined penalty kill, beat them by capitalizing on a few Jersey mistakes while their goalie cleaned up each and every one of theirs.
Given the dicey history of the men who manned that post over the last two decades, it's dangerous in these parts to get too excited about a goalie, especially this early. Still, Martin Biron has at least left the impression since coming here in a midseason trade last year that he will rarely be the reason your team loses.
Biron was clearly the biggest reason they beat the Devils. Of the 38 shots he stopped, 15 came in a scoreless first period in which the Flyers mustered just two.
"We started last game like that and Marty held us in that one too," said Flyers center Mike
Richards. "We've got to work on that."
Then again, maybe that's the way to beat Brodeur: Put him asleep for a period.
In fairness, the Flyers were shorthanded for more than 7 minutes of that period, but their opportunities increased only slightly in ensuing periods. For those twentysomethings who have seen so many of these episodes, there was even a role reversal of sorts. Against New Jersey, it's usually the Flyers throwing rubber incessantly at the net with little or nothing to show for it. It's usually the Flyers with all the fruitless power plays.
