"I think it just started [to sink in]," Simon Gagne said. "I've been in the league now for 10 years, and I've never had a chance to be here. It's all new for me. To see all of the media, the attention . . . you realize that you're here right now and we're getting closer to Game 1."
The Flyers enter this series - seven games for Lord Stanley's mug - as enormous underdogs. They've seen the betting lines, they know that fans need to wager $240 on the Blackhawks just to win back $100. That's more than 2-to-1.
But that doesn't bother this team.
"We've been underdogs throughout these series," Michael Leighton said. "It doesn't change at all how we play."
"Obviously, we know that they have a good team. We respect that they have a good team," Danny Briere said. "But we can't give them too much respect. We still have to go out and get things done."
Chris Pronger said it does not come down to pitting underdogs against favorites - that those terms don't have any impact on the psyche of a team.
"Really, it's just knowing in the locker room you're going to win," Pronger said, "Having that sense, that feeling that you can win. I don't think we've ever felt we've been out of any game; no matter what the score, we always feel like we have a chance to win. Whether we're up 4-0, or down 4-0, we're going to play the same way and continue to fight."
Starstruck?
Staring at a media gaggle surrounding him with voice recorders and microphones, Blackhawks star Patrick Kane said it finally hit him that he was in the Stanley Cup finals.
For Kane, 21, yesterday's media day was a different animal than the All-Star game and the Olympics.
"Right now it's setting in," Kane said. "It's a huge deal. Seems like it's bigger than the Olympics to me right now, to be honest with you. It's going to be a long series. It's not just one game.
