"This is maybe the most exciting season ever since the first Stanley Cup," Snider told the media as the Flyers turned their attention to the Blackhawks. "What these guys have done and what they've been through, it's incredible. . . . It's a great credit to Paul Holmgren and this organization and the way these guys have played, the sky's the limit. They just don't know how to quit. They're incredible."
All of that was understandable and expected. What came next felt - at the time - unnecessary or at least premature.
"Whatever happens from this point on," Snider added, "is just gravy."
That was tough for some fans to hear. Gravy had an underlying meaning, a tacit message that maybe coming up short of throwing another Broad Street parade was acceptable since the Flyers had gone on such an amazing and improbable playoff run at that point. Of course, the chairman wanted to win it all, just like everyone else in town, but his gravy comment made some recoil and think Snider was already content. In a town that had to wait 25 years between championships and has gone more than three decades since it last celebrated a hockey title, few people would be satisfied with gravy alone - unless it came served in a gaudy shiny vessel stamped with Lord Stanley's pretentious name.
At first, the gravy remark seemed odd and out of place. It wasn't until we were afforded some distance from the comment and treated to an incredible final series of fast-paced, heart-stopping hockey that the truth about what the chairman said became apparent: Premature or not, Snider was right.
