Bad news for Flyers: Stanley Cup losers rarely do well the next season

As unlikely as the Flyers' run to the Stanley Cup finals was, getting back will be more difficult. At least that's what history says.

Perhaps the bounces start going the other way or the frustration of getting so close leads to a bottle-of-cheap-wine hangover, but teams that almost win the championship one season rarely get right back into striking position the next.

Flyers coach Peter Laviolette knows the challenge, but thinks his club can overcome it.

"A lot of it has to do with the parity in the league, not necessarily a Cup hangover," he said yesterday. "But I think our guys will be pretty motivated. We got pretty close. We're a young group and I think we have a good hockey team. I think if we come into camp in good shape and we have a good training camp, there's no reason why we can't come out and find success through the course of the regular season."

That was the problem with this most recent season, Laviolette said. The Flyers started a slump in late November that led to John Stevens' firing. The 3-13-1 stretch dropped them almost to the bottom of the conference and made every night thereafter virtually part of the stretch run to the playoffs.

"Every game was important. Every game was a must-win," said Laviolette, who was hired on Dec. 4. "When you are in 14th place in the conference and 29th place overall, you can't afford to try different things or experiment with line combinations. We had to win every game. It came down to the last game of the year, so there wasn't really any wiggle room."

Laviolette and the Flyers still are licking the wounds they gathered after a most unlikely run at winning the franchise's first Stanley Cup in 35 years. They came up two wins short.

When they begin Year 36 A.C. with training camp in September, the Flyers will try to reverse a disturbing hex on the Cup loser. In the last 40-plus years, just two teams have returned to win the championship. The Penguins did it last year, Edmonton did it in 1984 and that's it for the expansion era. Those teams had Sidney Crosby and Wayne Gretzky, respectively. They also knew who their goaltenders were going to be.

The Flyers' No. 1 goalie might not even be on their roster right now. Michael Leighton is an unrestricted free agent coming off a disappointing final series against Chicago. Brian Boucher is a backup at this stage of his career. Johan Backlund, 29 in July, has as many wins in the NHL (zero) as former wrestling star Bob Backlund.