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My playoff beard is a week old and coming in nicely -- not like those scraggly Scandinavians -- my ex-wife's attorney has been suspended from practicing law, and the Philadelphia Flyers rubbed out the Buffalo Sabres in five games. All things considered, This Hockey Fan had a pretty good April. The Flyers had sweep on their mind, but stumbled when they should have snarled in Game 4 and let Buffalo off the hook in overtime. Still and all, THF still believes this is a Team of Destiny. Figure it this way: They'll get Pittsburgh in the second round. They own Pittsburgh. Watching D Chris Therien work out on the Pens' Captain Jaromir Jagr is a thing of beauty. Then they will get Toronto, the team that swept the Flyers in the first round last year. Unlike last year's club, though, this year's edition of the Flyers has speed to go with its power, a bright young goal tender, and an abundance of want-to. Whoever comes out of the West will have to spill their bucket before getting to the Finals and may well be out of gas before they get there. Before I go on, I must mention the officiating. Call for call, the NHL zebras are the worst in professional sports. Look no further than Game 4 of the Philly-Buffalo series. The Sabres scored a few seconds into the game, but the goal was disallowed because the ref away from the play lost sight of the puck, which was rattling around in the crease, and blew the play dead. The Buffalo fans reacted predictably and to make up for their gaffe, the officials called back-to-back minors on the Flyers, giving Buffalo a 5-3 power play, which they converted. This set a pattern of miss-a-call, make-u-a-call for the rest of the game. Most disgraceful, though, was the non-call when Sabres D Alexei Zhidnik swung his stick at Flyers C Damon Langkow and hit him flush on the side of the head. Langkow got two minutes for roughing, Zhidnik four for high-sticking. So much for zero-tolerance on sticks to the head. Good teams find ways to beat bad calls, though, and the Flyers used the incident to rally back from a 2-0 deficit to tie Game 4. In fact, playing through adversity has become the Flyers hallmark this year. First, there were the deaths of last summer of teammate Dmitri Tertyshny and Hall of Fame announcer Gene Hart, then the illness of coach Roger Neilsen, and -- of
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