Sacrifice Continues to Lead to Victory

It's impossible to erase the indelible image of Hal Gill, all six-foot-seven of him, lying across the crease during yesterday's game four between the Montreal Canadiens and Philadelphia Flyers at Bell Centre. The visitors took the game, 3-0, and now hold a commanding 3-1 lead over the Canadiens, who have faced elimination in both of their previous series before eliminating the favored Caps and Pittsburgh Penguins.

But there was Gill, the shot blocking machine, sacrificing everything he's got to help his team find a way to win. It all goes back to Jacques Martin's philosophy that he laid out after the Habs eliminated the Caps.

"I think that's playoff hockey," Martin said of his team's shot-blocking. "I think it's a commitment by the players. I think they know at this time of the year you've got to do everything in your power to win games. It means sometimes taking hits to make play, it means blocking shots, it means to be fully committed."

The Chicago Blackhawks also have been doing that and it's paid off with their first Stanley Cup finals since 1992 after a 4-2 victory today over the San Jose Sharks, completing a four-game sweep over the West's top-seeded team. There they will try to capture the franchise's first Cup since 1961, something Mr. Cleo predicted way back in June.

Meanwhile, the Hershey Bears returned to the Calder Cup finals for the second straight year, and fourth time in five seasons, with a 3-2 victory last night over the Manchester Monarchs in game six of the Eastern Conference finals. They might be facing the Hamilton Bulldogs (the Canadiens' farm team) in the finals, the team that defeated them a few years ago behind the heroics of Hab's (now back-up) netminder Carey Price.

The Caps should be watching all of these occurrences in order to figure out how they can ensure that they're the ones playing into June next year.