The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 17

THE OTTAWA CITIZEN BREAKING NEWS AT OnAWACITIZEN.COM WEDNESDAY. JUNE 2,2010 B3 SPORTS yers: Dynasty makers KJ CHAMPIONSHIPS WON AND LOST Philly has been in final at start of big things for other clubs CAM COLE MARK RUCKER, TRANSCENDENTAL GRAPHICS, GETTY IMAGES Baseball fans watch a Chicago Cubs-New York Giants game in 1908, the year the Cubs won their last World Series title. The Chicago White Sox managed to snap their own incredibly long run without a Series title in 2005, giving them a championship for the first time since 1917. PHILLY TWO CITIES THAT COULD USEA CUP The Windy City and the City of Brotherly Love have had their highs and many lows in the four major pro sports leagues, but it has been 49 years since the 'Hawks last won it all and the Flyers are at 35 years and counting FLYERS Last championship: 1975 Other NHL titles: 1974 Runner-up finishes: 1997, 1987, 1985,1980,1976 Words to get fired by: After being swept by the Detroit Red Wings in 1997, Flyers coach Terry Murray said the team was in a "choking situation." PHILLIES Last championship: 2008 Other World Series titles: 1980 National League pennants: 1915,1950,1980,1983,1993, -2008, 2009 All good things come to those who wait: The 2008 and 2009 teams are the first to win back-to-back pennants since the club was moved from Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1883. EAGLES Last championship: 1960 Other NFL titles: 1948, 1949 Conference titles: 1960, 1980, 2004 Shutout success: The Eagles defeated the Chicago Cardinals 7-0 in the 1948 championship game (in a blizzard) and the Los Angeles Rams 14-0 in the 1949 title game, becoming the only NFL team to win consecutive titles by shutouts.

76ERS Last championship: 1983 Other NBA titles: 1967 Conference titles: 1977, 1980, 1982,1983, 2001 Claim to shame: In the 1972-73 season, the 76ers set NBA records for most losses (73) and lowest winning percentage Compiled by Ken Warren 1 PHILADELPHIA Under heading of bad timing, consider the six occasions on which the Philadelphia Flyers have made it to the Stanley Cup final since the Broad Street Bullies won back-to-back in 1974 and '75: Swept by the Montreal Canadi-ens in 1976, the Habs' first of four straight Cups. Beaten four games to two by the New York Islanders in 1980, the Isles' first of four consecutive championships. Lost the 1985 and '87 Cup finals 4-1 and 4-3 to the Edmonton Oilers, the second and third of the Oil's five titles in a seven-year spaa Swept by the Detroit Red Wings in 1997, the start of the Wings' ascendancy as the most successful NHL club of their generation, with more Cups to come in 1998, 2002 and 2008. If you're counting, that's three legitimate dynasties and another that might as well be considered one, given the difficulty of keeping a team together nowadays. And now they've come up against another of those fabulous young teams, though in this case, one that's certain to be at least partly dismantled by looming salary-cap issues next season.

That doesn't make the immediate future any rosier for Philly. Bad timing, indeed. Down 2-0 to the Chicago Blackhawks and on a seven-game Cup final losing streak dating back to Game 7 in 1987, the Flyers lace them up tonight at home, facing the prospect of having to win four of five from the 'Hawks, who've won 10 of their past 11 games in these playoffs and seven in a row (and seven straight on the road, by the way). "It's obviously not the way we wanted to start the series," said Philly's captain, Mike Richards. "But going home, I said all along, we play well there." "It's definitely going to be a difference, you know," goalie Michael Leighton said, of the return to home ice.

"We're looking forward to being back home." Home is the Wachovia Center, a few hundred metres across the parking lot from where the old Spectrum still stands, shuttered and empty now, and due to be demolished, like its defunct former neighbours in the massive sports complex that once housed Veterans Stadium and John F. Kennedy Stadium. Bernie Parent stopped pucks at the Spectrum, Bobby Clarke played his heart out there, Bill Barber, Reggie Leach and Rick MacLeish scored there. But equally, Bob (Hound Dog) Kelly, Dave (Hammer) Schultz, Andre (Moose) Dupont, Don Saleski and Ed Van Impe rode the range there, and set a standard of physical intimidation by which every Flyer team since has been judged. Many have passed the test, but none since 1975 has passed it in a Stanley Cup final.

That doesn't change the expectation of surliness on the part of the home team. In the seats will be some of the crudest, meanest and quite possibly most ardent fans in the United States, for whom there are no shades of grey and from whom there is nowhere to hide. The Flyers, to use a favourite Brian Burke word, are required to be obstreperous tonight in Game 3, and possibly reprehensible in Game 4. The rink is, after all, still on Broad Street, and the Flyers have survived as a strong, durable brand in a tough, ultracritical town by never forgetting who they are. They are the team that made the Soviet Red Army team threaten to quit that night in Super Series '76 when Van Impe hammered Valeri Kharlamov, for whom the memory of Clarke's slash on his ankle in the 1972 Summit Series must still have been fresh.

They are the team of Freddie (The Fog) Shero, who proudly proclaimed after the Flyers' 4-1 win: "We beat the hell out of a machine." Traditioa "Philly ttfams are always de- CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS Last championship: 1961 Other NHL titles: 1933, 1938 Runner-up finishes: 1931, 1944, 1962,1965,1973,1992 Toast of the Tavern, Part In 1938, minor-league goaltender Alfie Moore was hauled out of a Toronto bar to replace injured starter Mike Karakas and won a Stanley Cup final game, 3-1. CUBS Last championship: 1908 Other World Series titles: 1907 National League pennants: 1945, 1938, 1935, 1932, 1929, 1918, 1910, 1908, 1907, 1906, 1886, 1885, 1882, 1880,1876,1870 Toast of the Tavern, Part II: Bar owner Billy Sianis curses the Cubs after he's ejected from the 1945 playoffs because of the foul odour of his pet billy goat. The Cubs' 102-year championship drought is the longest of any professional sports team. WHITE SOX Last championship: 2005 Other World Series titles: 1906, 1917 American League pennants: 1900, 1901, 1906, 1917, 1919, 1959, 2005 Say it Ain't So, Joe: The team was dubbed the Black Sox after MLB commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis found several players guilty of trying to fix the 1919 World Series; Shoeless Joe Jackson banned for life. BEARS Last championship: 1985 Other NFL titles: 1921, 1932, 1933, 1940, 1941, 1943, 1946, 1963 Conference titles: 1921, 1932, 1933, 1940, 1941, 1943, 1946, 1956, 1963,1985,2006 Da Bears weren't always Chicago's team: The franchise was originally born in Decatur, Illinois, in 1919 and moved to Chicago in 1921.

BULLS Last championship: 1998 Other NBA titles: 1991, 1992, 1993,1996,1997 Conference titles: 1991, 1992, 1993,1996,1997,1998 Sam Who? Michael Jordan, who led the Bulls through their 1990s dynasty, was actually the third player chosen in the 1984 NBA entry draft, behind Hakeem Olajuwon and Sam Bowie. JIM MCISAAC, GETTY IMAGES Closer Brad Lidge, catcher Carlos Ruiz and the Phillies nailed down a World Series win for Philadelphia only two years ago. STEVE BABINEAU. NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES 1 Amk i i Bobby Clarke captained the Flyers to their last Cup win in '75 while a young Bobby Hull and the 'Hawks won in 1961. 4 II i GETTY IMAGES Michael Jordan and the Bulls won five titles in the 1990s.

The 76ers' only title came in 1983. GETTY IMAGES couraging. Of the 33 teams in history who have dropped the first two games on the road, 31 have gone on to lose the Cup. Daunting numbers, and even a team with as much pluck in their franchise DNA as the Flyers must know it's an awfully tall order. There is, however, just this much hope: One of the only two times the winner of the first two at home has gone on to drop the ball was just last year.

The Red Wings lost in seven to Pittsburgh The other? The 1971 Chicago Blackhawks. CANWEST NEWS SERVICE Walter Payton and the Bears were the talk of the NFL in the 1985 championship season. The Eagles haven't won since 1960. coached Flyers, held together with pain-deadening needles and tape, had no business being close against the best of the five Edmonton championship teams, but rode Ron Hextall's Conn Smythe Trophy form to a near-upset. Still, anyone counting out the Peter Laviolette 2010 Flyers has a short memory, because it's only three weeks ago that they capped -their historic comeback after trailing the Boston Bruins three games to none, and 3-0 in Game 7.

But history isn't entirely en- initely hard to play against" It has been a reliable formula for closeho cigar, but it hasn't got them over the hump in 35 years. The closest they ever got was 1987. Those Mike Keenan- signed to have grit to them," Chicago forward John Madden, the former New Jersey Devil, told reporters the other day. "They pick their team, draft guy 3, with an edge. They're def.