Former Flyers captain Keith Primeau ended the greatest NHL game of this decade, according to SI.com.
The Flyers’ five-overtime thriller over the Penguins in Game 4 of the 2000 Eastern conference semis. The game kept fans glued to their seats as the exhausted teams skated back-and-forth in a battle that featured more than 100 saves and ended with the Flyers' center tying up the series at two.
SI summed up why this was named the best NHL game of the 2000s.
“This one took seven hours from the time the first puck dropped until Primeau ended the titanic five-overtime match between intrastate rivals. With the players almost in a trance-like state from exhaustion, Primeau drove down the right wing, went backhand to forehand to beat a defender and fired a shot over the shoulder of goalie Ron Tugnutt to end the match after 92:01 of extra play -- more than an additional game and a half.”
In a decade that was frustrating and full of near misses in the Fly Guys elusive quest for the Cup it is nice that one of their victories came out on top.
The game also landed as the greatest of the decade on ESPN’s countdown as they were enamored by Pittsburgh goalie Ron Tugnutt’s amazing performance.
“Many experts consider Ron Tugnutt's performance on this night one of the greatest performances ever by a goalie… And he lost.”
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In a decade that was frustrating and full of near misses (including three Conference Finals losses) in the Fly Guys' elusive quest for the Cup it is nice that one of their victories came out on top.
Of course one of Primeau’s Flyers’ worst losses also came in on SI’s Top-10 list.
The Flyers crushing Game 7 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2004 Eastern Conference Finals came in at No. 7. The game propelled Tampa towards the Cup and was really Primeau’s last run before concussions cost him his career.
