Philadelphia Flyers Take Montreal Canadiens in 5. Advance to Stanley Cup Finals!

Woohoo!! (Banging pots together!) Yahoo!! (Can't hurt to play up to the new boss). WE'RE IN!. Ole, Ole! Ole, Ole!

"God Bless America! Land that I love! Stand beside her, and guide her. Through the night with a light from above."

Yes, folks, once again, the skies of Philly are alight tonight with fireworks and rockets, and the sounds of car horns, pot lids banging, train horns tooting and people screaming for joy as another Philly team heads for championship finals. (Check this photo out of the celebrations at Frankford and Cottman Avenues in Northeast Philadelphia. That big guy, center foreground, with the glasses, green jacket and red-billed cap is my nephew Michael!)

The Philadelphia Flyers have done us proud, first by taking the Boston Bruins with a must-have four-in-a-row win after falling behind 3-0, and now by crushing Montreal in 5.

After a mediocre season, a new coach mid-season, and not even given a chance at even reaching the playoffs this year, since the Boston playoffs, the Flyers have been playing like seven-year-old boys on a sugar rush who've been promised a trip to Willie Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Five guys injured in the Boston playoffs, and they still massacred them. After a season of continuous injuries, they managed to win it from the trenches, winning 8 of their last 9 playoff games.

Spurred on by Mike Richards' short-handed, back-handed history making goal, the Flyers beat the Canadiens 4-2, sending them on to the Stanley Cup finals in Chicago against the Blackhawks, a team that hasn't won the Cup since 1961, and last reached the finals in 1992. The Flyers last won the Cup in 1974 and 1975, and last reached the finals in 1997.

It will be another challenge for the Flyers, who had a 41-35-6 record this season, scoring only 88 points, while the Blackhawks racked up a 52-22-8 record and 112 points in regular season. The Flyers and Blackhawks have only met once in the playoffs, in 1971, and Chicago swept that series.

Philadelphia is now officially decked out in black and orange. Now, where IS that Flyers pennant from 1974?

Sources: Bloomberg.com news; Philly.com; Philly.com gallery; Personal experience