PHILADELPHIA -- After heading into the lot at Citizens Bank Park for tonight's World Series game, I snapped this shot of the old Spectrum next door (left). The final event in the 42-year-old building is tonight, a concert from Pearl Jam. After that, the former home of the Flyers and 76ers -- and the Sabres' former house of horrors from their early seasons -- is getting demolished for a series of shops and restaurants that's been dubbed Philly Live.
Comcast Spectator, the building's owners, has a fabulous Web site at Rememberthespectrum.com. It includes all kinds of trivia, notes, photos and the like. Worth a look. There was also a "Final Stroll" through the Spectrum last week for fans. The Sabres, you may recall, didn't win a single game in the building until November of 1976, their seventh season in the league. They lost all three games of the 1975 Stanley Cup finals there -- and the great team featuring the French Connection scored just one goal in all three of those games!
Here's a video from the stroll featuring a chat with Flyers goaltender Bernie Parent, the Conn Smythe winner who stoned the Sabres in those games. Here's another one that includes a chat with Bob "The Hound" Kelly, who scored the Cup-winning goal at the Aud in '75.
As for this year's Flyers, Daniel Briere is sitting out today's game against Carolina with another groin injury. The Sabres will see the Flyers three times in November as their schedule gets dramatically tougher.
At 8-1-1 heading into tonight's game on Long Island, the Sabres have picked up 17 of their first 20 possible points. Don't mean to gloat but perhaps you recall that I pegged them for 19 of their first 24 in our preview section story on how they can make the playoffs. So if they merely split this home-and-home with the Islanders, which you would think would be the worst they would do, I'll be right on.
Then, of course, it gets a little more serious. The November schedule includes the Flyers (three times), Bruins (twice) and single games against the Capitals, Flames, Oilers and Senators.
OK. Back to baseball for me. And while you're watching the Sabres and Islanders -- and especially after the final buzzer -- stop on over to the Inside Pitch blog to check in what's going on with the Yankees and Phillies before, during and after Game Three. Time for another cheesesteak run.
---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)
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