Three years ago when the Flyers packed up their sticks and skates after being eliminated by Ottawa, their goaltender at the time was left to shake his head and lament.
"I don't know why they hate me," Roman Cechmanek said of the fans who littered him with boos after giving up one too many easy goals.
So it was strange last night in the City of Brotherly Disdain to hear a frustrated crowd stand up and cheer as Robert Esche left the game in the second period, the scoreboard at the time reading an ugly 5-0.
But while fans here might be cranky, they are not stupid and as the blame game, otherwise known as the offseason, begins for the Flyers, the one guy who gets a pass is Esche.
Like the rest of the season, the Flyers' season-ending 7-1 loss to Buffalo wasn't his fault. Bernie Parent, who spent the pregame dancing and smiling with fans outside the Wachovia Center, would have been hard-pressed to survive with the defense this team offered up.
"Without Robert Esche," Sabres center Daniel Briere said, "this would have been over a lot earlier."
Told of Briere's comments and that Chris Drury echoed them, Esche said he was "honored" that two great players said that of him but standing in the locker room amid the ruins of a humiliating loss of epic proportions, the bouquets offered little solace.
Of course the Flyers' defense offered little solace for their goal-tender, either. Faced again with lousy clears, sloppy turnovers and more two-on-one - and even three-on-one - attacks than the Sixers, Esche was helpless to stop the onslaught. When he was pulled with 12:41 left in the second period, it wasn't so much an act of desperation as it was an act of mercy on coach Ken Hitchcock's part.
Clearly disgusted, Esche slammed his stick against the glass as he made his way to the locker room but returned not long after, sitting on a stool in the tunnel. Like a rubbernecker on the interstate, though, Esche watched the rest of the period with his head in his hands, peaking at the disaster that unfolded in front of him.
"It's always frustrating when you come out, especially when we all poured a lot into it this year," Esche said. "Whenever you come out of a game, as a professional you have to handle that accordingly."
It has been a strange season for Esche. Fantastic early on, he was forced to the sideline with a groin injury and watched helplessly as Antero Niittymaki starred for the Flyers, won a silver medal for Finland and gave the Flyers a good kind of goalie controversy.
Whether he was legitimately convinced that he had lost the job or was merely playing mind games with himself, Esche all but conceded the playoff job last month. Of course when Hitchcock opted for Esche in seven of the final nine games, Esche's surrender was clearly premature.
Brilliant in Game 1 of this series, Esche certainly deserved the blame in Game 2 after allowing five goals on 10 shots but unlike other playoff series in this town, this one wasn't decided by the goaltending or lack thereof.
Esche wasn't perfect by any means in this one. Buffalo goal No. 2 wasn't exactly a thing of beauty, an Ales Kotalik shot through the five-hole, but as they often are, the final score in this one is deceiving. A 7-1 loss generally says the goaltender played like a revolving door.
Asked if that was an unfair assessment, Hitchcock preferred an artful dodge, not so much to shelter his goaltender as everyone else.
"It's really hard right now," Hitchcock said. "We have to stick together. We've got unbelievable fans, and they're really disappointed. And the city is disappointed and we're disappointed but we have to stick together. We have to win as a team and lose as a team."
Goal No. 3 found the Flyers simply unable to clear and No. 4 was a three-on-one that looked more like a shooting drill than an actual live play.
Esche wasn't interested in analyzing what went wrong or trying to pick apart why the Sabres were able to turn a terrific start by the Flyers into a blowout in a matter of minutes.
"I really try to simplify my thoughts throughout the season," he said. "That's my job as a goal-tender. I don't get into analyzing offensive play in the neutral zone or defensive play. That's really an area that no goaltender wants to get into."
No worries, there. Plenty of others will take care of that for him. In the days ahead the What Went Wrong debate will ensue in the media, in front of the water coolers and certainly among the men who make the decisions about this team.
What will be decided, changed, upgraded and dissected remains to be seen, but based on the folks who stood to watch Esche leave the ice, at least the water-cooler crowd won't be blaming No. 42.
"It was really special, something I'll never forget," Esche said of his departing ovation. "That was unbelievably classy of them. I know how frustrating that is for our fans, to go through that. They're a part of us. I know it's as frustrating for them, but they were true professionals, too."