Fans spew venom, but it's Lindros who strikes

``Lindros sucks!'' Florida's fans sang during the anthem. ``Lindros sucks!''

Philadelphia's Eric Lindros stood stoically at the blue line, trying to stare up at the flag, but right below was a shimmering white cloth just as large, and that said Lindros sucked, too. And then it started raining rats, dozens upon dozens, directed at Lindros, and Philadelphia's superstar never flinched, not even as the rats from the upper deck bounced at his side and the frenzied pitch jumped to another level, to swallow the land of the free and the home of the brave.

``Unbelievable,'' the Flyers' Trent Klatt would admire later. ``The national anthem, you couldn't even hear it.''

Florida's fans were certainly ready for Game 3.

Problem is, Florida's team wasn't.

Philadelphia took 18 of the game's first 20 shots and took a deflating 2-0 lead that suddenly left Miami Arena feeling like it does when the Minnesota Timberwolves are in town. Lindros shut the crowd up the way the great ones always do, scoring the game-winner, and proving again that he is bigger than anyone on the ice, in every way. Lindros' team? It took back everything Florida had stolen in Philadelphia.

``I don't know if we had the jitters or what,'' Panthers Coach Doug MacLean said. ``Sometimes, you are a little bit too ready.''

This looked like a heavyweight fight, with so much blood staining the ice and the tuxedoed Michael Buffer humming, ``Let's get ready to ruuummmmmmmbbbblle'' while swinging a rat over his head, but Philadelphia landed all the best punches. Dolphins Coach Jimmy Johnson finally got to take the rat out of his suit coat in the second period, when the Panthers finally scored and the ice was littered with so many rats it took more than two dozen people to do the exterminating.

``That was great,'' Flyers Coach Terry Murray said, meaning his team enjoyed the breather and the slowing of the momentum. ``I was hoping they would take them off and then throw them back out again.''

Murray wasn't so pleased with the debris being thrown onto his bench as the game ended.

``All the stuff, with fans spitting on us and throwing things at us on the bench, that should not be allowed in the NHL,'' he said.

Terry, buddy, that cheap-shotting your superstar did in Game 2, making so many Panthers bleed, that shouldn't be allowed in the NHL, either. Nor should your Dale Hawerchuck be allowed to get away with clubbing Radek Dvorak over the head in Game 3, either, but he did. The surprise isn't that Panther fans are spitting on you and throwing things at your bench. The surprise is that they're not doing it at your team hotel, too.

The Panthers showed the most fight too late. Ed Jovanovski punched Lindros in the face just after the game ended and a melee erupted, gloves and sticks all over the ice as the players rumbled. Lindros left the ice and fans were still throwing things at him.

``It's not something I haven't been through before,'' he said.

Not even the rats?

``I don't have any opinion on it,'' he said. ``The fans seem to enjoy it.''

A rolled-up T-shirt was hurled at Lindros' head as he made his way off the ice, and he caught it and took it with him.

To recap then:

The Panthers got the best of Lindros before the game.

The Panthers got the best of Lindros after the game.

Lindros?

He got the best of everything in between.