Only Kane knew right away it was good

PHILADELPHIA - If you were a bit perplexed by the Stanley Cup winning overtime goal, join the club.

As the Blackhawks poured onto the ice, only Patrick Kane truly celebrated. Every other player looked back at Flyers goalie Mike Leighton and searched for the refs to see if they agreed with Kane.

It was about as odd a Cup celebration as you'll ever see, somewhat anticlimactic because of the lack of emotion and the bad goal Leighton allowed after playing such a great game.

"I threw my gloves in the air and kind of kept looking back at the other end," said Jonathan Toews. "I was thinking, 'We're throwing our gloves and sticks all over the place and maybe it's not even a goal.'

"But Kaner said he knew for sure it was in."

Joel Quenneville stood up on the bench and sort of hugged his assistant coaches, but was watching the refs and thinking about the next line change.

"Kaner was the only one in the building who knew it was in, except maybe the goaltender," Quenneville said. "He was definitely the only one at ice level who had a view of it. It's probably the strangest celebration I've ever seen in a hockey game."

GM Stan Bowman watched the replay with his dad before he erupted, and Duncan Keith skated backward toward the Hawks pile at one end of the ice while watching what was happening at the other end.

"It was kind of weird," Keith said. "I wanted to know for sure before we did all that so it felt really odd, but Kaner was screaming it was in. He knew it.

"I was just afraid they would call it back and then don't we look like fools, and we gotta clean up all the (stuff) on the ice."

Team president John McDonough didn't know what to do.

"Well, I don't have a lot of experience with celebrating championships," said McDonough, who spent decades with the Cubs. "I just didn't want a false start.

"I needed to know it was over for real, because all these other things start running through your head, like an overtime loss and Game 7 and all that. Nobody wanted that. These Flyers were relentless.

"I'm just so happy for the fan base. They gave us a second chance when they didn't have to. They deserve this."

And about 5,000 of them stayed around for nearly two hours, cheering on the players as they celebrated on the Wachovia Center ice.

"We're gonna stay here as long as they want to stay here," Toews said. "I can't wait to get back to Chicago and celebrate with everyone."