The recently-completed Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series between the Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins was phenomenal for a million different reasons. The Flyers advanced, they scored a lot of goals, and despite a little scare, the series was actually completed in pretty convincing fashion.
The other thing that made this series great was just how GIFable it was. There were so many phenomenal GIFs shared throughout the series, and hopefully you didn’t miss any of them. If you did, be sure to follow us on Twitter @BroadStHockey and check in with SBNation.com’s NHL hub, which has turned into a hockey GIF capital of the Internet during these Stanley Cup Playoffs. Also, this Flyers GIFs Tumblr page is as good as it gets.
We have a lot of time to kill before the Flyers take the ice in the second round. In the meantime, why don’t we relive some of the best animated GIFs from the first round, and why don’t we narrow it down to The Best GIF of Battle of Pennsylvania 2012? Inspired by Jon Bois’ GIF Bracket over at SBNation.com, we’re going to do a mini-version here this week. Bracket after the jump.
We’ve hand-picked the 24 best GIFs of the series. Today we’ll vote on the first-round matchups in the BOBBY CLARKE REGION, and voting will close at midnight ET. Tomorrow morning, we’ll vote on the first-round matchups in the BERNIE PARENT REGION, getting us down to 12 remaining GIFs when voting closes at 3 p.m. ET.
Tomorrow afternoon we’ll vote on all of those second-round matchups, and polls will again close at midnight ET. On Thursday we’ll narrow things down to three finalists, and on Friday, those three will go head-to-head-to-head in a GIF Battle Royale to determine our champion.
Now, the GIFs. The only rules are that the animations can’t be doctored in any way. All natural GIFs right here. Feel free to disagree with the seeding all you’d like. Click each link and the GIF will open in a new window.
BOBBY CLARKE REGION
(1) LAVY FIST-PUMP vs. (12) GOALTENDER SUPPORT GROUP — VOTE NOW
(2) MALKIN IS NOT LOVIN’ IT vs. (11) SWING AND A MISS — VOTE NOW
(3) LETANG ROBBED vs. (10) NEAL SO SAD — VOTE NOW
(4) LIKE A FLOWERINA vs. (9) MIDDLE FINGER — VOTE NOW
(5) PULLED MY HAIR vs. (8) CAN’T HEAR YOU — VOTE NOW
(6) LAVY GUM vs. (7) LILJA ON MALKIN — VOTE NOW
BERNIE PARENT REGION — COME BACK TOMORROW
(1) GIROUX SMASH vs. (12) CROSBY GLOVE
2) PENGUIN ON PENGUIN CRIME vs. (11) PUSSY
(3) ANGRY CLAUDE vs. (10) THE COATESY BOUNCE
(4) LAVY USES A BAD WORD vs. (9) WILTING FLOWER
(5) SHHHH REDUX vs. (8) ADAMS ATTACK
(6) BRYZ POOPS PUCKS vs. (7) HIGH FIVE
