Pension Plan Puppets, a Toronto Maple Leafs community

You go back and look at the players on the roster and, my God, they were so young. Mark Howe was the old man on defense, 31. Dave Poulin and Brian Propp were veterans in the group, too, at 27, and Tim Kerr was 26. And then there was this wave of kids: Pelle Eklund and Dave Brown (23), Rick Tocchet, Ron Sutter, Murray Craven and Ron Hextall (22), Zezel and Derrick Smith (21), and Scott Mellanby was 20.

They were just kids, and they went to the Stanley Cup finals in 1987 and took the Edmonton Oilers dynasty to seven games (after losing to the Oilers in five games in the '85 finals). Coach Mike Keenan rode them hard to the finish line and then they were too sore from the whip. Keenan was gone after the next season. The parts began being disassembled. The wilderness years followed for the franchise, followed by Eric Lindros.

But that young group really did make an era its own - and Zezel was there in the middle of it. His death after a decadelong struggle with hemolytic anemia - Zezel was in critical condition with the disease in 2001 - cannot help but remind everyone who was there about that time in the Flyers' history, and about their youthful face.