After
years of clamoring for an NHL franchise, Philadelphia finally
got one when the league expanded in 1967 for the first time
in 40 years. The new teams were hampered by restrictive rules
that kept all major talent with the "original 6"
instead of the Expansion six. The Flyers' top goal scorer
that first season, Leon Rochefort, scored only 21 times.
All
six of the new franchises were placed into the "Western
Division", where the Flyers finished first in their inaugural
season. They would be upset by the St. Louis Blues in the
first round of the playoffs.
The
Flyers, would prove by the early 1970s that they could challenge
the original 6. Bobby Clarke would emerge as the expansion
teams' first superstar as they became the first expansion
team to win the Stanley Cup in 1974, defeating the Boston
Bruins in six games. The Flyers, however, were derided by
other teams for being thugs (earning them the name "Broad
Street Bullies"), and rightfully so: seven players racked
up over 100 penalty minutes during that Cup-winning season,
and one (Dave "The Hammer" Schultz) sat in the box
for 348 minutes--the equivalent of almost six whole games.
The
approach worked though - they won the Cup again the next year,
defeating the Buffalo Sabres, as Schultz set a record for
penalty minutes (472). In 1976, they lost to the Montreal
Canadiens in the finals, and would make at least the second
round of the playoffs every year until 1982.
In 2003, the Flyers endured a seven game first-round matchup
with the Toronto Maple Leafs, but would lose once again to
the Ottawa Senators in a gutsy six game series. The Flyers
did not escape the playoffs without controversy, however,
as Roman Cechmanek, despite allowing fluky goals, publicly
lambasted his team for playing poorly against the Flyers.
Cechmanek would be traded to the Los Angeles Kings during
the offseason for a third round draft choice despite having
the second best GAA in the league over his three years in
Philadelphia. Four time Stanley Cup winner Patrick Roy had
the best GAA over that period.
With
the departure of Roman Cechmanek, the Flyers signed free agent
journeyman goaltender Jeff Hackett, but would lose him midseason
due to vertigo. During this time, Robert Esche quickly established
himself as a number one goalie, and led the Flyers to the
conference final for the first time since the 1999-2000 playoffs,
where they lost in seven games to the eventual Stanley Cup
champions, the Tampa Bay Lightning.
On
March 5, 2004, the Flyers became the first NHL team not in
the Original Six to score 10,000 goals. That same game, the
Flyers and the Ottawa Senators got into several brawls and
set an NHL record for the most penalty minutes in a game with
419.
Founded: 1967-1968
Arena: Wachovia Center (capacity 19,519)
Uniform colors: orange, white, black
Logo design: a lowercase "p" with
an orange dot and lines streaking from the back
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