July 18, 2024
Ron Cortes/Philadelphia Inquirer / MCT / Sipa USA
John LeClair was around for many different versions of the Flyers, and racked up goals skating for each of them.
Throughout their history, the Philadelphia Flyers have been a lot of things.
The expansion franchise learning how to walk (or...skate), a punishing game-changing force, the kings of the NHL mountain, the star-studded scorers, and the methodical defenders.
The game ebbs and flows, and so does the team with it, as different iterations all develop to take on different approaches.
Some versions of the Flyers were built on incredible offenses, while others were dependant on oppressive defenses.
Which were the very best in franchise history at each?
Here's our attempt at ranking them, starting up front...
Chasing after a third consecutive Stanley Cup, the '76 Flyers came out with all the firepower imaginable. Reggie Leach led the league in goals with 61, and Bill Barber wasn't far behind him in fifth with 50. Bobby Clarke's 89 assists were the best in the NHL as well, and on the whole, the Flyers had eight players who scored at least 20 goals that season.
The Broad Street Bullies, they were playing with a ton of skill and were scoring in bunches, to the point where they were on the doorstep of a three-peat until Guy Lafleur and the Canadiens finally stepped in the way – on the Habs' own way to winning four straight Cups.
A few years removed from the back-to-back Cups that established them as an NHL mainstay, the Flyers came back and made a run with a retooled group that excelled at finding the back of the net. Reggie Leach (50 goals), Bill Barber (40 goals), and a young Brian Propp (34 goals) led the charge, taking the ride all the way past the Oilers, Rangers, and North Stars in the playoffs until the league's next dynasty in the New York Islanders stopped them short of another Cup.
You'll find that that is an oddly common trend among the memorable Flyers teams.
The Legion of Doom. Need I say more?
Arguably the most iconic and dominant line in Flyers history, 50-goal scorer John LeClair, big superstar center Eric Lindros, and the perfect setup man for them in Mikael Renberg, they all fed off one another and took Philadelphia on a tear straight through the Eastern Conference – with a bit of depth, too, thanks to Rod Brind'Amour, Trent Klatt, and the seemingly do-it-all defenseman in Éric Desjardins behind them.
That line alone was big, fast, mean, and in a lot of cases, just better than everyone else. The league at the time never saw anything quite like it and maybe still hasn't since, but those Flyers were top-heavy, which became a problem quickly when they ran into a more balanced and methodical group like the Red Wings – a team that would go on to win consecutive Cups and three in total over the next six years...
There's always a dynasty in the way.
No longer defending the Cup, the '77 Flyers returned with much of their offensive firepower intact, though it wouldn't be enough to propel them to the finish line again. Still, Rick MacLeish broke through with a 49-goal season, Leach potted 32, and Clarke, Barber, Gary Dornhoefer, and Don Saleski were among the eight Flyers in total to score at least 20 goals.
Looking back, what this Flyers team was able to pull off was insane because their identity was getting reworked on the fly from the summer all the way up until that legendary playoff series against the Penguins.
Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, out. Jake Voracek, Wayne Simmonds, Brayden Schenn, Sean Couturier and a 39-year old Jaromir Jagr, all in, with the offensive keys getting handed over to Claude Giroux as a 24-year old while Chris Pronger took up the captaincy on the back end. But then Pronger went down with an eye injury that October in what ended up being for his career, and the Flyers just signed Iyla Bryzgalov for $51 million to be their No. 1 goalie, yet they were flipping back and forth between him and a young Sergei Bobrovsky.
Teams don't often survive those kinds of losses or inconsistencies – we've even seen recent Flyers teams fall apart from them. But coach Peter Laviolette put all the chips into a high-tempo playstyle and it carried them.
Giroux finished third in the league with 93 points, Scott Hartnell scored a career-best 37 goals playing alongside him and Jagr, while 11 Flyers in total hit double-digits in goals.
They became a team that needed to win games 5-1 or 8-5, and often did, including through that first-round series where Sidney Crosby and the Penguins just couldn't keep pace with them.
And there were only two teams that approach really didn't work against: The Rangers, who they couldn't beat all season, and the Devils, who shut them down immediately in the second round.
Before we get into the Flyers' best defenses, let's just make note of a key sticking point here: Where does the line fall between good defense and good goaltending?
Sometimes, they just go hand in hand. Others, one compensates for the other. In this case, an effort was made to recognize the teams that complemented the goaltender behind them, rather than have been bailed out by him.
Here's the list...
With Mark Howe, Brad McCrimmon, and Brad Marsh on their blue line and a Vezina-worthy Ron Hextall in goal, these Flyers gave up the second-fewest goals and then went toe-to-toe with a generational juggernaut in Wayne Gretzky's Oilers and pushed them to the very brink of Game 7.
They lost in the end, but went a distance that, at the time, maybe no other team really could – not when Gretzky was putting up 180-200 point seasons with Mark Messier and Jari Kurri, too.
There's always a dynasty in the way.
Nothing like late-stage dead puck hockey and the total nonsense that was the two-line pass.
Disdain for that rule aside, the '03 Flyers formed a very solid defensive group between Kim Johnsson, Marcus Ragnarsson, Chris Therien, a young Dennis Seidenberg, longtime veteran Eric Weinrich, and franchise stalwart Éric Desjardins.
They weren't necessarily a team that lit up the scoreboard, but they would shut you down.
They also had lightning in a bottle for a bit with Roman Čechmánek behind them in net.
The Flyers were in flux. Concussions were piling up for Eric Lindros and the relationship between him and the front office was falling apart.
The high-powered, goal-scoring Legion of Doom days were over, but the Flyers had a versatile enough roster to shift into a team that prioritized keeping the puck out of their own net.
Desjardins took the lead in that shift, while Therien, Luke Richardson, Dan McGillis, and a veteran Ulf Samuelsson helped keep things steady. They also had a rookie Brian Boucher with a hot hand in goal late into the season, and an overall team that, as we would come to learn, could skate for hours on end if push came to shove.
The Broad Street Bullies did have a method behind the madness.
Yeah, they were tough, and mean, but were just as skilled and could shut anyone down.
André Dupont, Ed Van Impe, Jimmy and Joe Watson, and Barry Ashbee (up until he couldn't play anymore) made sure of that.
Then, of course, there was the Vezina and Conn Smythe-winning Bernie Parent behind them as the very last line of defense.
The Flyers came back from their second-round exit to Ottawa from the year before wiser, stronger, and more balanced.
Desjardins still headlined the defense, Ragnarsson and Johnsson were back, too – so were Therien and Weinrich at the start, but they were dealt away – Joni Pitkänen was brought into the fold, and for that last push, they made a move for Danny Markov...at the cost of one Justin Williams... (it was not a future-minded move).
It was a dependable group, even through early-season goalie instability between Jeff Hackett, Robert Esche, Antero Niittymäki, and then Sean Burke, until Esche finally took the reins in goal for the playoffs.
And they made a run, stopped a game short – a goal short – of the Stanley Cup Final.
I still maintain that the Flyers beat Calgary if they get by the Lightning.
They just missed the cut, but they still need mention, because what the 2010 Flyers did with the personnel they had was nothing short of remarkable.
Did they have good goaltending? Not really. It was timely, for sure, which can count for everything in some cases, but the goalie deck was always shuffling between Ray Emery (until injury cost him his season), Brian Boucher, and then Michael Leighton, which continued well into the playoffs.
Yet they still made it to the Cup Final.
The Flyers had to play a picture-perfect system in front of Boucher and Leighton to have a shot, and they pulled it off. Pronger was huge in that regard, and so were Kimmo Timonen and Matt Carle as the key puck controllers, along with an at the time underrated Braydon Coburn.
They stuck to the plan, and let Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, Danny Brière, and a 22-year old Claude Giroux do their thing up front.
And it carried them to a miracle run right up to to the doorstep with Chicago.
There's just always a dynasty in the way.
MORE: The faces of the Flyers franchise, by season
Follow Nick on Twitter: @itssnick
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports
