Spectrum Memories: The Russians Came and We Sent Them Home Again

by Bob Herpen

Phanatic Hockey Editor

The Philadelphia Flyers’ longest string of success during their final season calling the Spectrum home arrived in mid-to-late November and a sliver of December. 

An eight-game win streak, well timed with the return of team captain Eric Lindros from his third knee injury in less than four seasons, pulled the club out of the doldrums and set them on an ascending path toward defending their Atlantic Division title.

Six of those wins came on home ice, with only one against an opponent who ended the season with a superior record: the Detroit Red Wings.

At the time of the Black Friday matinee, however, the Wings were only just starting to motor through their appointed rounds. The defending Western Conference champions – who were mired in sludge during a shocking four-game sweep in the Stanley Cup Finals against the New Jersey Devils only five months prior – began the season stuck in the mud, going 5-5-2. 

All that began to change on Oct. 27, 1995, when Detroit GM Jimmy Devellano pulled off a puzzling deal which saw former 50-goal scorer Ray Whitney exiled to San Jose in exchange for winger Igor Larionov. 

Here’s the catch: the Wings already had four former Soviet-era players on its roster – forwards Sergei Fedorov and Slava Kozlov, along with defensemen Vladimir Konstantinov and Slava Fetisov. The acquisition of Larionov paved the way for the creation of the Russian Five. 

The pentaverate made their debut later that day to fuel a 3-0 victory in Calgary over the Flames. They’d drop the next two tilts on the road, but, starting with a 6-5 overtime decision in Boston on Nov. 2, embarked on a 7-game win streak which propelled them atop the Central Division. 

Owing to that sputtering start, the Red Wings came into Philly on Nov. 24 one point up on Toronto for the division lead but four points behind the Orange and Black, who sat second in the Atlantic to the surging Florida Panthers.

The Flyers, meanwhile, were fresh off a waxing of the LA Kings, who dropped a 5-2 decision to their ungracious hosts on Thanksgiving Eve Eve in what would end up being Wayne Gretzky’s final visit to Philadelphia while wearing the Black and Silver. That put them 4-0-0 since Lindros’ triumphant return. 

Head coach Terry Murray decided to up the ante a bit by starting erstwhile backup Garth Snow for the second consecutive game as head man Ron Hextall remained out with a pulled muscle. Snow, who by this time was quickly cementing his place on the depth chart ahead of one-time starter Dominic Roussel, made 25 stops in turning back the Kings and improving his record to 4-2-1. He wasn’t fully unaware of the impact these internationally trained speedster have on the pace of play.

Scotty Bowman countered with veteran Cup winner Mike Vernon, who had been responsible for 3 of Detroit’s 5 losses to that point. Bowman, ever cagey and aloof, staked Vernon and counterpart Chris Osgood in a battle for net-bound supremacy for the whole season in what could be best termed as a 1A/1B goaltending rotation. The former saw an end to his week-long rest following a 5-4 win in Edmonton earned with 25 saves.

With visions of Russians leaving the ice in a huff dancing in their heads, a full capacity sellout crowd of 17,380 were in attendance.

The end result was a 4-1 loss despite the Red Wings looking a half-step quicker and outshooting the Flyers, 37-26. Lindros lit the lamp twice for his third multi-score game of the year, picking up a point in the 16th of the 17 games for which he’d skated. Eric Desjardins chipped in two assists, Rob DiMaio and John LeClair each netted one.

The 36 saves were, by a wide margin, a career high for Snow. The product of the legendary high-school program at Mount Saint Charles High School in Woonsocket, Rhode Island turned in a pair of 32-save efforts previously (a 6-5 loss for Quebec at Montreal on Apr. 5, 1995; a 3-2 loss for the Nords in Philadelphia on Dec. 16, 1993).

A statement victory at a crucial time if there ever was one.

In the next day’s Daily News, usual boxing beat writer Bernard Fernandez subbed for Les Bowen and quoted Snow – who played for the USA at the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer – as saying: “The Olympic experience probably prepared me more than anything for the way that Russian line plays. You have to do things a little differently as a goalie when those guys are out there.”

The final tally for the Russian Five: 

Fedorov: 8 shots on goal, 1 assist, minus-2

Fetisov:   2 SOG, no points, minus-1

Konstantinov: 1 SOG, minus-1

Kozlov:  1 SOG, minus-1

Larionov: 1 goal, 2 SOG, minus-2

As for Murray, he chose to praise both his goaltender and his opponents.

“Garth Snow was outstanding today,” he said. “They’re a creative hockey club. They’re going to force you, defensively, to make a lot of decisions. And Snowie was right on top of his game.”

“(The Russians) are schooled the same way,” Murray continued. “Their train of thought coming up as young players is the same. They play extremely well together, reading off of each other and creating offensive opportunities.”

Eleven days later, at Joe Louis Arena, the Red Wings gained their revenge. Looking a step-and-a-half faster than the Flyers from the opening drop, the hosts raced out to a 4-0 lead which could have easily been 8-0, then hung on for a 5-3 decision which quashed the visitors’ eventual season-best 8-game winning run. 

That win occurred only 3 days after their legendary 11-1 waxing of the Canadiens at the Forum. (You know the one, where Patrick Roy was left in for 9 goals, made a routine save then raised his arms in mock victory at the crowd’s sarcastic cheers, was finally pulled from the game, told Habs president Ronald Corey he’d never play another game in Montreal, was immediately suspended, then traded to Colorado and proceeded to beat Detroit en route to his third Stanley Cup win).

The Russians were responsible for the game’s opening and closing scores, and while the five-man unit only picked up 4 points on the night, were a major driver in the puck possession game which kept Philly on their heels throughout. 

Still, Murray was not at all hyperbolic in looking ahead after the success of the first test heading into the holiday stretch.

“To come up big against Detroit … I think, is a good indication of where we’re going and the type of team that we’re becoming,” he noted. “We’re coming off the most difficult part of our schedule for the whole season (16 games in 28 days. To finish it strong, with a lot of jump and good decision-making, feels very good.”

"Chasing the Game" another cliche best left behind

by Bob Herpen

Phanatic Hockey Editor

Hockey lingo is heavily infused by a few choice phrases that pass in and out of style with every philosophical change in game strategy. Some of them are so deeply lodged in a player, coach, broadcaster or pundit’s consciousness, it can’t be dislodged with a laser beam. 

One of those which has proven to be more adhesive than barnacles on a boat hull, is the notion that each night, teams need to score that all-important first goal, or else they’ll work themselves into exhaustion due to “chasing the game.”

This season, under new head coach Rick Tocchet, the Philadelphia Flyers are doing their best to lay waste to that biting phrase.

After Saturday night’s 6-3 dispatch of the New Jersey Devils, the home squad has allowed the first goal in a mystifying 15 of 20 games. Even more out there, their record when other clubs get the jump improved to 8-4-3. That’s 19 of their 25 total points. 

A breakdown:

10/9        Florida                               1-2 (L)                   0-1-0

10/11      Carolina                          3-4 (OTL)                 0-1-1

10/16      Winnipeg                           2-5 (L)                   0-2-1

10/18      Minnesota                      2-1 (OTW)                1-2-1 

10/20      Seattle                              5-2 (W)                   2-2-1 

10/25      Islanders                        4-3 (SOW)                3-2-1

10/28      Pittsburgh                      3-2 (SOW)                 4-2-1

11/2        Calgary                              1-2 (L)                    4-3-1

11/6        Nashville                            3-1 (W)                  5-3-1

11/8        Ottawa                            2-3 (OTL)                  5-3-2

11/12      Edmonton                       1-2 (OTL)                  5-3-3

11/14      St Louis                          6-5 (SOW)                 6-3-3 

11/15      Dallas                                1-5 (L)                     6-4-3

11/20      St Louis                          3-2 (OTW)                 7-4-3

11/22      New Jersey                        6-3 (W)                  8-4-3

Of note - twice already the Flyers have erased an early deficit in three straight games. Eight times they’ve won beyond regulation when initially behind. 

With a league schedule condensed due to February’s Olympic break, there are going to be more opportunities for 3-in-4’s or 4-in-6’s to wreak havoc on the club’s energy level. It’s crucial to be able to store energy, to manage energy and to have a sharp mental edge when energy is flagging. Tocchet is well aware.

“You can still win those games with your ‘B game’ if you’re smart, if you play team hockey. Game management comes into play when you’re tired,” he said in Saturday’s pregame. “That’s something we’re working on here every day.”

For the sake of comparison consider the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. Surely a roster competent in all three zones, playing a 200-foot game, giving a 60-minute effort, gets on top a lot and stays there, right?

Not so much.

Last season, the Cats allowed the game’s first goal in 39 of 82 regular-season games, going 14-21-4. That’s right. Fourteen wins and 32 points when supposedly caving in, allowing the opening salvo and “chasing the game” from the drop. 

This season, things are not quite as rosy. As of Saturday night’s 6-3 home loss to the two-time defending Cup losers, the Edmonton Oilers, Paul Maurice’s club has yielded first in 12 of their 21 tilts thus far, going 4-8-0. 

10/7       Chicago                             3-2 (W)                  1-0-0

10/13     Flyers                                2-5 (L)                    1-1-0

10/15     Detroit                               1-4 (L)                    1-2-0

10/18     Buffalo                               0-3 (L)                    1-3-0

10/23     Pittsburgh                          3-5 (L)                    1-4-0

10/28     Anaheim                          3-2 (SOW)               2-4-0

11/4       Anaheim                            3-7 (L)                    2-5-0

11/8       San Jose                            1-3 (L)                   2-6-0

11/13     Washington                        6-3 (W)                  3-6-0

11/15     Tampa Bay                        1-3 (L)                    3-7-0

11/17     Vancouver                         8-5 (W)                   4-7-0

11/22     Edmonton                          3-6 (L)                    4-8-0

Of course, there are several mitigating factors between the Flyers’ and Panthers’ respective situations. Maurice’s continuity of coaching, the confidence of being a three-time Eastern Conference playoff champion which has overcome virtually every obstacle, an obvious talent-level gap, then the two pressing this year which may explain the discrepancy – the expectation of losing Aleksander Barkov for the entire season and fatigue of participating in 335 games from October 2022 up to the present.

History Always Repeats

Looking back nearly 30 years, to the 1996-97 season which ended up being the tip of the spear for the Dead Puck Era, the Cup Final-entrant Flyers under Terry Murray finished second in their division and third in the East while allowing the first goal in 43 of 82 contests. 

They were 16-19-8 overall, 5-8-0 without Eric Lindros as he slowly recovered from a hamstring injury at the start of the year and 11-11-8 thereafter. The club was even scored upon first 7 times during their season-changing 17-game unbeaten streak from late November through early January. Clearly the effect of playing from a deficit wasn’t as dire as some might suggest.

Nothing truly ensures success like getting ahead and staying ahead, and the franchise’s last Stanley Cup Final entrant is proof. During the Flyers’ 2009-10 season which ended in a surprise four-round journey the club was absolutely dismal when playing catch up, going 8-25-0 

overall – 2-8-0 with John Stevens and then 6-17-0 with Peter Laviolette.  

Do you know where I *suspect* the phrase originated and gained steam? When Jacques Lemaire implemented the neutral-zone trap full-time after the Devils won the Cup in 1995. 

In stark contrast to the Panthers under head coach Doug MacLean, who would revert to the bottleneck with a lead at the start of the third period, New Jersey robotically fell into the full press immediately after scoring first – whether that be 5 minutes after puck drop or midway through a contest. It made for boring hockey which forcibly drained the lifeblood from opponents for half a decade.

Old habits die hard. Those three loaded words seemed to vanish in the vapor of an Alex Ovechkin breakaway when the NHL came back from its implosion in 2005. It started to creep back in around the time the Orange and Black made their last Finals run, dipped back out of existence when Jaromir Jagr arrived, then somehow became harder to kill than cockroaches and Keith Richards. 

Bemoaning an initial deficit is the province of small minds. Give up a goal 4 minutes in? There’s 56 minutes to tie and go ahead. Give it up halfway through regulation? Half of the game to get it back. 

That antiquated attitude simply doesn’t hold water since 2021, the last round of expansion which welcomed Seattle and left the NHL at its current 32-franchise bloat. Since then, teams coast to 3 and 4 goal leads only to surrender like anesthetic was suddenly pumped through the benches. 

It’s the hardest of hard sells when the Washington Capitals put up 15 goals over their last 2 games this week. Or when the Flyers nearly overcame a 5-1 first-period deficit in Detroit two Christmases ago, falling 7-6 in a shootout. Or when they battled back from a pair of 2-goal deficits in St. Louis 8 days ago to win a 6-5 thriller – their third multi-goal comeback victory in the season’s first quarter.

Saturday Night Special

If there is a book coaches consult which contains other sage words of wisdom, including “never give up a goal in the first or last minute of a period,” on Saturday night, the Flyers tore that book to shreds. 

After the Devils enjoyed the early territorial advantage as well as an 8-2 shot edge in the first eight minutes and a 1-0 lead thanks to a Timo Meier second-chance power-play strike, all Hell broke loose. 

“I think we were pretty predictable,” Tocchet admitted as an opener to his postgame presser. 

Noah Cates followed up an Egor “Prince of” Zamula shot to tie the game after exactly nine minutes elapsed. Then, in a franchise-record span of 26 seconds, Matvei Michkov was sprung on a breakaway by Sean Couturier off a defensive-zone turnover and Tyson Foerster followed 9 seconds later with a one-time laser and added another strike on the same shift, this time from the right circle, only 17 seconds after the fourth puck drop. 

The hosts were now up 4-1 and started attacking.

“It’s a big thing,” Tocchet said about the history-making staccato burst. “That team can come back. They tried. They had some chances there. That’s why you have to bear down. That’s why you have to stay structured in your system. It was nice to have that killer instinct.”

Get a lead and keep a lead? That’s at least an evergreen saying.

The Flyers kept up the pressure in the second period, severely tilting the ice for 16 ½ minutes and ended up maintaining a three-goal edge after a Nico Hischier goal neutralized a Bobby Brink tracer. 

Flyers starter Dan Vladar, ever deepening the chasm between he and his backup Sam Ersson, smothered 32 pucks for the victory. He was dented just once in the third period, with 6:33 to play on a long blast tipped in by Hischier he couldn’t see and therefore, didn’t stop. The Devils finally awoke and had two opportunities, one in a vacant net, to cut their deficit to one, but Trevor Zegras put an end to the fans’ agita with a brilliant breakaway marker at 15:21 for the 6-3 final. 

“The last two games we were confronting at the blue line and that’s how you get odd-man rush chances, right?” Tocchet added. “Once you counterattack, you take off.”

Gravity almost pulled Cates under during his postgame pool interviews, but he deftly demurred, saying, “Obviously you don’t want to give (that first) one up but to get one then get the building into it … a couple quick after that was awesome.”

In the microcosm of the Rick Tocchet era, resilience not control, seems to be an effective strategy. The Flyers will need it facing a 4-in-6 this coming week on the road against Tampa, Florida, the Islanders and Devils.They’ll also have overlapping 3-in-4s in mid-December and just before Christmas, then yet another out West before the turn of the new year.

The last thing I'll ever write about Pelle Lindbergh

by Bob Herpen

Phanatic Hockey Editor

If you believe that words can hurt, that certain phrases once processed can leave a lasting psychic imprint, I have six of them which are certain to haunt me for the rest of my life, even though they really shouldn’t:

Pelle Brain-Dead

Lindbergh: No Hope

The front-and-back-page headlines of the Philadelphia Daily News on Monday, Nov, 11, 1985, the day after Pelle Lindbergh – the first European-trained player to win the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s best goaltender – made a series of confounding decisions which led to him crashing his Porsche into the wall of an elementary school in South Jersey, killing himself and injuring two passengers.

What followed over the next 120 hours was nothing short of a Greek tragedy, played out minute by minute, day by day, by those closest to him and thousands of fans worldwide, until Lindbergh was publicly memorialized ahead of his burial in his native Stockholm.

What can you say about a 26-year-old goaltender who’s been dead far longer than he was alive, and gone infinitely longer than his presence and impact was felt in this city? All of us who were alive to witness his on-ice greatness and the Flyers’ greatness, were made fans for life. Not everyone on the border between Generations X and Y were lucky enough to see a winner their first time introduced to the team and the sport. 

Flyers broadcaster and future Hockey Hall of Fame member Gene Hart produced the best speech of his career as Master of Ceremonies for Pelle’s remembrance on Nov. 14, 1985, ahead of a Stanley Cup Finals rematch between the Flyers and visiting Edmonton Oilers. In six minutes he did better than anyone else dared:

I don’t care who you are. 

Nobody at 7 years old should have to face the grim reality of loss. No parent or guardian or relative or community leader or doctor should have to discuss in detail to their child medical terms like traumatic brain injury, blood-alcohol content, or the finality of death. 

Not for a friend, a neighbor, a classmate, favorite teacher, grandparent, parent, sibling or sports hero. 

It should be part of the enduring social contract that young, impressionable, innocent minds should get a pass.  I wasn’t so lucky, and neither were hundreds of new Flyers fans, children like me. 

I wonder if it’s a common phenomenon among other impressionable kids firmly situated in middle age, for the sense and scope of the tragedy to be magnified as the years progress as it is for me. The Butterfly effect is a real bitch when you start to look at the fullness in the arc of time.

Still, the resilience of children is amazing. Their capacity to absorb bad news and then go right back into their board games, cartoon watching or learning multiplication tables and discovering the mysteries of the Mesozoic Era should be something genetic and retained well into adulthood. 

Even if I never succeeded in covering hockey at multiple levels, even if I did have a family of my own, the events of those five days are embedded in my DNA because they occurred at a formative time in life and hockey fandom, so they have to be reckoned with. 

It’s better done on the fives and zeros, but how much longer?

Five years ago, upon the 40th anniversary of John Lennon’s murder and the point at which he had been dead as long as he was alive, Paul McCartney admitted to Stephen Colbert that he still dreams of John. But he also said he celebrates October 9 – John’s birthday – instead of mourning December 8.

That’s a tough sell. John had 8 years in the Beatles and another 10 as a solo artist and counterculture icon. Pelle had exactly 4 years and 9 days from his first NHL start until the day he drew his final breath. He would have been 66 years old on May 24. 

It is difficult to fathom celebrating a birthday of someone who, even if he had miraculously survived the accident, may not even be here today. Such is the fate of those who pack a tremendous amount of living into a short period of time. 

It’s not all grim. Sometimes I have a demented laugh to myself thinking that Pelle never got to know a world where the Miami Vice Theme wasn’t the no. 1 song on the pop charts in the US. Or that he never knew about Rick Astley. Or Milli Vanilli. Harlem Shake. Gangnam Style. He’d probably be the first goof on the dance floor at a relative or former teammate’s wedding lip synching and dancing to “Who Let the Dogs Out?”

As with all lasting grief, there are repeated rituals. 

I haven’t lived in New Jersey but worked there at different periods of my life, so I’ve driven by the site of the former Somerdale Elementary School on multiple occasions. Stood out in the pre-dawn warmth and haze on the 20th. Huddled in the bleakness and pouring rain on the 30th. Stood stone still in the silent predawn at 40. 

On the major anniversaries since the book was published in the United States, I flip open “Behind the White Mask” and start reading from random chapters at random intervals until I’m satisfied I’ve read enough. 

Each November 14th, I watch the entire ceremony of remembrance and if I have time, break up the interlude into another portion of the day to watch the whole game itself. 

The VHS was liberated from Long-time WIP radio host and St. Joe’s Prep classmate Joe DeCamara’s parents’ house in June of 1996 and I’m never giving it back; it is simply safer with me than anywhere else on this planet. Joe knows this. If he’s forgotten, I have no problem retelling. The quality of the recording still holds up decades later as I watch on one of the last surviving Toshiba combo VHS/DVD televisions. 

We mourn in our own ways. Some drop pucks. Others drop knowledge. 

I'm dropping a 40-year anvil off my shoulders here.

Courtesy of Tony Catona

Every Flyers alumni I talked to over the years admitted that, although they’ve lived a majority of their life since that moment and have gone on to varied levels of success inside and outside the game, they all take some kind of action to pause and remember. Dave Poulin is on record as saying he retains very little from his past as he moves through the seasons of his life, but keeps a picture as a treasured memento.

I’m not on board with this minor online movement to have Pelle’s number retired on Jan. 31 when the Flyers host the Los Angeles Kings. Why then?

1 = Bernie Parent’s number

31 = Pelle Lindbergh’s number

26 = Pelle’s age at the time of his death.

Talk about reading too much into things. Bernie’s gone and the shock still lingers. He’ll have his own night of remembrance next Saturday night. He said all he needed to say when he was tasked with following Hart.

One passage in the heartbroken mentor’s speech still strikes a chord then and now: “When death defeats greatness, we all mourn. But when death defeats youth, we mourn even more.” 

The English poet A.E. Houseman wishes he had the brevity and soul of a working-class Montrealer.

Maybe it’s time we all let it go. Even Pelle himself, in a summer 1985 interview from a boat that aired on Hockey Night in Canada 40 years ago, wondered if he would be worth remembering 20 years on.

Pelle’s number was last worn on the sleeve of his teammates in the Spring of 1986, taken out of circulation permanently. It will never be worn and maybe we have to be satisfied with that and move along. 

This is nothing you can blame on the corporate restructuring of the franchise. After all, the sainted Mister Snider, his son Jay and others had more than a hand in the decision to handle things quietly. If he wanted to do something different about it, all he had to do was say the word and it would be so. Think about that for more than a second.

It’s sad how longtime fans of this team are constantly sucked into the swirling vortex of nostalgia. 

Sam Carchidi won’t stop posting daily pics from the 1970s on social media to sell his book about the 1970s. Key figures on those Cup teams such as Bob Kelly, Don Saleski and Orest Kindrachuk have told me in conversation more than a decade ago when I roamed the press box they desperately hope another Flyers team wins it soon because it’s not healthy to fixate on the distant past. 

Those flashy, gritty clubs that caught my attention from the 1980s are four decades past. The Legion of Doom’s peak was 30 years ago, the year I graduated high school. The years before the NHL crashed out in 2004 are, effectively, ancient history.

And if complaining about how the current team skirts the line between the good and bad side of mediocre, so be it. We can sit at the dinner table for the holidays and teach the youngsters. We’ll swap stories -- the good, the great, the bad and the ugly -- including but not limited to this smiling Swede who crossed into our lives, lit it up dramatically, then left us way too soon. 

Phanatic Movie Review: The Swede of Philadelphia

Courtesy of the Philadelphia Inquirer

by Bob Herpen

Phanatic Hockey Editor

Let me start off by saying, there are only two things I didn’t know about the untimely death of Flyers goaltender Pelle Lindbergh’s death 40 years ago today which prompted the documentary, “The Swede of Philadelphia,” from filmmaker Charlie Minn.

The first is that the star of the documentary is Minn himself. The second is that it would be a painful exercise in remembrance that left me and some of my fellow movie-goers stretching and checking their watches. 

I saw “Swede,” which is enjoying a limited release this week in certain theaters in the Delaware Valley, last night at twilight in a movie theater roughly 1 mile from the Lindbergh crash site in South Jersey. It was half full but respectfully silent throughout the 100-plus-minute exercise, which definitely felt much, much longer at times – including a preamble which pimped two of Minn’s other documentaries. 

Excepting anyone under the age of 45 who remembers, or who had an older brother, uncles or father who was into the Flyers at that time and who passed down the story and the lessons from the crash, it’s not really necessary to see “Swede.”

There’s no new information that came to light as a result of Minn’s efforts. Only a certain number of those involved who knew Pelle best or had a hand in the rescue and resuscitation efforts of Pelle and his two passengers, finally spoke on the record for the first time in 40 years. 

That, at least, was a nice touch. Kevin Cady, who knew Pelle since he arrived in North America and played for the Maine Mariners of the American Hockey League, spoke at length. There were multiple testimonials from police officers and EMT personnel who arrived on scene at the former Somerdale Elementary School. 

There was a considerable amount of time and space given to Kathyleen McNeal, who rode in the passenger seat of Pelle’s ill-fated Porsche and sustained the least life-threatening injuries. And it was clear the burdens still carried decades later by Pelle’s backup, Pastor Bob Froese, who would be thrust into the starting role in the worst way imaginable.

Everything a Flyers fan needs to know about Pelle Lindbergh’s impact on the franchise, the fondness and attachment fans of the era have for him, as well as the events of Nov. 10 through Nov. 14, 1985 could be explained in full by doing the following: Reading Jay Greenberg’s Full Spectrum, his later voluminous work on the franchise’s 50th anniversary released in 2016, or from the English version of Thomas Tynander’s book, Behind the White Mask, co-authored by “Swede” speaker Bill Meltzer, which was released in 2010. 

Minn’s effort really didn’t fill in any blanks in a shorter time frame in any meaningful way. 

I found Minn’s filmmaking at times stiff, sensationalist, amateurish, rushed and detached. And that was before it was painfully obvious that the doc, in a noticeable way, was about Minn’s experiences shooting the interviews, asking the questions, driving the routes Pelle drove and visiting the sites germane to that fateful early morning. 

There were two odd sections that I assume were filler but didn’t need to be: one devoted to remembering all personnel from Flyers history who had died before the documentary was produced, as well as a strange interlude where a clip was shown from a December 1984 game against the Pittsburgh Penguins which featured a full-length resuscitation by Flyers players and coaches of “‘Twas The Night Before Christmas.” Both presented without context. 

And then, another section dropped in about the Spectrum that really didn’t expand much on why the venue and Pelle’s play would have energized sellout crowds. This part was led not by Lou Nolan’s or Gene Hart’s voice, tying to the Flyers theme, but by legendary Sixers PA announcer Dave Zinkoff.

The only thing I won’t fault Minn for, was the need to either re-shoot or add on some scenes due to the death of Pelle’s mentor and all-time franchise great Bernie Parent in late September. This addendum was made extra poignant when Parent, on camera, expressed how much fun it would be in Eternity to be reunited with Pelle again…but, as he said, not for a long time.

From the perspective of someone who was alive and aware of these events, Pelle’s position in franchise history and who also understands how the accident affected the club and its fans four decades on, it’s a shame that Justin MIrigliani couldn’t finish off his planned doc, “Keenan’s Kids.” 

Mirigliani, born in South Philadelphia and raised in South Jersey, poured a considerable amount of time and effort into interviewing as many principals as he could over the years, even completing a trailer and some live documentary footage with several of Pelle’s teammates, before the project stalled prior to COVID.

It would have been much more interesting, and dare I say it…comforting…to have a local, one of us, like Mirigliani tackle a subject as sore as Pelle’s death. Such is the provinciality and parochiality that still defines a corner of the Philadelphian blue-collar mindset. 

When I started planning on pieces to mark the 40th anniversary of Pelle’s accident and death, I encountered resistance from certain former members of the organization who knew the situation firsthand. 

More than one admitted to me, straight out, they refused to speak to Minn when asked to contribute.

They wouldn’t speak to me, either, for anything I planned to write to mark the anniversary. I respect their consistency.

Although Rick Tocchet, Murray Craven, Mark Howe, Brian Propp, Dave Brown, Froese and former Inquirer Flyers beat Al Morganti added their perspective, I couldn’t help but think where things might have ended up if team captain Dave Poulin – referenced multiple times by his former teammates – could weigh in. Or to hear from Brad Marsh, by all accounts the player who bonded closest with Pelle, so much so that Marsh's first-born son was named after him.

Or if Minn might have tracked down Pelle Eklund or Thomas Eriksson, the only other fellow Swedes on the club at that time. It was Eriksson who had to provide comfort and support to Lindbergh's family once they landed in the US, and accompanied Pelle's body back to Sweden for burial.

Whether due to a need to narrow the focus of the piece or just poor research, Minn chose to hone in on the man in the moment and the decisions he made that led to his demise. Telling the whole story is worth so much more than what was committed to celluloid, but I figure it would have meant a more painful, rather than poignant, cinematic experience.

Regrettably, I have to say “The Swede of Philadelphia” is a skip. I paid $15.50 so you don’t have to.

If young casuals, sons and grandsons, daughters and granddaughters don’t know the tragedy of Pelle Lindbergh, it’s time to sit them in front of YouTube and revisit history, video by video. Or buy the book. Or maybe even resurrect the ancient art of verbal storytelling face-to-face. That kind of investment is a better use of your time.