Spectrum Memories: Goodbye is Forever

by Bob Herpen

Phanatic Hockey Editor

First things first. 

The last meaningful game the Philadelphia Flyers ever played in the Spectrum happened on May 12, 1996. It was Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Florida Panthers, who ended up claiming a 2-1 victory in double overtime to take a 3-2 series edge.

After that, the *absolute* last game the Philadelphia Flyers played in their original arena was an exhibition contest against the Phantoms, their American Hockey League affiliate, on Oct. 7, 2008.

On April 11, 1996, with an uncertain number of potential playoff dates on the horizon, the franchise paid respect to its rich history in the building with a farewell pageant following a 3-2 regulation defeat of the Montreal Canadiens. Terry Murray’s club finished their season home slate with a 27-9-5 record, the 11th time in club history they won as many games as the host. 

The others were:

36 - 1975-76 (still a franchise record)

33 - 1985-86

32 - 1974-75; 1984-85

29 - 1977-78; 1982-83; 1986-87

28 - 1973-74

27 - 1972-73; 1979-80

The centerpiece of the remembrance was the pairing of Flyers past and present for one final turn around the rink. I wonder who was the ad wizard who came up with the dramatic idea for these fan favorites to make their skate in almost complete darkness save for a spotlight that followed each set as they moved from center ice at one end of the boards to the opposite side. 

Exactly one month earlier, the Habs made headlines throughout the hockey world with an elegant and emotional ceremony to close down the Fabulous Forum. Hart, in remarks later in the video below, relayed the sentiment from a rival with a birds-eye view of the NHL’s expansion:

Read about the Flyers' stretch run fueled by the acquisition of future Hall-of-Famer Dale Hawerchuk.

“(Former head coach and retired broadcaster) Dick Irvin of Montreal said to me that’s one thing the Flyers have had that so many teams have failed to have, and that is tradition. Now that tradition does not end tonight. Just one chapter ends and soon another begins with the playoffs and the new building.”

Tradition being a relative term. The Canadiens pre-date the establishment of the NHL. Their arena was built five years before the Great Depression. Their 24 Stanley Cups are still the gold standard by which all other sports franchises, save the New York Yankees, will forever be measured. They had an actual torch present, carried from the locker room onto the ice and passed down from captain to captain from surviving team leaders to then-current captain Pierre Turgeon. 

Bobby Clarke as the favored son and then president and GM drew polite and sustained applause. Maurice Richard, who hadn’t played a game since 1960, received a 7-minute standing ovation that nearly ground the proceedings to a halt.

“Montreal, of course, is the greatest organization in hockey,” then-Flyers emeritus presence Keith Allen was quoted by Rich Hofmann in the next day’s Daily News. “Their tradition has been in place for a long time. But in our relative youth, we’ve tried to emulate what they’ve done. Most of it, though, is that I think Eddie (Snider) always wanted a close-knit organization, a family atmosphere.”

Both teams have one thing in common since their moves into the CoreStates/First Union/Wachovia/Wells Fargo Center/Xfinity Mobile Arena and the Bell Centre respectively – neither has won a thing since. Only the Flyers have appeared in a Stanley Cup Final series on their new home ice, as the Habs did so in the 2021 COVID bubble.

“The Flyers immerse themselves in sentimentality on a regular basis,” Hofmann wrote in the same column. “Cynics have a hard time with it sometimes. The problem is, even cynics would have to recognize that it’s real. Flyers owner Ed Snider puts it as well as anybody ‘This is what we believe. This is us.’”

Flyers captain Eric Lindros, attempting to defend his Hart Trophy as the league’s best player, marveled at the level of good feelings the ceremony fostered.

“It’s like there’s no hard feelings around here. In some organizations, you hear how guys are upset, how they leave with bad feelings,” he was quoted in Hofmann’s column. “Here, they bring back so many different teams. It shows that once you’re a Flyer, you’re always part of the family.”

In the present, the victory in Game 81 gave the club its first ever clean sweep (4-0-0) against the most decorated franchise and extended their run of luck against the Habs to 7 straight wins since the infamous deal on March 9, 1995 which netted John LeClair, Eric Desjardins and Gilbert Dionne for Mark Recchi.

Find out how the Flyers started the 1995-96 season with a rout against these same Canadiens in the Montreal Forum.

It also clinched the Atlantic Division crown for the second consecutive season and provided the Flyers their 12th first-place finish in team history, while pulling them within 1 point of the Northeast Division-winning Pittsburgh Penguins with one game remaining for both clubs competing for the top seed in the conference. 

Not everything was well in the kingdom.

Ex-Canadien defenseman Kevin Haller, who showed flashes of scoring when asked to join the play in the previous year’s playoffs, had just 2 points over his previous 13 starts. November acquisition Pat Falloon, nabbed from San Jose to solve the scoring problems on the second line, only hit the net once in his previous 12 games. 

Lindros, who missed the previous two games, lamented his lack of scoring touch after wasting a pair of prime chances among his 5 shots on goal, saying “my hands were horrible, but everything felt strong.” 

Mikael Renberg, who played sparingly since Jan. 22 with a nagging stomach muscle injury, was far less than fully recovered and shunted onto the third line with Joel Otto and Shjon Podein. Head coach Terry Murray acknowledged the rush job, hinting that the third piece to complete the puzzle of the Legion of Doom might not join up any time soon. 

“I think he’s going to be a little off the game the rest of the way. Maybe 90 percent,’ Murray told then-Daily News hockey beat Les Bowen. “And that’s going to be OK if I can keep him in a situation where he’s not going to feel the responsibility to have to go out and score on a regular basis. He’s such an intense guy. The frustration level can set in with him very quickly.” 

Facing the inevitable spectre of facing a defensive-minded Florida or high-octane Pittsburgh in the playoffs, there was reason to be concerned despite the Flyers eventually finishing tied for second with the Bruins (282) to the Penguins (362) in total goals among Eastern Conference clubs. 

On Bump, Martone and the tyranny of trajectories

Courtesy of SportsTalkPhilly

by Bob Herpen

Phanatic Hockey Editor

So, fifth-round draft pick Alex Bump and first-round selection Porter Martone are receiving their baptisms of fire as the Philadelphia Flyers are fighting for the final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference.

With 5 games remaining in a tense stretch run, one collegiate prospect looks like a thoroughbred and the other a Clydesdale. Guess which is which.

Bump was taken five rounds deep in 2022 and proceeded to have three unspectacular seasons in American juniors before two surprising years (37 goals, 83 points over 80 games) at Western Michigan that included an NCHC tournament best player honor ahead of a national title. 

Martone was drafted No. 6 overall last June after two dominant campaigns in Canadian juniors, then proceeded to have a stellar season at Michigan State (25 goals, 50 points in 35 games) although Sparty bowed out early in the NCAA playoffs for a second straight season.

At 22 years old, with 45 games of total professional experience, Bump has established himself as both a shot taker and a shot maker. With 4 goals (on 20 shots, 20% shooting) and 4 assists in 14 starts, including a marker in his very first National Hockey League appearance, the dark horse has proven he can run.

That doesn’t mean he hasn’t had hiccups – head coach Rick Tocchet picking him as a healthy scratch for last Tuesday’s regulation home loss to the Red Wings after back-to-back shotless performances in two key Flyers victories was an obvious choice – but he responded on Saturday with an early goal.

And since his successful debut on March 7 at Pittsburgh, Bump has outscored the following name brands usually slotted in the top 6: Christian Dvorak (3), Trevor Zegras (2); Matvei Michkov (1). Only Owen Tippett (9) has more.

“Going down there and playing down there, I really saw a different player,” Tocchet said after Bump’s NHL debut in Pittsburgh on March 7. “It’s good that he (was) taking the information down there (in Allentown) and coming up here. Hell of a shot. Holding onto pucks, not scared of shooting pucks, that’s what we need.”

Martone, thrown into the thick of things at age 19 with 4 games at the NHL level, hadn’t done much except garner the laser focus of barely-functional referees and linesmen until his first NHL goal doubled as a hero overtime moment to beat the Bruins, 2-1, more than 24 hours ago. Just as he praised Bump’s slow-cook mantra to make the Show, Tocchet kept citing preparedness as a key factor for Martone.

“You can just tell he’s a hockey player. He loves the game. He’s a very engaged kid,” Tocchet said. “He’s not afraid to say something, on the bench talking about the power play to some guys (and said) ‘hey, I’ll be here, you be here,’ I like that – a young kid doing that?”

Just so we’re clear, you win games by scoring goals, not by running up shot totals, individually or collectively. The only way to ensure you score is to shoot the puck past the goaltender, not by throwing as many shots on net and hoping that the volume *eventually* wears down the guy with all the pads. That’s true inside and outside the high-danger areas.

More than that, it was the way Bump scores. On Long Island Friday night, he gathered the puck along the left-wing boards near the circle and fired high when no clear opening was visible on Islanders netminder Ilya Sorokin. However, Sorokin, not thinking a shot would come from that direction and angle, failed to seal off anything high and the Flyers’ second goal in an eventual 4-1 victory beat him under the crossbar and to the short side. 

Martone set an NHL record for rookies with 14 shots on goal in his first two NHL appearances. He’s up to 20 over four games. With one goal. That’s a 5% effort folks.

Even considering the brilliant timing of his first red light, Martone needs to strike more often to contribute anything meaningful as a high first-round one-and-done. Of his registered SOGs, all but one (a nifty glove save in a 1-on-1 situation by Detroit goalie John Gibson in Thursday’s loss) were of the “shoot at the net and see what happens” variety, where the goaltender didn’t have to move in any direction on the x or y axes, guess or cover open territory. 

Multiple times at Michigan State, Martone proved he can score from distance and he needs to embrace those chances instead of being satisfied as the down-low presence. And with Tocchet’s offensive plan focusing on less shot generation and more quality shots in prime scoring areas, there’s enough opportunity.

Here’s the thing: I recognize both players are asked to run the same course, but with staggered starting points. Bump was given more track to start and worked his way through, while Martone was slotted closer to the finish line and just needs to sprint to the tape. Both players, blessed with similar skill sets we *hope* the organization can’t foul up, are being asked to do the same thing – score goals.

From MSN.com

Unfortunately, Martone who was expected to do so right away, took 4 games to do it. Bump did it in his first. 

After all the huffing and puffing of the last 6 weeks, the Flyers still need to vault over three teams – Ottawa, Detroit and Columbus and stay there – regardless of exterior outcomes to ensure a playoff berth and every player needs to do what he was put on the club to do.

Bump, the fifth rounder, is holding up his end of the bargain. Martone, the first-round flash, finally has something to build on but needs immediate and repeat performances.

We’ve also been assured by one legacy media outlet that everything he did in East Lansing this year led up to this moment.

“An overtime winner as a first NHL goal, it’s pretty special,” Martone said when asked if it was a weight off his shoulders to finally produce after the work he put in so far. “Just to continue to keep playing my game, that’s who I am. I’m gonna get a lot of chances. For me, every shift (I need to) come back to the bench and reset.”

The instant glazing of Martone was such that shortages might be reported at several Krispy Kremes and Dunkin Donuts in the Delaware Valley upon start of business this morning. Worse, the MSU admin thought it was being clever but created a wicked self-own on Sunday evening, touting Martone as “built for big moments.” 

Take off the orange-tinted glasses and come down from the Easter candy sugar rush for a second. If Martone *really* was made for big moments, the Spartans (armed with two other Hobey Baker Award finalists in forward Charlie Stramel and goaltender Trey Augustine – also a finalist for the Mike Richter Award) wouldn’t have been eliminated in the NCAA regionals last week. Instead, Sparty would be set for Las Vegas next weekend and Martone would be pressing for a championship. 

As I close out this column, I’m reminded of some wise words from a fictional mastermind. Never get involved in a land war in Asia. Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line. Never let a good social post get in the way of reality. Never question the irrational optimism of Flyers opinion leaders.

Don't look too hard: Foundation of Flyers' playoff dreams sunk in the bleak midwinter

by Bob Herpen

Phanatic Hockey Editor

It has been exactly 31 days since the Philadelphia Flyers began their post-Olympic schedule, trying desperately to make up enough ground to snap a five-year postseason drought.

The latest cliffhanger in the season-long soap opera was an easy 5-1 result against the Chicago Blackhawks roughly 40 hours ago. Thanks to multi-point efforts by Noah Cates, Alex Bump and Owen Tippett along with 25 saves from Sam Ersson, that one little victory was the 10th for the club since the resumption of play, with a balance of 5 wins each coming against division/conference opponents and out-of-conference foes.

Heading into the first of three leftover games against the Red Wings tonight in Detroit, the math still isn’t quite mathing for extended play in April despite Rick Tocchet leading his charges to a 10-4-1 mark – the single best 15-game stretch at any point this season - only eclipsed by a 10-4-2 run between Nov. 4 to Dec. 9.

Yes, the Flyers currently sit 5 points behind the New York Islanders, who currently occupy the final playoff berth in the East. Yes, they have two games in hand vs. the Isles and one in hand over Ottawa. But before they look toward Long Island, they have to overtake both the Wings and Sens while simultaneously hoping for a collapse by all three rivals and maintaining their torrid run.

To quote the late, great Judy Tenuta, it could happen. Could might be good enough at the start of a baseball season. It's nothing to hang a hat on at the end of a hockey season.

Just for the sake of clarification, the Flyers have not been, and are not now, in a playoff race. They're in a playoff chase. 

The logic is simple: "race" implies the club began this stretch among the top eight teams in the East and would play their remaining slate to either maintain their position or improve it; "chase" implies a standing outside the top eight and subsequent efforts are focused on producing as many points as possible to gain ground on other teams and crack the top eight qualifiers.

That's where they are now. 

Heading into action on Feb. 25 in Washington, the Orange and Black were 25-20-11 for 61 points, good enough for 13th in the conference and 8 points out of eighth spot. Fifty-one days earlier, after a 5-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks on home ice, they were 22-12-7 (51 pts.), comfortably nestled in sixth place overall. 

Over those 7-plus weeks, the home squad stumbled to a dismal 3-9-4 record, with their performance in many of those games more dismal than final scores would indicate, regardless of the impact of injuries, matchups and the vagaries of a mid-season schedule. All of those losses, save an OT setback to the Kings, were in conference. Worse, their home record in this downturn was an unacceptable 1-4-3. If their winning stint before the Anaheim game were maintained, the race was on.

Despite this recent sudden upswing, their losses are the wrong kind: twice to the Blue Jackets including one in regulation, alongside a bad regulation home setback to the Rangers and a non-conference home zonking to Utah.

One week after Old Time Hockey returned to South Philly, the BJ’s pulled the rip cord on head coach Dean Evason and installed eternal coaching veteran Rick "just-a-phone-call-away" Bowness. Since then, Columbus’ cannonaders have put together a mind-boggling 19-4-4 mark, playing to a 9-3-4 record since the Olympics. 

In that same interval, among the clubs above the Flyers on the playoff depth chart: Pittsburgh has racked up a 7-5-4 mark, the Islanders have gone 9-6-0, Detroit has kept its head above water despite going 6-6-2, while Ottawa is still nipping at everyone’s heels on the wings of a 10-2-3 surge.

After Tuesday’s largely listless 3-2 regulation setback to Bowness’ boys, Flyers bleep-disturber extraordinaire Travis Konecny caught seven kinds of Hell from hockey twitter by making public a very understandable but honest sentiment in a pool interview:

"I mean, it's not like we were gonna win out the rest of the year. We lost one game against an opponent that was above us. It's frustrating. But it is what it is, and you just regroup," he said, apparently while still fully clothed at his locker.

Snippets like this are a great Rohrschach test for the perpetually suffering – either Konecny recognizes the mental requirement of athletes in pressure situations to push a losing game out of one’s mind and concentrate on the next one, or he’s a bum who has a quitter’s mentality, a loser’s mindset and that’s why this team will never win anything ever. What did the Flyers do to improve their standing in this playoff chase? Addition by subtraction. Nonetheless, even a month-long climb due to improved 5-on-5 play and consistent goaltending didn’t fix the long-term drags: purposeful lack of shot generation, not enough shots, not enough goals (despite the win, Thursday’s outburst was their most regulation scores since a 7-spot in Denver on Jan. 23) and a continually dismal power play which sits at 4-for-46 in 15 games after another oh-fer. Among their 11 remaining contests, “Three games vs. Detroit” now has such an ominous ring. Losses in all three can put any postseason talk permanently on ice. Points in any will draw the club tantalizingly closer but still out of reach. Frankly, so does “one game remaining against the Islanders, Capitals, Hurricanes, Devils, Bruins and Canadiens.”

The Flyers have seen their momentum swung back and forth for most of the schedule, a fact Tocchet finally pointed out publicly after Thursday's easy win. “Well, we lost the last game and (tonight) we responded, he said. “You can’t roll the rollercoaster, we’re trying to be even keeled. Great win, we should feel good about each other but tomorrow’s a different day.

“We gotta lock it in. It’s maturity,” Tocchet continued. “Hopefully we can string another two, three four … I haven’t seen the scoreboard so hopefully we got some help.”

Let’s recap: you’re not OK with Konecny observing this fact in a loss, but OK when the head coach brings it up after a win. Got it. This kind of lingering fan angst would make even Michael Corleone have a nervous breakdown after being pulled back in three too many times.

That midseason slump pretty much indicates the Flyers absolutely must maintain this current spree down the stretch, at minimum winning 8 more games regulation or beyond, without any other teams “helping,” or they have no shot to be close. They will lose games they should win, win games they should lose, but the ratio for this planned unpredictability should be roughly 1-to-4.

Perhaps the only game the club can afford to lose is their penultimate out-of-conference matchup at home against Dallas tomorrow night, since they’re good. Winnipeg (Apr. 11) conversely, is not and two points are a must. At a minimum, their home record needs to be dramatically improved: only 3-3-1 so far. The only acceptable regulation home defeat from here on out among the five left might be to the Stars.

“My big thing is, did we learn last month: how do you play tired, how do you stay focused, how do you keep leads, things like that where we haven’t been as great these last 5-6 weeks but we’re gonna get a dose of it now,” Tocchet said prior to that stretch-drive-opening 3-1 loss at Washington on Feb. 25.

It appears, yes, they did learn their lessons. You can argue with some of the processes outlines above but the results being overall positive at a time when it's required is encouraging. The first step is competing when the game's out of reach, but the next step is turning up the heat, figuratively speaking, when the game's 1-1 early on and not when it's 6-2 and there's a sudden burst of energy.

Problem is, when not-ready-for-primetime players first encountered that dose of prime time, the grind from learning and failing is the very thing which prevented the goal from being reached.