Stanley Cup teams to be prominently featured at this year's Carnival

Say what you want about the Philadelphia Flyers constant glorification of their past, and the two Stanley Cup winning teams in particular whose shadow grows longer year after year, but this year's Flyers Wives Fight for Lives Carnival looks like it is set to celebrate a special anniversary with something special.

From Mary Ann Saleski, wife of former Flyer Don Saleski and the senior ranking member on the Carnival committee (italics mine for emphasis):

"One of the new things is we’re giving our Flyers Wives Carnival Spirit of Giving Award to the Stanley Cup team, because it’s the 40^th anniversary. You guys started it by saying you were honoring them at the Sports Writer Dinner, so we thought they’re going to be here so we might as well do something. We’re honoring them with this award which means we have the entire team [1974 and 1975] at the Carnival which should help Alumni Alley be more fun. The Mezzanine Level, which is usually Alumni Alley, will be full of a lot more players. That should be fun."

If that does come to fruition, the only players who would not at the very least be able to show up are the three who have passed on since that time: "Cowboy" Bill Flett, Wayne Stephenson and Barry Ashbee. 

May 19, 2014 will mark 40 years since the franchise announced its arrival at the top of the National Hockey League, when Fred Shero's team upset the heavily-favored Boston Bruins for the title. 

This year's Carnival, due to the interruption of the Olympic Break, will take place on Sunday, January 26 at Wells Fargo Center.

Saleski made sure to add that the funds collected through the event are no longer just kept for leukemia research, as was its original intent: 

"Since the beginning [the Wives Carnival] has raised over 25 million. The Carnival is our biggest fundraiser, but it’s one of many that the Flyers wives are involved with throughout the year. It used to be for one charity, but over the years we’ve realized that we’ve raised so much money we can benefit more people in the community by giving to multiple charities. That’s what we do. It’s a good thing, but it’s hard because sometimes people are used to an event where at the end of the event you say “X was raised for such and such.” We have so many events that we do, so we put that money into the foundation and we give that money to about 150 charities throughout the year."