A Child's Garden of Flyers Captaincy Chicanery, continued

Courtesy of Crossing Broad

by Bob Herpen

Phanatic Hockey Editor

The second of two parts examining the troubles, issues and unavoidable nonsense surrounding the state of the Flyers' captaincy, now focusing on the 21st Century.

We left off with the untimely ascension of Eric Desjardins to the Flyers’ captaincy in the wake of the Eric Lindros situation and the former's willingness to give it up all too easily. “Rico” loved being captain so much due to the added pressure, he up and quit, in October, 2001. As many veteran beats would quote the 1993 Cup winner both on and off the record, “aye yi yi.”

No less a respectable rag such as the New York Post reported at the time there were rumblings of disenchantment with then head coach Bill Barber – who himself endured an Icarean fall from Jack Adams Award winner the previous spring to being booted off the bench less than a year later.

The grim reaper not named Stu Grimson came next for Keith Primeau, for whom it took a long time to receive the good graces of the fanbase after being acquired from Carolina in January 2000 for the beloved Rod Brind’Amour. A veteran centerpiece by his fifth year here, Primeau looked to turn a scalding-hot 2004 playoff run into longer-term success with the Flyers. Alex Perezhogin – the only way fans would ever recall his name – permanently put an end to those dreams with one ill-timed elbow in October 2005 at Montreal.

That set the stage for Derian Hatcher. Hatcher was the first American-born captain to win a Stanley Cup (with Dallas in 1999) and became the first U.S.-born skater to take the role in Philadelphia, albeit on an interim basis initially since it was unknown if Primeau’s concussion was serious enough to end his career. 

Once Primeau was officially cooked, the mantle passed to Peter Forsberg in September 2006. A first-round draft pick in 1991 who went onto fame and fortune in Quebec and Denver, Foppa came back to adoring crowds the year before and established himself as a dominant center – when he was healthy. Forsberg played exactly 100 regular-season games as a Flyer, missing 38 others until being dealt to Nashville on Feb. 15, 2007 in a transaction whose trade tree yielded four players and neatly set up the post-Forsberg era. 

The stain on his tenure was also not his fault. Five days after an embarrassing 9-1 loss at Buffalo dropped the team’s record to 1-4-1, the club’s hockey ops structure fell victim to “Black Sunday.” That morning, Oct. 22, 2006, Bob Clarke was allowed to step down as GM, Paul Holmgren was appointed successor, with head coach Ken Hitchcock being fired and replaced with the player-friendly 2005 Calder Cup champion coach John Stevens. 

That led to Jason Smith. By then skating the 15th of his 16-year-NHL career, Smitty seemed to be the anchor a young roster needed. Until his agent let it slip in the spring of 2008 that his client wanted to test free agency, which signalled the end of his one-year run once the Orange and Black were eliminated by the rival Penguins in the Eastern finals.

So now we get to Mike Richards. One of the two Golden Children who rode that ‘05 AHL title into spots on the NHL roster, along with Jeff Carter. Given the “C” after serving notice during the club’s surprise ‘08 run, he became the face of the franchise heading into just his fourth NHL campaign. 

Richie was initially as tenacious in seeking the puck on the ice as he was seeking companionship off the ice. We were all witness to The Shift.

But then we also were hostage to Dry Island. And those times on camera where he held a Thousand Yard Stare that rivaled those of World War I and Vietnam veterans. The burden, it seemed, was placed on his shoulders too early and seemed too great to bear for the kid from Kenora, Ontario.

And then, just once, on June 23, 2011, we saw Holmgren’s Viking veneer drop when a media member asked if they really could have kept Richards instead of unloading his contract to the Kings to eventually acquire goaltender and amateur cosmonaut Ilya (Humangous Beeg) Bryzgalov.

“It’s disappointing to be traded from a place like Philadelphia where hockey is so big,” Richards said in a piece published the next day authored the LA Times’ beat Helene Elliott. “Decisions have to be made … I think it was more of a business decision than a personal one. Which doesn’t make it easier but at the same time allows you to sleep a little better at night.”

Of note during this era, multiple reports (now hiding behind a paywall) stating both center Danny Briere and franchise cornerstone Simon Gagne turned down the captaincy. Somehow, their reputations remained intact even among the older, more blue-collar-leaning fans who still hold Clarke as the alpha and omega. 

Enter the mainstream media’s best friend, Chris Pronger. Prongs brought veteran savvy and a way of

From CSN Philly

controlling the postgame scrum in the locker room from his 2009 acquisition from Anaheim that served plenty of notice to any unfortunate angle-heavy writers.

“We need to get guys together and camaraderie and chemistry and that flow going early in training camp and then onto first part of the season to get acclimated to one another, get comfortable and get off to a good start and get feeling good about ourselves so that we can get on a bit of a roll,” a prophetic Pronger said in September 2011 to Comcast SportsNet.  

After gathering a good amount of karma in making it a point to consistently defend Richards as team leader during his first two seasons in Philly, Prongs’ inevitable reign lasted all of 13 games.

First sidelined by a scary incident with his eye in late October, 2011, Pronger somehow returned to action after missing only 6 games, only to be permanently felled by post-concussion effects following a loss in Winnipeg in mid November.

We all remember Sam Carchidi’s infamously bold prediction that Claude Giroux had officially announced his presence as team leader after opening Game 6 in 2012 with a thunderous check on the eclipsed Sidney Crosby immediately followed by the game’s opening score? It apparently led to the longest single captaincy tenure in franchise history, one that didn't even officially start until late January due to a lockout.

Did Giroux do anything else that would have justified his remaining team captain for almost 10 full seasons? The man is hockey’s version of the Teflon Don. Nothing sticks. 

The punters will die on the hill that the organ-eye-zation (three GMs worth) repeatedly failed to acquire the proper talent. You *can* make an argument that nobody else fit the bill. That’s actually a solid indictment of the churning brain trust who were allergic to getting this right.

Meanwhile, Crosby helped the likes of Jake Guentzel, Patric Hornqvist, Bryan Rust, Carl Hagelin and Chris Kunitz become Stanley Cup champions.

Looking at the long-term damage the Pronger situation wreaked on the leadership matrix, who could have been a credible long-term stop gap? 

Jaromir Jagr? Well, he followed the money. Briere was at the end of his career content as an alternate. I don’t even want to get into discussing Wayne Simmonds as a taboo breaker. Hartnell Down? Bruh. Kimmo Timonen? His unimpeachable professionalism netted him the captaincy for a young Nashville franchise but his personality was in reality way too taciturn to be a motivator for a legacy franchise loaded with expectation.

It isn’t a ringing endorsement but Giroux was really the choice by de-fault. And if you’re familiar with Homer Simpson, those are the two greatest words in the English language. 

Laude spent exactly 1,000 games with the Flyers and exactly 715 of those with the “C.” How much of a legacy can really exist when exactly four playoff appearances yielded exactly one playoff series win, albeit during the COVID-shortened season? Again, can’t wait to hear from the G-Stans.

Sean Couturier currently holds the job, only having been officially designated on Valentine's Day 2024. But with Rick Tocchet now in charge and the sands in Coots’ hourglass already falling, let’s quote Ecclesiastes. There is nothing new under the sun. The decision for the captaincy hinges on a coach’s ability to tread the line between maintaining old relationships and fostering new ones.

“Had a few conversations with him over the summer,” the cagey Couturier told Jackie Spiegel in an Inquirer piece from Sept. 3. “Met him at the end of last year in person for the first time. Really looking forward to getting going and trying to build a winning team here, get back into the playoffs, and be Stanley Cup contenders.”

Couturier’s usefulness as an NHL-caliber player is bound to expire before the rebuild’s success and definitely before his contract, which is up in 2030. Yet, with his eventual retirement on the horizon and the fact that no head coach since Mike Keenan has lasted four full seasons, here’s yet another impossible leadership crossroads.

History tells us Tocchet’s next “C” change will be one based on necessity and likely won’t be a lasting one. 

A Child's Garden of Chicanery with Flyers Captaincy

Courtesy of the Inquirer

By Bob Herpen

Phanatic Hockey Editor

This is the first in a two-part series examining the specifics and broader implications of the choices the Philadelphia Flyers hockey staff have made regarding the team captaincy. This section will concentrate on the quarter century from the mid 1970s through the end of the millennium.

The second part, due in a little less than two weeks, will examine the 2000s up to now. 

Hey. Remember back five or six years ago, an eternity in internet years, when hockey twitter would regularly explode when the Flyers would go into the tank and a certain segment of fans would vehemently insist the Flyers strip the “C” from Claude Giroux?

Remember how Giroux stans would clap back and mock anyone who made the suggestion by Wheel-of-Fortuning his name every successive mention? Of course you do, because whoever you are out here reading this was probably someone who did it. 

_laude Giroux.

New Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet faces a question of leadership, with current captain Sean Couturier not expected to last through his current contract extension, a roster overhaul and perhaps no more than 3 years at the helm. Although team lore places the captaincy somewhere in the pantheon of the hockey gods, history says the impact of the mantle ranges from something like the Kiss of Death to the Quickest Way out of Town. 

The way I see it, all this nonsense began with the sainted Bobby Clarke. Given the “C” in 1973 after defenseman Ed Van Impe willingly handed it over, Clarkie held onto the captaincy and brought a level of mischief, chaos, dignity, success and class by which all others are still held. He won two Stanley Cups, two Hart Trophies along with the envy and respect of players and coaches alike around the National Hockey League.

Clarke was regarded well enough as he headed into his 11th NHL season, that then-head coach Pat Quinn tapped him to take on additional duties as an assistant coach. Problem was – and pretty much everyone BUT Clarke and Quinn saw it that way – a massive conflict-of-interest between his on-ice duties which required him to stick up for his teammates and the more objective behind-the-scenes role for Quinn. 

“Obviously this could backfire and destroy what it’s taken me 10 years to build,” Clarke was quoted by Jay Greenberg in Full Spectrum. “If a guy is going to be resentful of me or my position, then he’s looking for an excuse.”

Solving the problem was as easy as stripping the franchise’s all-time most notable player of the captaincy he so richly deserved. Also according to Greenberg’s book, Mel Bridgman was named captain the day of the Flyers’ 5-2 season-opening home win over the Islanders. Two games later, the club embarked on a pro sports record 35-game unbeaten streak.

Bridgman lasted only parts of three seasons at the helm. After the Year of the Streak, a contract dispute dragged on and pulled down his point production in 1980-81. The following season, he broke out with the best offensive start of his career, only to be swapped – still wearing the “C” –  for another team captain, Calgary’s Brad Marsh. Upon that November 1981 trade the closest living thing to Clarke, Bill Barber, was given the letter.

Clarke eventually got it back for no good reason other than Quinn’s successor, Bob McCammon, decided to take it away from Barber midway through the 1982-83 season with an offhanded comment: “Billy didn’t do anything wrong. I just think there are only a chosen few who can lead.”

Barber had been plagued by several injuries during that legendary Cooperall season, including a knee issue which sidelined him for a month and a broken jaw which he gamely played through.

Let's not forget Clarke's final game with the "C," a dismal 5-1 home playoff loss to the Capitals, who completed a 3-game series sweep. Memorable for McCammon essentially throwing in the towel early on by sending several lines to goon it up.

Let’s all have a moment of silence for the captain who never was, Hockey Hall of Famer Darryl Sittler. 

With Clarke retired and kicked upstairs in the general manager’s position in the spring of 1984, Paul

Holmgren traded and Barber mired in a fruitless attempt to salvage his playing career after a knee injury and surgical repair, new head coach Mike Keenan had a virtually clean veteran slate. 

Keenan was primed to officially name Sittler captain at a team dinner on Oct. 10, 1984, one day before the season opener at the Spectrum vs. Washington. Except, Clarke went into full on evil executive mode and swapped Sittler while the event was underway, to Detroit for Murray Craven and Joe Paterson.

Sittler was livid enough to consider retiring on the spot. And bitter at Clarke for the move for quite some time. 

“Here I was helping to plan the retirement dinner the Flyers were having for Clarke, and his had just traded me on the day I thought I was being named captain,” Sittler groused at the time in Full Spectrum. “When Clarke was asked (at the press conference) whether it was true I had been about to be named captain, he said ‘Mike Keenan makes that decision.’ Clarke said it like he wasn’t in on it at all.”

Next on the list was 25-year-old, second-year forward Dave Poulin. Poulin, a rarity for the time as a graduate of Notre Dame who began his pro career in Sweden, impressed Clarke enough in the former’s rookie year to get the nod. Poulin presided over some picture-perfect memories (like lifting the Prince of Wales trophy to show a sellout Spectrum crowd in May 1985 after beating Quebec, creating a wall calendar cover page) over that five-plus-year tenure as team leader. 

Unfortunately, his sixth year was fraught with injury and an overall decline in team play due to injuries and inconsistency. Now the club’s second-year head coach, Holmgren stripped the “C” from Poulin just before Christmas. A month later, he was dealt to the Boston Bruins for retread Ken Linseman. Poulin played another five seasons. 

Ron Sutter got the nod thereafter, holding court over a painful transitional period in Flyers history where they lacked depth, energy and heart and were just not good enough to hold out against improving division rivals to claim a playoff berth when 16 of 21 teams made it. While still team captain in the fall of 1991, Russ Farwell pulled a fast one, dealing him to St. Louis along with Murray Baron for Rod Brind’Amour and Dan Quinn.

Somewhat of an obvious choice from there was Rick Tocchet, entering his 8th NHL campaign having worked himself into a dangerous man with his hands, fists and body. Tocchet, the last player in league history to record a season of 30-or-more goals and 300-or-more penalty minutes, promptly hit the skids. A bad slide in November cost Holmgren his job, and spotty injuries throughout the year cost Tocchet production and stunted his leadership. 

In a mid-February massive roster shakeup, just four games after returning from a 4-week absence due to a stress fracture in his left heel, Tocchet was shipped off to division-rival Pittsburgh. Just over a month later, in the clubs’ first meeting since the deal, a salty Tocchet was quoted as saying – through a freshly broken jaw per Greenberg – that he hoped the Pens would beat the Flyers by 10 goals. He went on to win a Cup that June with the revamped Penguins.

There would be no team captain from that point through the entire 1992-93 season, Eric Lindros’ first with the Flyers. 

Up next on the chopping block was Kevin Dineen, who proved himself worthy enough as a durable forward that one-and-done bench boss Terry Simpson dubbed him just prior to his 10th NHL season. A potential conflict of interest the year before, with dad Bill Dineen as head coach was avoided.

But it didn’t save the younger Dineen from a tough year, which began in the preseason on a sour note when linesman Gordie Broseker grabbed him and dislocated (or separated) his shoulder. In the end, his durability (83 games to 71), goal scoring (35 to 19) and point totals (63 to 42) all declined. The Orange and Black finished lower in the Atlantic Division than the expansion Florida Panthers.

Dineen's contributions continued to be whittled away to the point he was given back, as a gift, to the Hartford Whalers in December of 1995 for a career swan song. He went on to play another seven seasons before packing it in.

As for Lindros, well, despite it happening 25 years ago and both sides having long since reconciled, it should really be common knowledge even among younger fans or casuals how things ended here. In short: a career whose astronomical upside was represented by a Hart Trophy win in 1995 and a lifting of the Prince of Wales Trophy on home ice two years later, was constantly interrupted by injury, cratered by interference by his agent-father and later threatened by repeated concussions. 

Lindros suffered three alone during the 1999-2000 season. The tip of the iceberg was his public criticism of the team’s handling of the final one – reportedly after which he played four more games – that kept him out of action from mid March through late May. Less than a week after the dirty laundry was aired, the move to strip was made in a very public depiction of the “C” being sewn onto the jersey of long-time defenseman Eric Desjardins prior to an ESPN national game broadcast.

Clarke, at it again, quoted in the linked UPI story: "We are trying to be the best team we can be for the playoffs. Desjardins is a leader and a top-quality person. He's having a Norris Trophy year. Everybody in our organization knows how good he is, how important he is to a team and what a good person he is. He has great hockey intelligence and instincts. He's very competitive." Lindros returned for the final two games of the Eastern Conference Finals against the New Jersey Devils, which the club lost despite holding a once iron-clad 3 games to 1 edge. He didn’t make it through Game 7 due to the (infamous) Scott Stevens hit in the first period. Stay tuned for Part 2.