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:
“(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.
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.
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