BY GARY MELO
sportsnet.ca
With the Philadelphia Flyers and Chicago Blackhawks going head-to-head in this year’s Stanley Cup final, we take a look back at the near-misses for both teams since they last hoisted the Cup. Here are Philly’s close encounters with the Cup …
Total Stanley Cup victories: Two (1973-74, 1974-75)
Final appearances since last Stanley Cup win: Five
1975-76 season
Fresh off back-to-back Stanley Cup wins, the ‘Broad Street Bullies’ looked like a team threatening to three-peat, finishing the regular season with a franchise record 118 points, second in the league behind the Montreal Canadiens who topped the NHL with 58 wins and 127 points.
The first round of the playoffs presented a tough test for the Flyers, who edged past the Toronto Maple Leafs in seven games. Trailing 2-1 after one period of the deciding game, the Flyers exploded in the second, out-shooting the Leafs 20-4 and scoring five goals en route to a 7-3 victory.
Perhaps feeling the Game 7 hangover from the previous round, Philly dropped the opening game of the semifinal to the Don Cherry-coached Boston Bruins. An overtime victory in Game 2 proved to be the turning point for the Flyers, who won four straight games, highlighted by Reggie (The Riverton Rifle) Leach’s five-goal performance in Game 5 to send the Flyers back to the final.
But that was where Philly’s dream of a three-peat came to an end. The Canadiens confirmed their regular season was no fluke with a four-game sweep of the two-time defending champions. Montreal winger Guy Lafleur scored the first two Stanley Cup final goals of his career, both game winners in the series, including the Cup-clincher in Game 4. Leach, who led the Flyers in playoff scoring with 19 goals, was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy despite losing in a four-game sweep.
1979-80 season
The Flyers began the season under new leadership, both on and off the ice, with Bobby Clarke’s captaincy given to Mel Bridgman and head coach Pat Quinn in his first full season behind the bench. The new direction seemed to rejuvenate the Flyers, who strung together a 35-game unbeaten streak (25-0-10) and finished first overall during the regular season.
The Flyers looked just as unbeatable in the playoffs as they did during their record run, opening the post-season with a three-game sweep of an Edmonton Oilers team featuring a young Wayne Gretzky.
Philly then went on to win the first three games in the second round against the New York Rangers, led by former Flyers coach Fred Shero. The Rangers managed to avoid a sweep with a Game 4 win, but Philadelphia closed out the series with a 3-1 victory on home ice.
Standing in the way of the Flyers and a return trip to the Stanley Cup final was the Minnesota North Stars, fresh off a seven-game upset of the four-time champion Montreal Canadiens. It looked like the North Stars could continue the giant-killer trend following a 6-5 opening win over the Flyers, but it was all Philly after that. A 7-0 victory in Game 2, one that saw seven different players score for the Flyers, was too much for the North Stars to recover from and four straight wins sent the Flyers into the final having lost only two games in the previous three rounds and ready to face the New York Islanders.
It was the first Stanley Cup final appearance for the Islanders, but any nervous jitters were cured early on when Denis Potvin scored a power-play goal in overtime with Philadelphia’s Jim Watson in the box for holding, giving New York a 1-0 series lead. The Flyers stormed back in the second game with a Paul Holmgren hat-trick leading the offensive charge in an 8-3 win. After dropping the next two games on the road, Philly returned home to stave off elimination and give them another shot to win in New York, but the Islanders finished the series just as they began, with an overtime victory, this time off a Bob Nystrom winner. However, the first Stanley Cup victory in Islanders franchise history was marred by controversy, as Duane Sutter’s first-period goal came off a missed off-side call by the officials. Linesman Leon Stickle later admitted to the blown call.
1984-85 season
The Flyers returned to the top of the NHL under rookie head coach Mike Keenan and first-year captain Dave Poulin. Rolling through the regular season behind a pair of 40-goal scorers — Tim Kerr (54) and Brian Propp (43) — and Vezina Trophy winner Pelle Lindbergh, the Flyers stormed through the first round of the playoffs with a three-game sweep of the New York Rangers.
Up next for the Flyers was the New York Islanders, one year removed from winning their fourth straight Stanley Cup. However, a grueling five-game series against the Washington Capitals in the opening round obviously took its toll on the Islanders. They were shutout twice by Lindbergh in a 4-1 series loss to the Flyers, ending their run of five straight trips to the final.
With home-ice advantage being determined by division play, the Wales Conference final began in Quebec City despite the Nordiques having fewer points than the Flyers. After the two teams split the first four games of the series, the Flyers went into the final period of the pivotal Game 5 trailing 1-0. An early power-play goal from winger Joe Patterson evened the score before Murray Craven buried the game-winner with less than five minutes to play. The Flyers rode that momentum into Game 6, more than doubling the Nordiques in shots on goal (36-15) for a 3-0 victory. It was Lindbergh’s third shutout of the playoffs as Philly eliminated Quebec to return to the Stanley Cup final.
 Wayne Gretzky of the Oilers. |
The Flyers faced off against the defending champion Edmonton Oilers without leading scorer Kerr and defenceman Brad McCrimmon, who were both injured in the series against the Nordiques. Philly managed to get off to a good start, however, keeping Edmonton’s high-octane offence in check in Game 1 with a 4-1 victory. But it was just a matter of time before Wayne Gretzky — who reached the 200-point mark for the third time in four years — got Edmonton’s offence going.
After scoring the game-winner in Game 2 to even the series, Gretzky came out firing in the third game with two goals in the opening 85 seconds. He completed his hat trick by the end of the first period and, although Edmonton managed only six shots over the final two periods, the Oilers held on for a 4-3 victory.
While the Flyers stormed out to an early 3-1 lead in Game 4, Edmonton battled back with four unanswered goals — including two from Gretzky — to move within one win from a second consecutive Cup victory. With back-up goaltender Bob Froese taking over between the pipes, the Flyers showed little fight in Game 5, suffering an 8-3 loss in the deciding game. Gretzky’s four points in the series clincher cemented his status as playoff MVP, winning his first of two Conn Smythe trophies.
1986-87 season
The Flyers entered the season with an unproven name in net, rookie goaltender Ron Hextall. Not only did Hextall’s feisty behaviour endear himself to the Philly faithful, but his stellar play in goal earned him the Vezina Trophy and a second-place finish to Luc Robitaille for the Calder Trophy.
Hextall continued to stand on his head in the post-season, helping the Flyers get revenge on the New York Rangers for eliminating them in the first round of the playoffs the previous year. With the opening round of the playoffs being expanded to a best-of-seven for the first time, the Flyers ousted the Rangers in six games.
In the next round, the Flyers were pushed to seven games by the New York Islanders. Coming off the “Easter Epic” — a four-overtime Game 7 win over the Washington Capitals in the first round — the Islanders fell into a 3-1 series hole against the Flyers. They managed to battle back and even the series at three, but ran out of gas by the time the deciding game rolled around, bowing out with a 5-1 loss to the Flyers.
The Wales Conference final pitted Hextall and the Flyers against the defending Stanley Cup champion Montreal Canadiens. The Habs, who rode a rookie goaltender in Patrick Roy to the Cup the previous year, had Brian Hayward in net for most of the series but he was outplayed by his Flyers counterpart. The Flyers once again stormed out to a 3-1 lead in the series and were able to close out the Canadiens in six.
 Flyers goalie Ron Hextall. |
Philadelphia went on to face the Edmonton Oilers in the final for the second time in three years, a rematch of the 1985 Stanley Cup. The gritty, defensive Flyers played a very different style than the Oilers who relied heavily on their potent offence. Both teams also took very different routes to the final. Decimated by injuries, Philly was facing an Oilers team that lost only two games in the first three rounds. It appeared as though the Oilers were going to make quick work of the Flyers again, winning the first two games at home before earning a split in Philadelphia. The Flyers then fell into an early 2-0 hole in Game 5, but were able to rally back to tie the game, matching Edmonton shot-for-shot before a Rick Tocchet goal in the third period secured a 4-3 victory.
Game 6 started very much the same, with the Oilers taking another 2-0 lead in the first period. Philly managed to cut the lead in half in the second period before a high-sticking call on Glenn Anderson in the final frame set up a power-play goal for Brian Propp. Flyers defenceman J.J. Daigneault fired in his first goal of the playoffs less than a minute-and-a-half later to give Philly the 3-2 win and force a Game 7.
For the first time in the series, the Flyers scored the opening goal of the game when Murray Craven buried a power-play chance 1:41 into the first. It would prove to be their only goal, however, as Edmonton went on to score three unanswered in a 3-1 win. Hextall, who made 40 saves in the final game, won the Conn Smythe Trophy to become only the second Flyer to win the award in a losing cause. Hextall being Hextall, he was also awarded an eight-game suspension for the start of the next season for his slash on Edmonton’s Kent Nilsson in the final.
1996-97 season
Celebrating their 30th season in the NHL, the Flyers finished just one point back of the Atlantic Division champion New Jersey Devils. Missing Eric Lindros for a chunk of the season, the Flyers were led by 50-goal man John LeClair.
Philly’s goaltending tandem of Ron Hextall and Garth Snow split duties throughout the regular season, but Snow carried the bulk of the workload through the first two rounds of the playoffs. The Flyers dominated Mario Lemieux and the Pittsburgh Penguins to open the post-season, winning the series in five games. The loss ended the Magnificent One’s first stint in the NHL, as a retiring Lemieux skated around the ice to a standing ovation from the Philadelphia crowd following Game 5.
For the second straight series, Philly got out to a three-games-to-none lead when they met the Buffalo Sabres in the next round. The Flyers couldn’t complete the sweep, however, as Snow allowed five goals on 25 shots in an overtime loss. The Flyers turned to Hextall in Game 5 and, after a scoreless first period, the two teams combined for a seven-goal second period. Philly added a pair of goals in the final frame to secure a 6-3 win and earn an Eastern Conference final date with Wayne Gretzky and the New York Rangers.
Gretzky, in his first year with the Blueshirts, was not the same player who torched the Flyers in playoffs past. However, a Game 2 hat trick from the Great One gave New York its only win against the Flyers, whose size and toughness proved to be too much for the veteran Rangers. Philly closed out yet another series in five games, returning to the Cup final for the first time in 10 years.
Representing the Western Conference was the Detroit Red Wings, looking for their first Stanley Cup win since 1955. It was the first playoff meeting between the two franchises and it didn’t last very long. The dominant team that the Flyers had become in the previous three rounds disappeared, scoring only six goals in a four-game sweep to the Red Wings. Lindros, who had scored 11 goals in the first three rounds, found the net only once against Detroit, with 15 seconds left to play in the final game. Head coach Terry Murray, who said his team was in a “choking situation” after the Game 3 loss in the final — didn’t return to the Flyers the next season and many believe it was a result of calling out his players.
