October 5, 1996
The Flyers began their 1996-97 season with added fanfare as they were opening the brand new CoreStates Center as the new home of the Flyers and 76ers.
The $210 million arena provided state-of-the-art facilities for the players and the fans. It included much-needed luxury club boxes and suites, to add additional revenue streams for Comcast Spectacor.
The legendary Spectrum held the historic and magical moments of 25-plus seasons of the Flyers. The Stanley Cup runs of the 70s and 80s, the blood, sweat and tears of legends like Bernie and Clarkie, "Moose" and "the Rifle" were now to be carried into a new arena just a few hundred yards away. It was time to infuse this rich history into a new team and a new era of Flyers Hockey.
On this night, the Florida Panthers goalie and Flyers nemesis, John Vanbiesbrouck, didn’t get the memo. He and the Panthers spoiled the Flyers party with a 3-1 victory.
Vanbiesbrouck had just helped Florida knock the Flyers out of the playoffs back in May in a 4-2 series win. His dominance continued against the Flyers, stopping 31 of the 32 Flyers shots he faced.
Florida’s Brad Smyth opened the scoring at 3:51, recording the first NHL goal at the new arena. Just 13 seconds later, Flyers young and upcoming star Danius Zubrus scored the first ever Flyers goal in the CoreStates Center, tying the score at one.
The score would remain that way until the 2:01 mark of the second period when former Flyer Scott Mellanby would beat Ron Hextall to make it 2-1. Although the Flyers outshot the Panthers, 21-13, through two periods, the Flyers would need to have a strong third period to tie up the game.
Even with two power plays and 11 more shots in the third at "the Beezer," Vanbiesbrouck kept the Flyers from tying the score. An empty-net goal by Florida’s Johan Garpenlov sealed the deal at 19:52 to give the Panthers the 3-1 win in front of 19,137 of the Flyers faithful.
Mike Watson is a contributing writer for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on twitter @Mwats_99.
