Ed Snider
Wednesday’s Flyers press conference with Dave Scott and Chuck Fletcher was another example of just how far the Flyers are from an identity and a sense of direction. It presents more questions than answers, and it runs through a range of emotions that rival the five stages of grief – some congruent like anger and denial and others like irrationality and delusion.
It has reached a new level for the Flyers. This is essentially one great, big reality show. The play on the ice is only one part of the equation, and at this point, the things happening off the ice are becoming bigger headlines, most recently comments from Flyers legend Bobby Clarke on the Cam and Strick Podcast regarding Ron Hextall’s time as GM.
The finalists for the Flyers Hall of Fame were named on Tuesday morning, with six members of the Flyers long and storied franchise being up for possible induction later this season. Here’s a closer look at the six and their case to join the names in the rafters.
The Flyers played their first home game in the Spectrum against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Oct. 19, 1967 and claimed a 1-0 victory. For the next 29 seasons, the Flyers called the Spectrum home, before the concept of a new state-of-the-art arena came to be and the then-named CoreStates Center was built in time for the 1996-97 season.
The Broad Street Bullies were hated across the league as the expansion-age team that would impose their will and fists on any opponent. But all bets were off during the 1976 Super Series when HC CSKA Moscow, also known as the Red Army Club, came to play the final game of the series with NHL teams at the Spectrum in Philadelphia.
The odds were already stacked against the Flyers when they faced the President’s Trophy winners, the Washington Capitals, in the first round of the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs, but it turned out to be a much closer series than the results showed. Our Series in Review series continues with a closer look at this playoff appearance.
It will not go down as the most memorable decade in Flyers franchise history, but there were certainly a few great moments from start to finish in the 2010s.
The Flyers announced that Paul Holmgren will move to a new role as Senior Advisor to Dave Scott, the Chairman and CEO of Comcast Spectacor and the Governor of the Flyers, and to Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher. Fletcher now takes over the role of President of Hockey Operations and general manager.
It was a question five years ago and it remains one now. The Flyers need a fresh perspective. A look in the mirror should show that the dismissal of Ron Hextall isn’t the only change that needs to happen.
Patience is not something typically associated with the Philadelphia Flyers. Ron Hextall’s process to building a contender required patience. It ultimately ran out and it cost Hextall his job.
