- December 22, 1979 Flyers 5, Bruins 2 @ Boston Garden: Philly sets a new NHL record in their 29th game without a loss in one of their least-favorite places to play. It's amazing to see the leap backwards in the style of the game between 1985 and 1979, how slow everything develops, and how goofy some of the goals are. Also amazing that you'd recognize half the Flyers as the good ol' Broad Street Bullies, and the other half will leave you scratching your head or reaching for the keyboard to look up the names online. Flyers fans might get a thrill at seeing a rookie Brad McCrimmon in a Boston uniform and future teammate Brian Propp also in his rookie season, and hockey fans will see how young Ray Bourque looks in his first NHL campaign. Game Excitement: 5 - even though it was a league-record setter, the game itself was a surprisingly ordinary pre-Christmas matinee on Causeway Street. Six of the seven goals come in the first 25 minutes of the game, then you get to fast forward through until the celebration at the final buzzer. Emotional Content: 5 - It's not a playoff game, there are no divisional implications, the Flyers basically dominate except for a brief stretch early in the second period. What the Game Lacks: Local broadcast. Don't know if there actually was one, or if CBS picked it up as game of the week or what, but Gene Hart calling the game definitely would have added a bit more grandeur to the occasion. Only astute historians of the game would appreciate that the DVD broadcast was from Boston's WSBK, with Hall-of-Famer Fred Cusick on play-by-play.
- January 11, 1976 Flyers 4, Soviet Red Army 1: Part of the agreement between the NHL and USSR hockey, where the Soviets sent Moscow Dynamo and the Red Army squad to face NHL teams in various exhibitions throughout the middle part of the 1975-76 season. Up to that point, the Red Army had only failed to win against Montreal, a 3-3 New Year's Eve tie. The Flyers were called upon to defend the honor of the league, and put together one of their most inspired performances for a world audience. Game Excitement: 8 - lowered because it's not an NHL contest, but this was the Flyers at the height of their intimidation and offensive skill playing the unstoppable machine of the Soviet military. At certain points, they seemed to fly around the ice just as in sync as their well-practiced opponents. Emotional Content: 10 - Cold War, anyone? Picketers demonstrating their hatred for the Iron Curtain? Russians leaving the ice because they disagreed with the Flyers' rough style of play? The Flyers' first goal only seconds after the Soviets returned to the ice? Joe Watson shorthanded? A 45-13 shot advantage over a team that dominated International play? Until their Cup Finals loss to Montreal, the Flyers held the title of best hockey team on Planet Earth. What the Game Lacks: NBC's broadcast with two sports giants at the mic: Marv Albert and Gene Hart. The DVD features the CBC version with Dick Irvin - and while no one disputes Canada's claim to the game, once again, local flavor and good old fashioned American shock and outrage (Marv's incredulous call of the Soviets leaving the ice and going to the locker room) would have made this a sure-fire must-watch.
- May 27, 1975 - Flyers 2, Sabres 0 - 1975 Stanley Cup Finals Game 6: Cup #2 is won in another emotional, gut-wrenching clincher. Scoreless through two periods but with Buffalo knocking on the door through some tense moments, Philly comes up with two-third period goals (Bob Kelly and Bill Clement) and Bernie shuts the door on a potent Sabres offense. Game Excitement: 9 - scoreless tie through 40 minutes, but Bernie was called upon to make some spectacular stops. Orest Kindrachuk getting creamed as he passed the puck to Clement for the breakaway insurance goal is a quintessential Flyers moment. Emotional Content: 9 - For those who were alive, the second time around you were a little more comfortable, no? Plus, in those days, Earle got the play-by-play in the first and third periods, so his game-ending call wasn't chock full of drama and pathos. What the Game Lacks: Nothing, except it wasn't the first and sweetest win.
- May 9, 1974 - Flyers 3, Bruins 2 (OT) - 1974 Stanley Cup Finals Game 2: Staring down an 0-2 hole to the vastly more talented Bruins, Moose Dupont ties the game and Clarkie wins it with a joyous celebration matched only by the #1 moment. I tell you what - all that footage of Orr, Esposito and the like in stock films must have been sped up quite a bit, because they all seemed to be moving so slowly compared to what we know as the NHL today. The 1979 and 1974 games look and move just about the same, but that may have been a tribute to the checking job the Flyers had to do just to contain the league's best offense in 1973-74. Parent comes up huge again in a moment outshone by the game-winning goal: 2-on-1 break in the Flyers zone leading to Ken Hodge breaking in alone on Parent, but he closes up the pads just in time. Seconds later, Clarke puts his own rebound off the post an instant before Terry O'Reilly dives across, and the rest is history...
- May 19, 1974 - Flyers 1, Bruins 0 - 1974 Stanley Cup Finals Game 6: Everybody knows the deal by now, young and old alike. Desperately needing a win at home to end the series following a 5-1 drubbing in Boston two days before, and to avoid the grim spectre of a Game 7 in Boston, everybody pulls it together and Philadelphia's championship drought is broken. Of the ten games on the list, it is the only other game besides the Flyers-Oilers 1987 tilt that was so well-played by both teams as to be truly worthy of consideration. They basically transferred the old VHS copy of "Stanley Cup I" with the NBC call from Tim Ryan and Ted Lindsay over to DVD, the smartest decision made on all ten games. Game Excitement: 10+ Will the Bruins explode at any minute for a tying or go-ahead goal? Can Bernie hold them off? What happened to Bobby Orr? Can the seconds tick off any slower?? Emotional Content:
10+++ Kate Smith...McLeish's first-period goal...Parent's toe save...Orr impotently sitting in the penalty box with 2 minutes left... "The Call" 'Nuff said.
It's also a damn shame that the organ-eye-zation chose to do a damnatio memoriae on the entire Lindros Era, whether the fans voted for it or not. I can think of four games in the 1995 playoffs alone that could have beat out Flyers-Maple Leafs in '04, not to mention a half-dozen other games (East Finals Game 3, 4, or 5 with the Rangers in 1997 or that Montreal game in 1997 where the Legion of Doom set a team record for points in a game from one line come to mind immediately) which could have or should have made the list.
Maybe the 2004 games were a bow to the younger fans, who I gather, pretty much view Eric Lindros as ancient history, and the times previous as nothing but primordial ooze, but 10 is a nice round number for a compact set to merchandise. But then again, so is 20. Three games in this millennium alone with a gap of 13 years in between is something any casual fan will sniff out as suspicious and unsatisfying. Nonetheless, there is something for everyone in the collectors' set, which ultimately is the goal of releasing the games in the first place. I just wish the Flyers would take a page from the music world, and have this initial set as the "A" side and games 11-20 which didn't make the original cut packaged as the "B" sides.
For most, I believe this will be a great trip down memory lane, as well as a teaching tool for the next generation of young fans who wear the colors but know nothing of history. For me, it will be an enjoyable, but bitter reminder that the philosophy which catapulted the Flyers to their greatest moments is now nothing but hollow words ringing in the ears of those who stand by powerless as the team slides into continual chaos.
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