Farewell to a Swamp

The Flyers played their last-ever game at the Meadowlands with a familiar result, a 3-1 loss. Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur once again led the way, as her turned aside waves of Flyers chances in the first half of the game to keep it scoreless. Jersey then netted two goals in the final minutes of the second and that proved to be the winning margin.

There has been so much made of how the former Brendan Byrne Arena was a "house of horrors" for the Flyers over the years, too much in my opinion. It all has to do with the Flyers supposed franchise-long winning tradition and the fact that a few key records in certain arenas stand out as overwhelmingly losing ones. The orange and black have never been comfortable there just like in Uniondale, or the Boston Garden, Hartford, or in Edmonton for that 12 year stretch including playoffs. The fact is, bizarre things have happened to the team virtually anywhere away from South Broad Street, but because the Devils have been in the same division since their 1982 move from Denver, the story gets magnified.

However, lest we forget, they did finish the era with a 22-46-6 record in New Jersey, having lost the last eight games there since the cancelled season. Only twice since the dawn of the 1990s did the Flyers win as many as two regular season games there, and it was a miracle that it did occur in Games 3 and 4 of the 1995 Eastern Conference Finals. We fans and writers can only hope that a newer, winning tradition begins next season wherever the Devils play (since the new Prudential Center in Newark may not be ready for October - and it was pointed out on the Flyers TV broadcast that if it isn't, the Devils will play "somewhere else").

Whatever. Good riddance to that white-paneled box built on top of a fetid swamp built near a bunch of ugly access roads. I guess the only real "good" news about the new arena is that Flyers fans will have to pay a little less when heading up on to lovely Newark for a road trip.