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Philly Fans Vote for Best Games |
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So how do you drum up fan interest for hockey during the so-called dog days of summer?
Especially, when your hockey club hasn’t had a banner off-season with big-name free agent signings?
Well, the Flyers decided to take a poll, asking fans to vote on the franchise’s greatest games. For 10 days earlier this month, 5,100 fans _ it’s not a lot, but it’s summer _ voted and when the tabulations came in, the No. 1 game • it was unanimous _ was May 19, 1974 when the Flyers won their first Stanley Cup by beating Boston, 1-0 here in Flyerdom.
The club released a top 10, all of which will be put on a DVD that will go in sale this season.
“We thank our fans for their votes and interest in naming the 10 greatest games in Flyers history,” said Flyers Vice President of Marketing and Communications Shawn Tilger, in a release. “It’s obvious these games and memories have stayed with our fans over the years.”
Here is how the fans voted with the percentage totals, as well. My comments follow:
1. May 19, 1974 • Flyers defeat Boston, 1-0, to win Stanley Cup (85.4%).
I was a junior at Penn State and watched that game with my father at home that afternoon before heading back to school. We still had another week or so of classes. When the game was over, I joined thousands on City Line Ave. to celebrate while waiting for our ride back. I had an assignment that weekend in my broadcast journalism class. I had to make a black and white film of a sporting event, mixed with fictional content. So, I taped the hockey game on TV, then spliced in footage of my NHL board hockey game with little men. I would juxtapose between reality and that Cup-winning game. My hockey game had little metal Boston Bruin players and the Flyers, as well which work perfectly. That project got me an “A” in the course. Flyers win the Cup; Panotch gets an “A.”
2. May 4, 2000 • Keith Primeau scores a goal in the 5th overtime period at Pittsburgh (79.6%).
Here’s a story few people know. After the first OT, the entire Philly press corps left the press box to go down to the basement of the Igloo or “arena level,” as we call it. Because the game was now well past our deadlines and time was of the essence, we had to be near the dressing rooms. So, we worked in the media room just outside the dressing rooms and watched the second, third, fourth and fifth OT on the TV monitors. Some of the media fell in and out of sleep that l-o-n-g night. But this I will never forget. Ray Finocchiaro got up after the second OT and announced his Elvis. “I’m leaving,” Fino said. “You can’t leave,” we shouted back. He explained he could not make his deadline. He had nothing to write. He then got up, walked out, and drove straight through from Pittsburgh to Philly. He never covered another hockey game for his paper, the Wilmington News Journal. When Primeau scored that goal, it was jolt of electricity that seemed wake us all and get the adrenalin going to write some very memorable stories for the days ahead. Fino should have stuck around.
3. May 27, 1975 • Flyers defeat Buffalo, 2-0, to win second Stanley Cup (71.6%).
I was in State College, during my senior year, watching the game on TV, from the balcony of Tom Collins’ apartment. He would be my best man in my wedding that summer. Fans were streaking after the game. I couldn’t convince my future wife we should join them. So I went by myself, streaking down East Beaver Avenue, appropriately named for that time given the streaking. We partied that night after the game. Penn State had been voted by Playboy magazine, as I recall, as the best party school in the country that year.
4. January 11, 1976 • Flyers defeat Soviet Red Army Team, 4-1 (71.3%).
I was moonlighting as a part-timer at the Inquirer, while I was working fulltime for Mayor Frank Rizzo in a various capacities, including the City Representatives Office. When the Soviets walked off the ice to protest the rough hitting by the Flyers • Ed Van Impe’s elbow to Valeri Kharlamov’s face, in particular _ while also claiming they had not been paid for their exhibitions. They refused to come back. That when “the Rizz” paid a visit to the Soviet’s dressing with his cops in full regale. He told them they wouldn’t be paid and worse, they wouldn’t get out of Philadelphia, as long as he was Mayor. They’d end up in jail, in other words. Years later, people who were actually on the scene swear that the only person who scared Soviet coach Konstantin Loktev more than Leonid Brezhnev was Frank Rizzo. Rizzo 1, Soviet Red Army, 0. My wife and I watched the game at the glass.
5. May 20, 2004 • Keith Primeau and Simon Gagne each score a goal as the Flyers defeat Tampa Bay in Game Six (52.7%).
A little surprised at how this game got in there so high, but that might offer a clue as to the “age” of the voters. Personally, the I think No. 2 on this list should have been Clarke’s goal on May 9, 1974 in overtime that beat the Bruins in Boston, 3-2 in Game 2. But his particular was one of the best in years to cover and it set up the dramatic Game 7 back in Tampa. I still say that had the Flyers not been so banged up on defense in that series, they would have won Game 7 and beaten Calgary to win the Stanley Cup. Hindsight is 50-50, eh? I can assure you that coach Ken Hitchcock believes the very same.
6. May 4, 2004 • Jeremy Roenick scores a goal in overtime at Toronto to win game, 3-2, and series 4-2 (50.9%). That comes moments after Sami Kapanen gets knocked senseless by Darcy Tucker and has to crawl to the bench on the ice while Primeau illegally reaches out from the bench with his stick and pulls him over. That’s what some of us in the media remember when we think of J.R.’s goal.
7. December 22, 1979 • Flyers win at Boston to set NHL record for longest undefeated streak (29 games) (43.3%).
That was Pat Quinn’s greatest accomplishment as a Flyers coach. It was also a team I covered as a backup hockey writer for the now defunct Philadelphia Journal. People talked about the 35-game unbeaten streak for decades because of what it meant in overall sports culture. What I do remember from that season was the constant goalie controversy as to who was better: Pete Peeters or Phil Myre. The two split the entire season. One of the greatest seasons in pro sports ended with an aging Flyers’ team losing the Cup to the young Islanders. Whenever I see Myre, he reminds me that had he played against the Islanders, “Quinn would have had is Cup ring.” Quinn and I had some wild arguments that season over his goalies. He would scream at you and puff on that cigar. The Mighty Quinn would still go out and have a beer with you an hour later.
8. May 28, 1987 • J.J. Daigneault scores the game-winning goal vs. Edmonton in Game Six of Stanley Cup Finals (40.9%).
I was back-up writer for the Inquirer that night at the Spectrum, covering from the highest rafters of the building because there were no seats left in the press box. I felt the emotional jolt of that goal would carry-over into Game 7 in Edmonton three nights later. That the Flyers could even skate with those great Wayne Gretzky-led teams was amazing to me. Most of us realize that goalie Ron Hextall was the true reason the Flyers were able to win three games in that Cup final series. Hextall, at the time, would become just the third goalie to win the Conn Smythe on a losing club.
9. May 9, 1974 • Bobby Clarke scores in overtime at Boston (37.9%).
I think this game deserves top 5 billing, but I already said that. Interesting thing here is time fades memories. I was at the Daily Collegian (Penn State student newspaper) working the night shift and listening to the game on radio. I never saw the game on TV because there was no TV in our office. About eight years ago, I asked Clarke where he scored that goal from. He said he scored from either at the right circle or below. In truth, he was right at the net. That goal represented the Flyers’ first win in Boston in more than six years. It tied the series at 1-1, giving the Flyers home ice. It made my shift at the Collegian that night an easy one.
10. April 13, 1985 • Tim Kerr scores four goals in second period of playoff game at NY Rangers (29.5%).
Kerr’s effort set an NHL record that night at Madison Square Garden, but more importantly, it allowed the Flyers to sweep the Rangers out of the playoffs. It also broke the Flyers’ string of three, consecutive years of first-round playoff ousters.
That’s about it for me on these games … I’m certain readers have their own games they would like to add or amend to this list from Philly fans.
Some weird stuff sticks in my mind, too. For instance, I can’t remember the exact game • I think it was against the Oakland Seals _ but I do remember the Zamboni driver crashing into the dashers before a game in 1967-68 at the Spectrum, delaying its start.
I was just a kid then. But it sticks with me.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger • 
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