With the dog days of the off-season upon us, I've been trying to come with a Flyers all-time underrated team. Feel free to add your nominees in the comments section of the blog.
I'll get it started with six forward nominees, four defensemen and two goaltenders.:
FORWARDS
Rod Brind'Amour (C): For many years, Brind'Amour played in the shadow of Eric Lindros after being one of the few bright spots on the club in the first year following Rod's acquisition from St. Louis in the Ron Sutter deal. While not underrated by devoted Flyers fans, he was sometimes overlooked by casual fans and the national media that hyper-focused on Lindros. While he often ran hot and cold offensively, Brind'Amour was durable, versatile and outstanding on faceoffs.
Ilkka Sinisalo (W): When the Flyers' heroes of the 1980s are recounted, many people forget to mention the play of Sinisalo. But ask any of his former teammates, and they will tell you what a pivotal player he was: outstanding skater and two-way player, a good goal scorer and an outstanding special teams player both on the penalty kill and the powerplay. His biggest drawback was his tendency to get injured.
Paul Holmgren (W): People mostly think of Homer as an enforcer, and he certainly was one of the toughest fighters of his era. But he was also a player who, through sheer will and hard work, made himself in a fine hockey player who once scored 30 in a season.
Mel Bridgman (C/W) : Bridgman didn't have the offensive career you might expect of the first overall pick of the draft. But that was partially because he came to a team that already had the likes of Bobby Clarke and Rick MacLeish in front of him. He settled into more of a third line role and maintained a checker's mentality. While not a fleet skater, Bridgman was tough as nails, strong on the boards, an excellent two-way player and had good hands in close. He was a good captain during the Flyers' 35-game unbeaten streak season of 1979-80.
Pelle Eklund (C/W) : Pelle first rose to prominence during the 1987 Stanley Cup playoffs, especially against Montreal. But the prolific playmaker was already a key member of the Flyers' outstanding powerplay. As he gained the confidence of Mike Keenan -- a process that took a couple years -- Eklund showed that he could be trusted in all situations. His reluctance to shoot the puck, injury problems and the fact that many of his best seasons came during the generally bleak post-Keenan years overshadowed a fine career in Philadelphia.
Shjon Podein (LW): Brett Hull once called him the best checking winger in the NHL and for about a three-season period in the mid- to late-1990s, Hull wasn't too far off. Defensively, Podein could shut down some of the best wingers in the game. Along with checking center Joel Otto and a variety of right wingers (most notably Trent Klatt on the so-called Minnesota Line), the Flyers sometimes went weeks at a time without their third line being scored against at even strength. Podein could even chip in a few goals -- a few of them of the highlight variety.
DEFENSEMEN
Brad McCrimmon: In terms of chemistry and ability, The Beast was the Vladimir Konstantinov to Mark Howe's Nicklas Lidström. McCrimmon an outstanding defensive defenseman and downright nasty to play against. He could burn an opponent offensively if they didn't pay attention to him and cheated toward Howe's side of the ice.
Bob Clarke admitted that his biggest mistake as a general manager was letting personal differences with McCrimmon cloud his judgment about the player's value to the team. The Flyers defense suffered a huge blow when McCrimmon -- in the midst of a contract dispute with the Flyers that could have been solved with a little compromise -- was traded to the Calgary Flames for draft picks.
Jimmy Watson: As mentioned in the Flyers Hall of Fame blog, the "other" Watson brother was actually the better player of the two according his older brother Joe. Jim Watson was a five-time NHL All-Star, a fine skater and one of the best shutdown defensemen of the 1970s. He gets overlooked today because he never put up a lot of points and his career ended prematurely due to injury.
Bob Dailey : Another injury casualty. With the exception of Howe, Dailey was the best offensive defenseman in club history. He had an Al MacInnis like slapshot and, when in the right frame of mind, could also play mean.
Petr Svoboda: Svoboda was savvy, chippy, and absolutely fearless. Unfortunately, he was also very slightly built and frequently got banged up. The Flyers were always a better team when he was in the lineup than when he was out.
GOALTENDERS
Wayne Stephenson: The only thing "wrong" with the late Wayne Stephenson was that he wasn't as good as Hall of Famer Bernie Parent and often chafed in the role of backup. But he was better than a lot of the starters in the NHL and rarely gave up soft goals. When Parent went down with injuries, the Flyers could usually plug Stephenson right in and get solid goaltending.
Pete Peeters: During his first stint with the Flyers, Peeters may actually have been a bit overrated. He was inconsistent after his outstanding rookie year. His trade to Boston for Brad McCrimmon proved to be a godsend to Philly, as McCrimmon became a crucial defenseman and Pelle Lindbergh and Ron Hextall (Bob Froese as well, but to a lesser extent) more than filled the void in net.
But when people look back today at the top Flyers goalies, the play of Peeters during his rookie 1979-80 season rarely gets mentioned. Put it this way: If Phil Myre had been the full-time starter, the Flyers wouldn't have had either their 35-game unbeaten streak or a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals. Peeters may have been grouchy and disliked by the media, but he was also a fine goaltender that year.
During his second stint with the Flyers, Peeters was a reasonably serviceable enough backup on some weak teams.
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Recently, I was interviewed by Flyersfaithful.com about the Flyers' recent drafting and free agency history as pertains to European players. The
article is now online.
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