To celebrate my 25th year of hockey fandom, I will occasionally step into the way-back machine and write about events in the Flyers’ past. For the balance of the season, I will be dipping into the well to ruminate about some things related to my love of the Philadelphia Flyers, and in general about the fan experience as a youngster. This is the sixth in the series of Spectrum Memories. Losing a family member or a friend to relocations, sickness or death is never a good experience, and the emotions are very raw and fresh when you’re a kid. Thankfully, my rather small family …
Milestone Madness
It’s amazing to think the Flyers are on pace to reach 1,000 home wins in franchise history. It would have been sweet to see the Orange and Black do it this past Saturday against the rival New Jersey Devils, but Johan Hedberg and Patrik Elias had a little something to say in that regard. Anywhoo…Philly gets another crack at a grand tonight against the Montreal Canadiens, in the final meeting of a four-game regular-season series which serves as the Flyers’ final contest before the All-Star Break. Since our hockey club, which sits atop the NHL standings, is so close to this momentous occasion, it’s …
Our top posts of 2010
Flyers Faithful officially launched in August of 2010 and it turned out to be a great season to launch. Claude Giroux began a breakout season. Sergei Bobrovsky provided a sense of stability in net that the Flyers haven’t seen from a rookie in ages. The Flyers shot to the top of the standings and reached 20 wins the earliest since 1986. So far, so good. While the team enjoys some time off, let’s take a few minutes to recap the top Flyers Faithful stories of the year. Remembering Pelle Remembering Pelle is a five part series honoring the memory of …
Remembering Pelle: Personal thoughts on the tragedy and its impact 25 years later
Remembering Pelle is a five part series honoring the memory of former Flyers’ goaltender, Pelle Lindbergh, whose life was tragically cut short on November 11, 1985. A new article will run each day over the course of five days. This is the last part of the series. I really don’t know how to begin, so I’ll lead with this: YouTube is one of the many modern-day technological miracles. If it didn’t exist, I’d have had to produce this entire series from memory, archival reports, microfiche and whatever skill I possess as a writer. It certainly wouldn’t be this long, over …
Remembering Pelle: What would have happened to the Flyers if Pelle lived?
Remembering Pelle is a five part series honoring the memory of former Flyers’ goaltender, Pelle Lindbergh, whose life was tragically cut short on November 11, 1985. A new article will run each day over the course of five days. This is part four of the series. Now that the Debbie Downer portion of the series is through, let’s get to the fun part. What would have happened to the Flyers if Pelle Lindbergh never had his fatal accident? All things being equal, there’s a huge case for Philadelphia to have experienced at least on Stanley Cup parade in the ensuing …
Remembering Pelle: Why Pelle won’t have his number retired
Remembering Pelle is a five part series honoring the memory of former Flyers’ goaltender, Pelle Lindbergh, whose life was tragically cut short on November 11, 1985. A new article will run each day over the course of five days. This is part three of the series. Let’s face the facts, shall we? Pelle screwed up. He screwed up royally. He drove drunk. He drove fast. He turned a beautiful red Porsche into a mangled accordion-like mess. Even worse, he killed himself and almost killed two other people that night – a lady who knew and dated several of the younger …
Remembering Pelle: How does Lindbergh rank among the Flyers’ goaltending greats?
Remembering Pelle is a five part series honoring the memory of former Flyers’ goaltender, Pelle Lindbergh, whose life was tragically cut short on November 11, 1985. A new article will run each day over the course of five days. This is part two of the series. As it stands today, the Philadelphia Flyers have invested significant time and money trying to find the next generation of star puck-stopper that will lead them to Stanley Cup glory. It’s really a short list, but one which casts a huge imprint and even bigger shadow across both ends of the ice: Bernie Parent, …
Remembering Pelle: An overview
Remembering Pelle is a five part series honoring the memory of former Flyers’ goaltender, Pelle Lindbergh, whose life was tragically cut short on November 11, 1985. A new article will run each day over the course of five days. This is part one of the series. Perhaps no other singular sports figure is so universally beloved, compared to his tenure in this city, as Pelle Lindbergh. And despite the fact that he graced us with his presence for such a brief time, his story rivals any other sports figure who remained for five times as long. It’s been more than …
Spectrum memories: The matinee plan
“To celebrate my 25th year of hockey fandom, I will occasionally step into the way-back machine and write about events in the Flyers’ past. For the balance of the season, I will be dipping into the well to ruminate about some things related to my love of the Philadelphia Flyers, and in general about the fan experience as a youngster. This is the first in the series of Spectrum Memories.” It’s been 15 years, but my memories of attending Flyers games at the Spectrum are still fresh in my mind. From the good years, to the lean ones, and back …
Flyers’ bottom five games in new buildings
To celebrate the fact that the Penguins will open up the new CONSOL Energy Center tonight by welcoming the Flyers, I’ve decided to dip into the history machine again and pull out what I think are the five best and worst games the club has played in new arenas. Yesterday’s post featured the best game. Today, I write about bottom five games. 1. December 6, 1992 – Senators 3, Flyers 2 @ Ottawa Civic Center Pelle Eklund and Claude Boivin scored for the Flyers but the story was that a club in the middle of their five-year playoff drought brought …