If
you are old enough to have been a rabid hockey fan in the early
1970s, your blood pressure probably still goes up when you remember
the Broad Street Bullies of that era. If you are a Philadelphia fan,
then that is because of the excitement you felt when the Flyers were
on the ice. If you aren’t, it’s probably due to the absolute rage
you experienced when they ground your team into the ground.
To
be fair however, even if they did leave their opponents bleeding and
bruised – literally, not figuratively – this was an incredibly
skillful team. Any team that can win 2 cups in a row and still be
remembered 40 years later down to the last player was more than just
a bunch of thugs.
And
yet thugs they were. Dave “The Hammer” Shultz and Bob “Mad Dog”
Kelly may never have taken the scoring title – although Kelly did
notch 26 goals with the Capitals in 1981 – but they were the
original prototypes for today’s NHL enforcer. Shultz even went so
far as to put boxing wraps under his gloves, claiming that it
prevented them being injured when he got in a fight. His opponents
had a different view – especially after they had been left cut and
bleeding. In any event, the NHL passed a rule banning boxing wraps in
what became known as the “Shultz Rule.”
On
the other hand, the Philadelphia
Flyers had some absolutely superb players, including Hall of
Famers Bernie Parent and Bobby Clarke. Parent is one of the greatest
goalies that the NHL has ever seen, racking up a 1.89 GAA in
1973–1974,
and a 2.03 GAA the following year. He was a true Flyer however – it
is impossible to count the number of forwards that ended up with
bruised ankles from Parent’s goal stick. Clark, the team captain,
was also one of the greats, a 30-goal man with a huge heart and no
front teeth. He was also an expert when it came to carving up the
other side with his stick.
Two
other great forwards on the team were Rick MacLeish and Bill Barber,
both of whom managed to have 50 goal seasons with the Flyers. Both of
them were pretty tame from a penalty perspective, but Barber did have
a party trick. He was probably one of the greatest proponents of the
dive that the game has ever known. He would be on a rush, and then
the next thing you knew, his head would snap back, his knees would
buckle, and he would be sliding down the ice. The poor guy chasing
him would protest that his stick hadn’t touched Barber, but most of
the time he would be sent to the penalty box anyway.
Finally,
there was Gary Dornhoefer. A journeyman right winger, they used to
say that he would never make the Hall of Fame, but his elbows would.
Perhaps the most memorable incident involving Dornhoefer came against
the Montréal
Canadiens. He had been giving the elbow to the Habs’ 6’4”
superstar defenseman Larry Robinson all night, and Robinson finally
had enough. He took a run at Dornhoefer, lifted his skates off the
ice about 10 feet away, and flattened Dornhoefer against the boards –
or rather, Dornhoefer went through the newly splintered boards.
Robinson skated to the penalty box with a big wide smile on his face.
