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Meltzer's Musings: Most booed Flyers players |
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Every team has a player or two who are the whipping boys among the fans. However, while there have been many Flyers over the years who have been frequent targets or local talk radio callers and/or internet fans (or whatever the available medium for public discourse appropriate to the era), there really haven't been many Flyers players who have REGULARLY been booed a large segment of the home crowd.
I'm not talking about a home player getting loudly booed over a particularly bad mistake or even over the course of an especially bad game. I'm also not talking about a home player getting a hard time on a regular basis from a few leather-lunged and persistent hecklers in the stands. I'm talking about instant, knee-jerk booing by at least 25 percent of the home crowd at the mention of his name over the PA -- the sort of treatment that Mike Schmidt or Ron Jaworski endured for much of their careers in Philadelphia.
When the ultra-controversial Billy Tibbetts was brought over (ever so briefly) to Philadelphia in exchange for solid citizen Kent Manderville, there was a large segment of the fan base that was outraged. But Tibbetts was a special case because of his off-ice history. He also had a reputation for losing control on the ice to the detriment of his team, but that alone was not what made fans refuse to accept him. But even in Tibbetts' case -- while there were certainly some boos and catcalls whenever his name was announced -- it was not pervasive during the games. Then again, he was only a Flyer for nine games (six at home) and was used very sparingly in all but two games.
There have also been players brought in who were detested by Flyers fans when they played on opposing teams (come to think of it, the most hated visiting players of all time would also make for a good summertime blog topic). Some examples would be Nick Fotiu, Randy Holt, Ulf Samuelsson and Marc Bureau.
But once those players put on the orange-and-black sweater, they really weren't booed much at home. It may have felt strange to see them in Flyers jerseys. The past may not have been 100 percent forgotten, but they were not booed much in their short stays in Philadelphia.
New Flyers addition Jaromir Jagr received a lot of derision as a visitor, especially during his Penguins days, but that was more about how he looked and because his flash-and-dash style on the ice made people (erroneously) consider him to be an outright soft player. As long as he is reasonably productive next season, Jagr won't have any problems with the Wells Fargo Center crowd stemming from his years with rival clubs.
For different reasons, Max Talbot heard his share of boos in Philly as a visiting player. That was due both to the Flyers-Penguins rivalry and Talbot's reputation as an agitator who is not shy about taking the occasional cheapshot.
Such players rarely bring along any carryover animosity when they come to Philadelphia. Bureau brought some on himsel at first, because he had been guilty of one of the worst cheapshots of the 1990s, and it happened in Philly. During the 1995-96 season, Bureau damn near killed Petr Svoboda with a flagrant elbow delivered for no reason other than that he could. There was nothing to gain except deliberately injuring another player. Usually players can put all that aside when they become teammates but Svoboda himself never fully forgave Bureau even when they ended up on the same side in Philly. Among fans at the arena, however, Bureau gained grudging acceptance.
By the way, in the game where Bureau put Svoboda in the hospital, referee Don Van Massenhoven dished out a little old-school hockey justice in his penalty call. He saw Bureau deliver the elbow and he assessed a major penalty but did not tack on a game misconduct or call it a match penalty for intent to injure. When he escorted Bureau to the box, he told the player (in earshot of Flyers players) that he would just have to be ready to have to answer for it on his own. Craig MacTavish was the Flyer who later got to Bureau first, and utterly thrashed him in a fight. Today, a referee would get in trouble with his superiors if he did not assess a match penalty for an offense he knew full well would result in a suspension, and touch off brawls.
At any rate, if I had to pick an all-time Flyers' "boobird" team, I would probably go with:
Bob McCammon (Coach):The "Bob must go" chant punctuated his final game as the Flyers/coach and GM and Cagey drew lots of heat for his team's tendency to cruise through the regular season and then collapse in the first round of the playoffs.
Doug Crossman (Defenseman): He had the reputation for being rather flighty, both on and off the ice. He made some great plays and was highly skilled, but made just as many plays that left everyone scratching their heads about what he could have been thinking. The Flyers of the mid 1980s were pretty much loved across the board by the locals, but Crossman was the big exception. He was not booed every game by any means, but he heard about his mistakes louder and more frequently than anyone else.
Behn Wilson (Defenseman): Wilson was popular in his rookie season and he heard mostly cheers when he had an All-Star season in 1980-81. But he was the victim of high expectations and his own cockiness. Fans got on the inconsistent defenseman's case often, because he had been touted as a franchise player and fell far short of that after showing great early promise. Wilson could be pretty cavalier about the need to make adjustments.
Alexandre Daigle (Forward): Apart from one brilliant game against the Detroit Red Wings, Daigle did next to nothing in Philly after coming over from Ottawa. What made his case a little bit different than other talented underachievers was that the former first-overall draft choice did not keep a low profile off the ice even when struggling on ice. As a result, Daigle heard more boos from the home crowd during his time in Philadelphia than other once heavily touted players who did not produce here.
Chris Gratton (Forward): Gratton came to the Flyers at a hefty cost, financially and otherwise. He scored in his first game at home but that was his only goal in the first month, and grumbling started. His season was somewhat rescued by the temporary breakup of John LeClair and Eric Lindros, and Gratton got red hot for awhile during the two months that LeClair was placed on his left wing. But Gratton struggled late in the season and had a rather poor playoff series (as did most of his teammates) in a five-game loss in the first round to Buffalo. Moved to left wing his second season, he scored just one goal (a meaningless goal in the final minute of a 6-2 win over Vancouver) and was minus-8 in 26 games. Gratton started to hear regular boos by the time the Flyers reversed their initial trade with Tampa and re-acquired Mikael Renberg in exchange for Gratton.
Barry Dean (Forward): As a child, I never understood exactly why so many locals took a rather irrational dislike to "Mean" Barry Dean during his 86 games over parts of two seasons. Perhaps it was partially because he had been the second overall pick in the 1975 Draft and fans initially expected him to come over and be yet another example of Keith "the Thief" Allen pilfering a future star player that an NHL weak sister organization (in this case, the Kansas City Scouts/Colorado Rockies) had given up on way too quickly. As it turned out, Dean was a marginal NHL player offensively but a good AHL one. Effort did not appear to be the problem, either. His play in Philadelphia was neither notable nor disastrous, yet he got some pretty lusty booing when he struggled to finish scoring chances. During that same late 1970's era, Flyers fans were also often pretty vocal about their disappointment in the modest Philadelphia achievements of former Canucks 37-goal scorer Dennis Ververgaert. The Broad Street Bully glory days were over and the "walk together forever" roster was being broken up little by little. Underachieving newcomers like Ververgaert and Dean were the recipients of fans' frustration for not elevating their games the way their immediate predecessors had. It was unfair, but it was the reality of that period.
Jeff Hackett (Goaltender): By the end of the 2002-03 season, it was clear that Roman Cechmanek's rollercoaster ride in Philly was over. But Hackett was not the replacement that the vast majority of locals were hoping to see. In the early going, though, Hackett temporarily silenced his detractors. He started his Flyers career by posting a pair of shutouts in his first two games, and compiled a 9-2-5 record over his first 16 games. But the booing started when he was assigned the brunt of the blame when he lost eight of nine starts in December to early January. Hackett was regularly letting in weak goals, and the crowds were merciless on him, especially after a 6-5 overtime loss to Tampa Bay where he let in three questionable goals. He was diagnosed with vertigo on Jan. 22. After a one-game rehab stint with the Phantoms, Hackett retired on Feb. 9, 2004. Robert Esche took over as the starter, and the Flyers came within one win of reaching the Stanley Cup Final before losing to eventual champion Tampa.
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