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The Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Caps are both physical teams when they bring their A-games. I expect this to be a hard-hitting series with the potential for some fights and frequent scrums after the whistle and at the end of periods (something that used to be a given, but has happened much less often in recent years).
But the folks out there who are predicting a bloodbath and saying this year's Flyers play anything like the "Broad Street Bullies" of old are so far off base, it's ridiculous. Going in, I don't think this series will reach the level of nastiness in the brawl-laden and injury-filled Flyers-Tampa Bay first round playoff series of 1996, much less bring to mind some of the most violent playoff incidents of the Broad Street Bullies and Mike Keenan eras.
As someone who grew up with Flyers hockey of the 1970s and 1980s, I find it laughable that anyone would draw a parallel between the current team and the clubs of the past.
Yes, early in the season there was a series of incidents that resulted in five Flyers being suspended. But, in truth, the last two suspensions were influenced by the publicity from the Steve Downie, Jesse Boulerice and Randy Jones incidents (the last of which was a legitimate hockey play gone bad, and hardly the only dangerous hit from behind we've seen in recent years).
Around the NHL, infractions that were worse than either Scott Hartnell's hit on Andrew Alberts or Riley Cote's high hit on Matt Niskanen did not result in suspensions.
The play with Hartnell, in which he was snowplowing as he hit a prone Alberts, was arguably the most overblown incident of the year. If the Jones-Bergeron incident hadn't happened, the very same play that got Hartnell suspended would have been called a penalty but probably wouldn't have resulted in further discipline.
Cote's hit was gratuitous and stupid -- and worthy of a one or two game suspension (he got three) even though no harm resulted. But, frankly, there was a double-standard at work by this point.
The Cote play was absolutely no worse than the Islanders' Andy Sutton hitting Lasse Kukkonen from behind at the final buzzer, Georges Laraque clipping Martin Biron or Laraque hitting Steve Downie from behind and then claiming Downie hurled himself head-first into the boards in an effort to draw a penalty. None of those were punished by the league, nor did the Flyers raise a public fuss about it.
Moreover, in the second half of the season, the Flyers actually seemed to lose their aggressiveness for a period of several weeks. I doubt that it had anything to do with the league warning the Flyers. I think it was symptomatic of the many areas where the Flyers lost their way in the first dozen games after the All Star Break.
Down the stretch, the Flyers rediscovered their physical game. But they're hardly a team of bloodthirsty madmen. The Flyers are no more or less ruthless than any other team.
They hit, they get hit. Some of the hits are borderline or over the line. Those plays should be dealt with appropriately. Such is hockey, especially in the playoffs.
If you don't like intensely physical hockey, don't watch the playoffs. Both the Flyers and Capitals have guys who play aggressive, in-your-face games. That makes for an intriguing playoff matchup. But it doesn't make for a bloodbath.
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Here's a quick playoff history lesson from the Flyers past to show how insane it is to try to liken this current team to the Broad Street Bullies or even the Mike Keenan-era clubs. The following incidents are typical of the excesses of the past -- of which the Flyers were hardly the only culprits -- and that you would almost certainly not see the likes of today:
In 1973, when the Flyers won a playoff series for the first time in franchise history, a key turning point in the first-round matchup with the Minnesota North Stars occurred in the final minute of play in Game 3.
Minnesota won the game handily to go up in the series, two games to one. With the outcome of the game no longer in doubt, Dave "the Hammer" Schultz decided to send a message for the remainder of the series. As soon as he hit the ice, he made a beeline for Minnesota's top scorer, Dennis Hextall.
Schultz dropped the gloves before he even got there, and Hextall (no shrinking violet himself) met the challenge, despite the fact he was a first-liner being pursued by a Flyers' fourth-liner. He refused to turtle. During the course of the fight, Schultz pummeled Hextall and even headbutted him. As he was escorted off the ice by linesman Ron Finn, Schultz taunted the irate Minnesota bench and fans.
Schultz crossed the line, for sure. But there was a method to the madness. Coincidentally or not, in the next 130-plus minutes of hockey played in the series, Minnesota held a lead for a grand total of 36 seconds. The Flyers won the next two games to go up three games to two. After trailing early in Game Six, the Flyers won the game and series going away.
The next year, en route to the Flyers first Stanley Cup, Schultz left Dennis' brother, Bryan Hextall, a bloody mess during the Flyers first round series sweep of the Atlanta Flames. The next round was a seven-game war of attrition between the Flyers and Rangers with numerous players on both sides put out of commision for the duration of the playoffs.
In the deciding seventh game, Schultz laid a beatdown on the Rangers' Dale Rolfe that was an even more lopsided version of the Dennis Hextall fight, complete with hair-pulling and a headbutt that left Rolfe bloodied.
In the 1976 playoff, the Flyers and Maple Leafs waged a war of a series. The series even saw an overzealous DA in Toronto press criminal charges against the Flyers' Joe Watson, Don Saleski, Bob Kelly and Mel Bridgman stemming from several incidents in the games at Maple Leaf Gardens.
Perhaps most memorably, the Mike Keenan-era Flyers engaged in a wild pre-game brawl with the Canadiens at the Montreal Forum before the sixth game of the 1987 conference finals.
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