Broad Street Bullies Tribute

It's August and no matter how hard you look there is absolutely no news surrounding the Flyers. Free agency has passed, and the only thing to do now is to sit and wait for training camp and pre-season to begin. So with no real news coming out about the Flyers, I decided to do a tribute to the Broad Street Bullies, the Flyers team that won back to back Stanley Cups in the mid 70's.

The other day I watched the HBO documentary on the Broad Street Bullies and I was blown away. As a Flyers fan, I had obviously heard of the Bullies and guys like Bobby Clarke, Dave Schultz, and Bernie Parent, but I never fully understood the impact that they had on this city and the game of hockey overall.

They were a brutal, nasty bunch of guys that kicked and clawed their way to the top of the hockey world. What I loved most about the Bullies was the fact that they were such a close knit team. If you even looked at Bobby Clarke weird, you were sure to get a knock to the head compliments of Schultz. Their physical and fighting mentality invoked fear into all of their opponents and brought rule changes by the NHL later on.

The Bullies style of play did a great job of opening up their offensive attack as Clarke, Rick Macleish, Reggie Leash and Bill Barber led the way.

Bernie Parent was the Flyers last line of defense and will go down in Flyers history as one of the best goaltenders ever. If you scored a goal on Bernie in practice, he would be sure to fire the puck right back at you in anger and disgust.

The tradition of playing a Kate Smith recording of God Bless America began with the Bullies. The Flyers would play it before big games and boasted a remarkable record when the song was played.

Led by head coach Fred Shero, in 1973-74 the Flyers put together a 50-16-12 record enough to earn them tops in their division. In the playoffs the Flyers rolled over opponents and eventually beat the Boston Bruins in the final to give Philadelphia it's first Stanley Cup. The next season they went 51-18-11 and again made the Stanley Cup. They beat the Buffalo Sabres in 6 games and marched down Broad Street once again atop the hockey world.

As a team they were also a part of the memorable game against the Soviet Union's Central Red Army team. The team from the Soviet Union were touring the United States and until the matchup against the Flyers had been unbeaten. The physical play of the Bullies was too much for the Red Army to handle and mid way through the first period they actually left the ice but returned after Snider informed them they wouldn't get paid. The Flyers went on to win by a final of 4-1.

Overall the Bullies will be remembered as one of the best teams in both Flyers and Philadelphia sports history. They radically changed how the game of hockey was played and is the main reason why the Flyers are known for their hard hitting physical tradition of play.

It's kind of sad in a way that the Broad Street Bullies are still the only team to bring this storied franchise a Stanley Cup title. When you look back on some of the great teams of this franchise it really hurts to know that the Bullies are still the only team that has gotten it done. Looking ahead to this year, the Flyers usher in a new era of hockey behing newly acquired goalie Ilya Bryzgalov. Even if the Flyers are able to win this year, the memories of Flyers hockey in the 70's will never be forgotten, and the legacy of the Broad Street Bullies will live on forever.