Scott Stevens rag-dolling Eric Lindros in a Devils-Flyers game. Late-90s rivalry at full temperature. Two captains, two heavy teams, and one image that still gets passed around anytime people talk about the Flyers’ identity.

Honest question: did the Flyers ever really get their edge back after this era? Not a random tough season, but that full “nobody wants to play us” culture they used to hang their hat on.

Was this just one moment in a brutal rivalry, or does it feel like the point where the Broad Street Bullies aura finally slipped into nostalgia?

24 comments

  6. I’m not sure the identity then was worth recovering. It was an awesome squad but outclassed by other teams. Management realized it wouldn’t work and moved on.

    I’m still mad management had never gotten the goalie right. I’m so sick of all these other teams rolling out studs while the Flyers stumble along.

  8. Flyers did Lindros no favors by constantly rushing him back, his brain didn’t have enough time to recover between like 5 different brain injuries.

  10. I think of the Flyers in terms of “eras”. This was obviously the end of the “Lindros era”. Then they went on a journey where they kept trying to find a replacement for him (Primeau, Roenick, Forsberg), I call this the “post-Lindros era”. I consider this to have ended in 2007, when they seemed to give up on that strategy and went for little Danny B instead. This and the emergence of the Old City crew began the “Old City era”. This ended very dramatically in 2011 and began the “Giroux era”. Obviously this ended with trading him and now we’re in the “post-Giroux era” with no real face of the franchise, direction or identity.

    Will this become the Michkov or Martone era? I don’t think so. It’s more like the pre-Lindros era. This team is going to be treading water until they either win the lottery in a year with a special talent, or make a massive trade to get one. I don’t know how the latter happens in the modern NHL though.

  12. It definitely was a turning point in our franchise. Tbf the Flyers did him absolutely no favors in allowing him to come back after multiple concussions in a short timeframe. Obviously we didn’t know the true impact of concussions back then as we do now so hindsight is 20/20.

  14. I think the Salary Cap did more damage to the Flyers organization than Scott Stevens ever did. This franchise used to write checks on July 1 to plug holes, but that doesn’t scale into a hard cap league. They never had to actually develop a pipeline of players, which is more and more the dominant path in this league.

  19. Do most fans these days consider the 96/97 team as part of the “Broadstreet Bullies” lineage? I’m not gonna fight ya on it but I’m not sure what “edge” they lost. Not to say the Flyers through the 90’s-00’s werent tough or anything but they clearly didnt play the same style as Clarke-era boys.

    The Panthers are playing a modern “Broadstreet Bully” way so the style ain’t dead.

  22. They have to think now. Was easy pezzy before writing unlimited cheques like drunken sailors.

  24. They lost the “bullies” after the hit. We are basically the NY Jets of the NHL. Bad drafts, over value “meh” players. Over paying players past their prime. Bad luck with injuries. Never fully in rebuild mode. Cant find a QB (goalie). Cap purgatory. I can go on if you’d life…

    Side note: Can we fire Brent Flahr? What does he do? He’s from the chuck fletcher regime so I don’t understand.

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