Sunday night’s matchup of the Philadelphia Flyers at Buffalo Sabres may not have serious playoff ramifications but it does bring back memories of a bizarre 1975 Stanley Cup Final that had a game played in a fog and featured a bat that was batted down to its death. The series also featured two fine teams and marked both the beginning and the end of an era.
Broad Street Bullies
The Flyers were the defending Stanley Cup Champions and known for their brawling ways. The NHL was in a crisis as its growth from six to 18 teams in a span of seven years coupled with the founding of the rival World Hockey Association in 1972 completely flipped the business model with the inflationary rise in payrolls. Teams were gushing red ink and the Flyers were a hug draw due to their thuggery. But it was that fighting characteristic of the Flyers that turned a lot of fans off of the game and further added to its crisis. The Flyers were considered to be, by many, a threat to the very fabric of the game itself.
Dave “The Hammer” Schultz was the leader of the Bullies with a ridiculous 472 penalty minutes. Andre “Moose” Dupont added 276 minutes in the Sin Bin. Captain Bobby Clarke was a chippy player not afraid to go far beyond the rules. While the Flyers were renowned for fighting, they were also a highly talented team that posted a winning percentage of .706. Clarke was their leading scorer with 27 goals and 89 assists while fellow center Rick MacLeish added 38 goals and 41 assists. Right winger Reggie Leach had 45 goals to lead the team. Dupont was a strong defenseman. But the anchor of the team was Hall of Fame goaltender Bernie Parent, who posted a 2.03 goals against average in 68 regular season games.
The Flyers were coached by Hall of Famer Freddie “The Fog” Shero who was something of an outcast. Shero was the first coach to learn about the Soviet Union hockey style of a more free flowing and creative attack. This was in stark contrast to the traditional NHL style of up and down dump and chase hockey. Shero was also soft spoken, rarely if ever yelled at his players, and would address his players with respect. Nothing makes the stubborn, insular world of the NHL more leery than being different, and Shero was certainly that.
[related_post_one]
The French Connection
The Sabres also had a win percentage of .706 in 1975 and boasted one of the most exciting forward lines in the history of the game. The charismatic and highly skilled French Connection line consisted of Rene Robert, Gilbert Perreault and Rick Martin and is commemorated today with a banner in the rafters of the First Niagara Center. Robert had 40 goals and 60 assists, Perreault had 39 goals and 57 assists, and Martin added 52 goals and 43 assists. What Buffalo lacked was the dominant goaltending of Philadelphia and Parent, which would prove to be the difference in this first ever Stanley Cup Final between pure expansion teams.
The Fog in a Fog
Shero’s Flyers won the first two games of the series in Philadelphia before the series moved to Buffalo for game three. Buffalo’s War Memorial Auditorium lacked air conditioning and the humid weather outside caused the ice to literally fog up, often making the players invisible to the fans. The puck was difficult to see as well and arena employees had to skate around during breaks to try and lift the fog. To further add to an atmosphere more suited for Halloween, a bat flew in and was killed by the stick swung by Sabres center Jim Lorentz. Sabres fans considered the bat incident an evil omen even though Buffalo won the game 5-4 in overtime. Philadelphia would go on to win the series in six games with the clincher in Buffalo 2-0 as Parent shut out the French Connection to give the Flyers their second consecutive Stanley Cup.
NBC Cuts Ties
With the start of its expansion era in 1967, the NHL had national TV contracts with CBS from 1967-72 and then with NBC from 1972-75 but this game marked the end. The low ratings, the expansion crisis of too many teams and not enough players, and the brutal play of the Flyers made NBC execs decide to cut ties with the league. It was the beginning of a dark age for many American fans who were forced to rely on radio for live hockey coverage unless they lived in a NHL city.
