Remember that Flyers game back in December against the St. Louis Blues? Ron Hextall does. As the team was on the ice in South Philadelphia that night, Hextall was out in Southern California at Ed Snider’s house to watch the game with his boss.
At the time, we called that game “the biggest comeback of the year,” and it really was an incredible game. The Flyers went down 3-0 early, and then stormed back in the back half of the game against a very good team to win 4-3.
Ed Snider was sick that night — quite sick, apparently — but he was still over the moon at the win. Here’s how Hextall told the story on Monday morning, holding back tears:
I was fortunate enough to go watch a game with him, the St. Louis game. So I’m sitting in the basement with him and we’re losing 3-0. And he looked at me and said ‘This isn’t the way we planned it.’ I was kinda like, ‘no, it’s not.’
We came back, we won that game with I think three or four minutes left we scored.
At the time he wasn’t doing great, he was in a lot of pain. He was high-fiving. The fourth goal, he got up out of his seat.
That’s … that’s something I’ll never forget.
Ed Snider knew nothing but his passion for Flyers hockey, all the way until this final season of his life.
