A sometimes frequent look back at how the Philadelphia Flyers have fared on this day, recalling some of the more memorable moments, achievements, and events that have shaped the organization throughout the club’s storied history
The Flyers have a 6-3-1-1 record in 11 all-time October 7 outings, posting a 2-0-1 mark in their last three played on this date going back to 2005. The team won four consecutive October 7 contests from 1982 through 1996, outscoring their opponents by a 26-9 margin over that span, due in large part to 23 goals scored in the three games from 1982-1995.
1972 — Bobby Clarke’s power play goal midway through the third period gave the Flyers a 4-3 lead, but Jack Egers struck for the second time in the contest with 4:25 remaining to forge a 4-4 tie with the St. Louis Blues at St. Louis Arena in the Flyers’ 1972/73 regular season opener.
The home team came out strong and fired 17 shots on Philadelphia goaltender Doug Favell in the first 20 minutes, capturing a 2-1 lead on goals from Kevin O’Shea and Egers book-ended around one from the Flyers’ Bill Flett.
After Garry Unger gave the Blues a two-goal lead early in the middle frame, goals from Rick MacLeish and Bill Clement made it a 3-3 tilt heading into the final session.
St. Louis again carried play in the third and outshot the visitors by a 14-9 margin with the teams trading a goal-apiece to end in the deadlock. Favell finished with 37 saves in the 41-shot barrage he faced, while the Blues’ Jacques Caron was able to stop 27 of 31 Philadelphia offerings.
Rookie defenseman Tom Bladon — selected in the second round (23rd-overall) in the previous summer’s entry draft — picked up his first NHL point with an assist on Clement’s goal in the second period.
1982 — Goals by Brian Propp, Bill Barber, and Ray Allison within a 35-second span snapped a 5-5 tie midway through the third period and turned what was a nail-biter into an eventual 9-5 rout of the Quebec Nordiques at the Spectrum in the 1982/83 regular season opener.
The nine goals in a regular season opening contest broke the previous record of seven, set two years earlier against the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Spectrum, while the trio of goals in 0:35 tied a club record set three years earlier against the Boston Bruins.
Both Barber and rookie Dave Michayluk scored a pair of goals (what would turn out to be Michayluk’s only goals in the NHL), while Allison added three helpers to go along with his goal. Bobby Clarke also had a trio of assists, including two in 12 seconds on the Barber and Allison goals in the rapid third period siege.
Neither netminder fared very well in this one. Philly’s Rick St. Croix stopped 26 of the 31 Nords’ shots he faced to pick up the win — a recipient of the nine goals of offensive support he received — while Quebec’s John Garrett yielded all nine Flyers’ goals on just 36 shots on goal.
1990 — After spotting the Detroit Red Wings a 2-0 lead in the first 3:23 of play, the Flyers stormed back with seven unanswered goals from seven different goal scorers in a 7-2 thrashing of Detroit at the Spectrum in Philadelphia’s home opener.
Steve Yzerman beat Flyers goalkeeper Ken Wregget just 26 ticks after the opening faceoff, and Marc Habscheid doubled the Red Wings’ lead with teammate Rick Zombo sitting in the sin bin less than three minutes later.
Tim Kerr got the Flyers on the board 10 seconds after Habscheid was sent off for holding midway through the stanza, cutting the Detroit lead in half at the first intermission.
Tony Horacek set up Normand Lacombe 1:28 into the second session to tie it up, then scored the go-ahead goal himself just 27 seconds later to give Philly a lead they would not relinquish. Before the period was half gone, tough guy Craig Berube and second-year defenseman Jiri Latal had added tallies to make it a 5-1 Flyers’ lead, prompting Wings head coach Bryan Murray to yank starter Tim Cheveldae in favor of Glen Hanlon.
Wingers Pat Murray and Rick Tocchet added third period markers to close out the scoring. The seven-goal parade came after the team had struggled to score in their first two outings of the 1990/91 campaign, managing just a single goal each in losses at Boston and New Jersey to open the year.
1995 — Eric Lindros notched a Gordie Howe hat trick while John LeClair, Rod Brind’Amour and Patrick Juhlin each added a goal and two assists, as the Flyers blasted the Montreal Canadiens by a 7-1 count at the Forum in the 1995/96 regular season opener.
Juhlin opened the scoring by beating Patrick Roy 3:02 into the contest, with goals from Lindros, former-Hab LeClair, and Rob DiMaio following to make it a 4-0 Philadelphia lead after one.
Things didn’t get any better for the home squad early on in the middle frame, as Brent Fedyk ended Roy’s night 2:12 into the period, with Patrick Labrecque taking over between the pipes rfor the Canadiens.
Brind’Amour made it a half-dozen goal lead less than four minutes later, before Montreal finally got on the board via ex-Flyer Mark Recchi’s shorthanded strike at 7:58.
Mikael Renberg closed out the scoring with a power play tally late in regulation, with former-Canadiens LeClair and Eric Desjardins picking up the helpers.
The Legion of Doom Line (LeClair goal, 2 assists – Lindros goal, assist – Renberg goal, 2 assists) combined for eight points in the romp. Lindros scored a first period goal then assisted on LeClair’s 1:31 later, then fought Hab’s defender Stephane Quintal late in the second period (Quintal was also dealt a game misconduct for the skirmish) to complete his third career Gordie Howe hat trick.
1996 — The Flyers used lethal special teams to erase a third period deficit as Rod Brind’Amour’s shorthanded goal and Karl Dykhuis’ power play marker turned a 1-0 New Jersey Devils lead into an eventual 3-1 Philadelphia victory at the CoreStates Center, the 700th win in franchise history.
Ron Hextall and Martin Brodeur were locked in a goaltender’s duel until late in the second period, when New Jersey’s Tom Chambers broke the ice with a power play marker with Philadelphia Kjell Samuelsson having been assessed a spearing major and game misconduct. Chambers moved in and redirected a Bill Guerin pass past Hextall to make it 1-0 with 1:37 remaining in the middle frame.
The Chambers tally would be all the Devils were to get from that major man advantage, with Brind’Amour’s shorthander at 1:08 of the third period evening the goal count for the clubs during the penalty time.
Following Dykhuis’ PP strike — a rocket from just inside the blue line that the defenseman blew past Brodeur on the short side — Shjon Podein gave Hextall some breathing room with less than eight minutes to go in regulation with another long slap shot that glanced off defenseman Jason Smith and past the goalie to close out the scoring.
The contest didn’t have the amount of intensity and nastiness usually seen when these divisional rivals met, as both team captains were absent for the tilt. Eric Lindros (groin) was injured, and nemesis Scott Stevens was serving a one-game suspension for a high-sticking infraction against Igor Larionov in the Devils’ season opener against the Detroit Red Wings.
2005 — Simon Gagne kickstarted a comeback from a two-goal deficit with a pair of second period goals, and Jon Sim provided the eventual game-winning tally 18 seconds into the third in a Flyers 5-2 triumph over the New Jersey Devils at the Wachovia Center.
Power play goals from Jamie Langenbrunner and Alexander Mogilny gave the visitors a 2-0 lead before Gagne’s two strikes in the latter half of the second knotted things up heading into the final stanza.
Michal Handzus gave Flyers’ netminder Antero Niittymaki some breathing room when he made it 4-2 at 6:09, and former-Devil Turner Stephenson notched his first (and only) goal as a Flyer when he beat Martin Brodeur for a shorthander midway through the frame to close out the scoring.
Peter Forsberg — signed as an UFA over the summer — assisted on both of Gagne’s goals, giving him four assists in his first two games as a Flyer.
2010 — Claude Giroux’s shorthanded goal early in the third period proved to be the game-winning goal and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 29 of the 31 shots he faced in his NHL debut to lead the Flyers to a 3-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins in the inaugural game at the CONSOL Energy Center and the Flyers’ 2010/11 regular season opener.
Second period goals from Daniel Briere and Blair Betts gave the visitors a 2-0, but Tyler Kennedy netted the first Penguins goal in their new building 0:44 into the third period to cut the lead in half.
With Pittsburgh gaining all of the momentum and storming the Philadelphia net defenseman Andrej Meszaros was called for roughing at 3:15, and it appeared the Penguins were about to even the score as they controlled play.
That is, before Giroux turned things around rather quickly. He anticipated a Kris Letang pass for Paul Martin, stepped in the lane and stole the pass, and skated in alone on Marc-Andre Fleury. Giroux faked to the forehand and flipped a backhander past the fallen goaltender to restore Philly’s two-goal lead.
Pittsburgh got that one back just 19 seconds later when Alex Goligoski beat Bobrovsky while the Penguins still skated with a man advantage, but that was all the Russian goalie would allow as he slammed the door shut the rest of the way to preserve the 3-2 win.
At 22 years, 17 days old, Bobrovsky became the youngest netminder to play in a Philadelphia season opener. He was the surprise starter with Michael Leighton — the incumbent Flyers’ starter — out for at least the first few weeks of the season with a back injury, and most thought Brian Boucher would be between the pipes for Philly.
Bobrovsky did not disappoint, and his play began what has been a Flyers’ mastery of the Penguins at CONSOL.
