1996-97 Philadelphia Flyers

[The Panther]

IIRC, Coffey suffered a concussion in game 2, didn't accompany the team to Detroit for game 3, then was behind the bench in a nice looking blazer for game 4.
View attachment 385340

That's a heck of a blazer.

Coff was getting a little older by '97. Maybe he just wanted a last chance to show off that new blazer before season's end.

 

[slapshot101]

Lindros played clean he didnt need to play dirty like some players do.

 

[slapshot101]

And he played awesome in NHL great career huge impact on league during a brutal era

 

[slapshot101]

Flyers baby I love the Flyers
Lindros is my guy

 

[NigerianNightmare]

I was surprised to hear that the Flyers were the favourites going into the 97 Finals.
Prior to the series, I thought they had a 1 per cent chance against the Red Wings. I was right actually.

I think the 1987 Flyers were a much greater team and they were 50/50 against the peak Oilers

 

[Zanex]

Hextall was garbage for the Flyers in the Final. He got away with it against an injury-riddled NY Rangers team but Detroit just destroyed him. Flyers number 1 reason for not winning a Cup in the Lindros era was they never got a legit starting goalie.

 

[NigerianNightmare]

The underrated big game performer Sergei Fedorov outplayed the overrated big guy Eric Lindros - that was the reason the Wings won the series.

Hextall wasn't the main reason the Flyers lost.

 

[MarkusKetterer]

Was it fully known at the time how serious a second and third concussion could be?

The long term effects weren’t. But they were still basically considered equal to a migraine then. They were considered worse, but equal to a longer lasting migraine and something you could play through.

 

[CharlestownChiefsESC]

I think it was just the great news story of it all. Here was the anointed next one. He had his mvp, he had his 2 years of playoff struggles and now here he was playing at his best. Knocking off Mario Lemieux in round 1 and ending his career at the time and his playoff career. Then knocking off Gretzky and Messier in round 3 where both of thier playoff careers were ended and thier equally good story of trying to win 1 more together was ended by the next one. I think that in the media's head ok now it's his time and here is Detroit. They're good but can't seem to get it done and while presenting a challenge here's the last road block. In a way it was similar to the 1st Patriots Giants superbowl (Brady undefeated narrative)or the 2002 world series (Bonds finally getting his title) or even the 2004 NBA finals (Lakers getting players who never won a title). But with all of them it's like the press forgot the opponent would be playing just as hard if not harder and those opponents were good they weren't pushovers either.

 

[The Panther]

I don't think there was any grand narrative of a predicted Flyers' win in 1997. It's not how I remember it, anyway. Maybe the Cup predictions were pretty close to a 50-50 split, if anything.

With Detroit, any predictions for them have to be put into the context: 1993 =choke. 1994 = choke. 1995 = great season + playoffs... but choke in the Finals. 1996 = choke.

I don't think most people thought the Flyers were necessarily the better club, but rather it was just a case of people's expectations of the Red Wings winning having been dashed so many times that the hockey world was hesitant to expect too much.