In my opionon Flyers, much like the Blues, have no excuses for not winning a cup there. They were good built teams. Both, depending on year, in the discussion with Colorado, Detroit, Dallas and NJ on winning the cup. For sure they were up against som great teams, but everyone is and every era has does who come short... this had St Louis and Philadelphia. And for the record both of them finished ahead of Colorado in the standings a couple of times.
Saying that the 1997 Flyers wasn´t superior to any ot the Avalanche-teams is quite wrong in my opionion. That was a well balanaced team. Good steady defencemen, with an nowadays underappreciated Desjardins leading the pack, some fire power at forward, good role players and great center depth. A Lindros-Brind´Amour-Otto down the center line is a good start for any team wanting a good run. That said, a more reliable goalie would have been prefered... But their biggest fault was that Lindros (and others...) didn´t have the ability that for example Forsberg had to not only outmuscle your opponents, but when facing a defender like Lidstrom, also being able to match him in hockey-IQ and being able to adapt their game.
Forsberg also led the playoffs in scoring twice without even getting to the finals. And 2001 Colorado wouldn´t have come out of the second round without him. He was leading the scoring race threw the first two rounds if I remember correctley. Weird enough, even if not playing the most important role in any of the SC, he was the most consistent Colorado playoff-player. Much like Potvin never getting a Conn Smythe (Potvin obviously being the superior player...). He did his part. And if big parts ot the team, Sakic and Roy included, didn´t disappear some years/series they could have had a couple more cups.
This is close and you could probably argue both. But mentioning playoff is begging for Forsberg to win. I haven´t decided yet, and I´ve been thinking about this since late 90´s
. Peak Lindros is something of the most frigtening I´ve seen. With or without puck. Forsberg altough was more frigthening with the puck. And when he got that look in his eyes almost as frigthening even without the puck...