1967–68 Philadelphia Flyers season



The 1967–68 Philadelphia Flyers season was the Philadelphia Flyers' inaugural season and the 1st National Hockey League (NHL) season in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania since the Philadelphia Quakers' 1930–31 season.

Off-season
Philadelphia waited almost 35 years from when the Quakers' played their last home game (a 4–0 loss to Chicago on March 17, 1931) for the NHL to return when the city was awarded an expansion franchise on February 9, 1966. Philadelphia was a bit of a surprise choice since a group from the nearby city of Baltimore were considered favorites to land a team.

The man who often receives the most credit for bringing NHL hockey back to Philadelphia is Ed Snider. While attending a basketball game in 1964 at the Boston Garden, the then vice-president of the Philadelphia Eagles observed a crowd of Boston Bruins fans lining up to purchase tickets to see a last-place team. Intrigued, he began making plans for a new arena upon hearing the NHL was looking to expand due to fears of a competing league taking hold on the West Coast and the desire for a new television contract in the United States. Snider made his proposal to the league and the Philadelphia group &mdash; including Snider, Bill Putnam, Jerome Schiff, and Eagles owner Jerry Wolman &mdash; was chosen over the Baltimore group.

On April 4, 1966, Putnam announced there would be a name-the-team contest and that orange, black and white would be the team colors. Wanting what he referred to as "hot" colors, Putnam's choice was influenced by the orange and white of his alma mater, the University of Texas, and the orange and black of Philadelphia's previous NHL team, the Quakers. Also announced on April 4 was the hiring of a Chicago firm to design the team's arena.

Details of the name-the-team contest were released on July 12, 1966. As sponsor of the contest, ballots were available at local Acme Markets grocery stores and included a top prize of a RCA 21" color television, two season tickets for both the second and third prize winners, and a pair of tickets to a game for the next 100 winners. Among the names considered behind the scenes were Quakers, Ramblers, and Liberty Bells. The first two were the names of previous Philadelphia hockey teams and given the connotations of losing (Quakers) and the minor leagues (Ramblers), were passed over. Liberty Bells, though seriously considered, was also the name of a local race track. Bashers, Blizzards, Bruisers, Huskies, Keystones, Knights, Lancers, Raiders, and Sabres were among the other names considered.

It was Ed Snider's sister Phyllis who ended up naming the team when she suggested Flyers on a return trip from a Broadway play. Ed knew immediately it would be the winning name, since it captured the speed of the game and went well phonetically with Philadelphia. On August 3, 1966, the team name was announced. Of the 11,000 ballots received, more than 100 selected Flyers as the team name and were entered into a drawing to select a winner. 9-year-old boy Alec Stockard from Narberth, Pennsylvania, who had spelled it "Fliers" on his entry, won the drawing and was declared the winner.

With the name and colors already known, Philadelphia advertising firm Mel Richmann Inc. was hired to design a logo and jersey. With Tom Paul as head of the project, artist Sam Ciccone designed both the logo and jerseys with the concept to represent speed. Ciccone's winged P design, four stylized wings attached to a slanted P with an orange dot to represent a puck, was considered the "obvious choice" over his other designs which included a winged skate. Ciccone's jersey design, a stripe down each shoulder and down the arms, represented wings.

The men hired to build the expansion Flyers were Bud Poile as General Manager and Keith Allen as Head Coach. Both were former NHL players and were Western Hockey League coaches in the years preceding expansion, Poile with the San Francisco Seals and Allen with the Seattle Totems. On May 8, 1967, the Flyers purchased the American Hockey League's Quebec Aces and with them acquired the NHL rights to eleven players, including Bill Sutherland and Ed Hoekstra. The NHL Expansion Draft was held a month later on June 6. The six expansion franchises selected 20 players from the Original Six teams, though most of the players available were either aging veterans or career minor-leaguers before expansion occurred. Among the Flyers' 20 selections were Bernie Parent, Doug Favell, Ed Van Impe, Joe Watson, Lou Angotti (who would be named the Flyers' first captain), Leon Rochefort, and Gary Dornhoefer. The following day, the Flyers made two selections in the 1967 NHL Amateur Draft, notably Serge Bernier 5th overall from the Sorel Éperviers.

The Flyers inaugural jersey colours were orange, white and black with a primarily orange home jersey and a primarily white away jersey. The jerseys had one stripe on the body with shoulder yolks that ended down the sleeves with a colour change just before the sleeve end. There were no names on the back and the jersey numbers were not outlined. The logo was a stylized "P" with wings and a dot in the center. These jerseys would remain in use with very minor modifications for the next thirteen seasons.

Pre-season
The Flyers held their training camp in Quebec City, Quebec. They played an exhibition game on October 3, 1967 against the Minnesota North Stars at Kingston, Ontario and won 4-3.

Regular Season
The Flyers made their debut on October 11, 1967, losing 5–1 on the road to the Oakland Seals. Bill Sutherland scored the first goal in franchise history. They won their first game a week later, defeating the St. Louis Blues on the road, 2–1. The Flyers made their home debut in front of a crowd of 7,812, shutting out their trans-Pennsylvania rivals, the Pittsburgh Penguins, 1–0 on October 19, 1967. With all six expansion teams grouped into the same division, the Flyers were able to win the division with a below .500 record and after being forced to play their last seven home games on the road due to a March 1, 1968 storm blowing parts of the Spectrum's roof off.

On March 3, 1968, the Flyers played the Oakland Seals in an afternoon game at Madison Square Garden. That evening at MSG, the New York Rangers played the Chicago Black Hawks, making it the first double-header in NHL history.

On February 7, 1968, the Boston Bruins played the Flyers at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. At 9:33 of the first period, Eddie Shack and Larry Zeidel collided. In a grudge going back 10 years, Zeidel swung his stick twice at Shack, hitting his shoulder and then his head. Shack retaliated, resulting in both players suffering head injuries and bleeding profusely. Both were given game misconducts. Zeidel then rushed the Bruins bench and later claimed that insults about him being Jewish was the cause. Later, while Shack was being stitched up, Zeidel tried to attack him in the infirmary. The Bruins triumphed 2-1 for their fifth consecutive win. NHL President Clarence Campbell viewed game footage and declared Zeidel the instigator and suspended him for four games while Shack received three.

The Flyers' top goal scorer that first season, Leon Rochefort, scored only 21 times while Lou Angotti led the team with 49 points. The main reason the Flyers won the West Division was due to their team defense and goaltending as they had the best goal against in the division and third best in the league. Boston Bruins products Doug Favell and Bernie Parent split the netminding duties and both finished in the top ten of league goals against average. With hardnosed players as Gary Dornhoefer, Ed Van Impe and Forbes Kennedy, the team showed the first glimmers of the "Broad Street Bullies" of future years.

St. Louis Blues 4, Philadelphia Flyers 3
The Flyers returned to The Spectrum in time to open up their first playoff series on April 4, 1968 against the St. Louis Blues. The Blues came into the series as underdogs, but they took Game 1, 1–0. Pat Hannigan scored the Flyers first ever playoff goal 1:32 into the first period of Game 2. Tied going into the third period, Leon Rochefort's goal with 13:09 left proved to be the game winner in a 4–3 result. The series shifted to St. Louis and the Flyers lost both Games 3 and 4. With the Flyers on the verge of elimination, Rosaire Paiement scored a hat trick in Game 5 and the Flyers won 6–1. Returning to St. Louis for Game 6, Don Blackburn’s goal with 8:42 left in the 2nd overtime forced a Game 7. However, the Flyers lost Game 7 by a score of 3–1.

Skaters
Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalties in minutes

†Denotes player spent time with another team before joining Flyers. Stats reflect time with the Flyers only.

‡Traded mid-season

Bold/italics denotes franchise record

Goaltenders
Note: GP = Games played; TOI = Time on ice (minutes); W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; GA = Goals against; SO = Shutouts; SV% = Save percentage; GAA = Goals against average

Transactions
The Flyers were involved in the following transactions before/during the 1967–68 season.

Draft Picks
Philadelphia's picks at the 1967 NHL Amateur Draft in Montreal, Quebec.

Farm Teams
The Flyers were affiliated with the Quebec Aces of the AHL, whom they purchased on May 8, 1967, the Seattle Totems of the WHL, and the Knoxville Knights of the EHL. Quebec finished second in their division and made it to the Calder Cup Finals before losing to the Rochester Americans in six games. Head coach Vic Stasiuk was awarded the Louis A. R. Pieri Memorial Award as coach of the year and Simon Nolet won the John B. Sollenberger Trophy as the league's leading scorer. Seattle finished 2nd in the 5-team WHL and won the Lester Patrick Cup as league champions. Knoxville finished 9th in the 12-team EHL and missed the playoffs in what proved to be their final season in existence.

Trivia

 * Flyers who recorded a hat trick this season include:
 * Leon Rochefort during the 4-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens on November 4, 1967.
 * Leon Rochefort during the 7-3 win over the Minnesota North Stars on February 22, 1968.