Time to Fight: No One Does It Better Than the Flyers
We here at Flyers Nation and PHLSportsNation have had just about enough of this Coronavirus! Amongst other things (many way more important than sports), it took away all our favorite sports and past times, in particular our beloved Flyers hockey.
We think its high time we fight fire with fire and bring back some of the toughest S.O.B.’s to ever wear the almighty Orange & Blackout of retirement!
CORVID-19: You mess with us, you mess with all our Flyers family, and now you’re gonna get yours.
Sit back and enjoy Flyers fans, as we bring back some of the greatest enforcers in Philadelphia Flyers history, in no particular order.
1) Dave Brown
At 6’5” and 220 lbs, Dave Brown spend 10 seasons in a Flyers uniform, and 3 more with the Edmonton Oilers and San Jose Sharks. In a career with 729 NHL games played, Brown posted 1789 penalty minutes. There weren’t too many men who were more feared in the NHL from the mid-80’ to the early ’90s. Montreal Canadiens legend Chris Nilan once called Dave Brown “One of the toughest men I ever squared off against”.
Now that’s saying something considering Nilan’s pedigree. Brown could occasionally chip in offensively as well, having a 10-goal season and a 12-goal season. Brown was an absolute fearless fighter.
One thing is for sure, all his teammates felt 6 inches taller and 30 pounds heavier when Dave Brown was in the lineup. Take a look at how easily Brown finishes off Tie Domi:
2) Craig “Chief” Berube
The 6’1”, 205 lbs Craig Berube played 17 seasons in the NHL, including parts of 7 seasons wearing the Orange & Black. In 1054 NHL games, Berube unbelievably accumulated 3149 penalty minutes. In 6 of his 17 NHL seasons, Berube had 199 or more penalty minutes including one of 305 PIM’s! Berube never backs down from a challenge and made the most of his opportunities.
Berube had limited hockey skills, but he had a huge heart and a ton of hockey smarts. He is so knowledgeable that after his playing days were over, he started coaching and eventually landed the head coaching job right here in Philly. In 2019, Berube used that knowledge to lead the St. Louis Blues to their first-ever Stanley Cup victory.
I still remember the first time I met Berube circa 2003 and shook his hand, I just could not believe that a normal man can have hands that big, and I remember thinking “Man, I would not want to be on the other end of one of those punches”.
3) Dave “The Hammer” Schultz
At 6’1” 185 lbs, Dave Schultz played in Philadelphia during the heyday of the Broad Street Bullies, from 1972 to 1976. Although his time in Philly was relatively short with only 297 games played in a Flyers sweater, Schultz accounted for an incredible 1386 penalty minutes as a Flyer. That includes 259 PIM’s as a rookie, 348 PIM’s in his sophomore season, a whopping 472 PIM’s in his third year and 307 PIM’s in his final season as a member of the Philadelphia Flyers.
To this day, “The Hammer” still holds the record for most PIM’s in a season with that 472 and has another season that ranks 4th all-time with 405 PIMs.
As you can see Schultz has 2 of the top 4 seasons with the most PIM’s. Dave Schultz’s job as a member of the Flyers was simple: Don’t let anything happen to the Flyers skilled players and make space on the ice for them to do what they do best. It might seem a little barbaric, but that was the reality of the NHL in those days. “The Hammer” did that job so well in fact, that he helped the Flyers get to 3 Stanley Cup finals in 4 years, including winning 2 of them. Check out this incredible compilation of the Hammer’s fights:
4) Paul Holmgren
At 6’3” 210 lbs, Paul Holmgren was a heavyweight. He spent 8 seasons as a member of the Flyers (as a player) and another as a member of the Minnesota North Stars. In 527 games he played in the NHL, Holmgren accumulated 1684 PIM’s, including one of 306 PIM’s in the 1980-81 season.
Of this list, Holmgren was the most skilled player as shown in his career stats of 144 goals and 323 points in those 527 games. What many don’t remember is that Holmgren had a 30-goal season in 1979-80, a season in which he also had 267 PIM’s.
In that season in particular, if Holmgren wasn’t scoring goals there was a good chance he was sitting in the penalty box after pummelling someone.
5) Behn Wilson
The 6’2” 209 lbs Wilson is a little lesser known than the others on this list, but that doesn’t deny the fact that Wilson was an absolute beast. During his 9-year career, Wilson played 5 seasons for the Flyers from 1978 to 1983 accumulating a total of 1480 PIM’s.
In the early 1980s, Wilson was widely considered the undisputed fighting champion of the NHL.
To Flyers fans delight, Wilson started the 1980-81 season by obliterating Clarke Gilles in a fight and the rest is history. Watch it here:
Honorable Mentions
Mel Bridgman, Todd Fedoruk, Dan Kordic, Donald Brashear, Chris McAllister, Rick Tocchet, Jack “Wolfman” McIlhargey, Ray Emery, Dan Carcillo, Riley Cote… just feel like we can go on and on doesn’t it? Heck, even Gritty is unquestionably the toughest Mascot in all of the sports!
So COVID-19, you still wanna mess with our Flyers Hockey? Yeah, we didn’t think so. Now get lost and let there be hockey, BABY!
The Philadelphia Flyers have some unfinished business to take care of!
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