History of the Broad Street Bullies Era and its Effect (Essay Sample)

[Name]
[Professor]
[Subject]
[Date]
The Change in NHL: Philadelphia Flyers and the Broad Street Bullies Era
If Ice Hockey is the most attractive and entertaining genre in the family of hockey sports, then NHL is indeed the most elite and prestigious league of this game. The National Hockey League was organized for the first time in 1917. At that time, only four teams were part of this league and all of these teams were from Canada. The expansion of the league took place in 1924 as it entered in the USA. NHL has a rich and long history. It is regarded as the most prestigious and premier ice hockey league. But the most notable period of both NHL and the ice hockey sports was the Broad Street Bullies era dominated by the Philadelphia Flyers. Their unique, never before seen aggressive strategy took the game by storm. The display of intense physicality changed the scenario forever. Whereas many critics say that the period was extremely useful in the development of the game, many other critics see it as the darkest period in the history of NHL and ice hockey. But, they all agree to the fact that the Broad Street Bullies era was the most influencing and important period that changed the structure, strategy and the history of NHL forever.
Philadelphia was not fundamentally familiar with hockey. This state of the USA was more familiar with and interested in football. But the change was inevitable. Hockey and NHL had become very popular in many other states of the USA. The flow was continuous and it eventually entered Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Flyers became a part of the NHL at the very beginning of the Expansion Era (1967-1992). Before this period, there were only six teams in the main frame of the NHL. Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings, New York Rangers, Chicago Black Hawks, and Montreal Canadiens were the six participating teams in this era. These six teams perfectly carried and maintained the heritage, prestige, and glamour of the NHL. Ice hockey was always known as a physical game. But the structure of this game included mutual respect, great professional understanding on and off the field, and a non-bloody gameplay for all. But the whole scenario changed with the advent of the Expansion era.
The era of the original six ended as the structure of the NHL demanded an expansion which called for the addition of more teams within the league. The original idea was to double the number of participating teams and to promote the game of ice hockey to every corner of Canada and USA. Several applications were received from a number of states. After years of discussion, the parent organization decided to include six teams namely the Philadelphia Flyers, St. Louis Blues, Los Angeles Kings, Minnesota North Stars, Oakland Seals and Pittsburgh Penguins. No one had the idea that this era will become the most influencing period in the history of ice hockey and NHL. The Philadelphia Flyers pioneered a new strategy of playing as they initiated and dominated the Broad Street Bullies era.
The Philadelphia Flyers did not have any immediate success in the league. After they were included, they managed to play the post season league for the first two seasons. But at both times, they were defeated by the St. Louis Blues. The Flyers were gradually improving but that was not enough to achieve the desired success. They were not just beaten on the scoreboard but they were heavily physically beaten too. A number of players of the squad suffered from injuries. This called for Ed Snider and his boys to have a different approach and strategy CITATION Par12 \l 1033 (Parent and Hochman). They invented a unique and amazing physical gameplay. Until the 1972-73 season, the Philadelphia Flyers was recognized as a mediocre team. Suddenly, they emerged as one of the most influencing, important, major, and brutal force in the segment of ice hockey and NHL.
The Philadelphia Flyers used to play their home matches at the Spectrum on the Broad Street. These players started to play with intense aggressiveness and violent intention. They started to dominate the other teams. This domination was so brutal that the Flyers gained the nickname Broad Street Bullies. On 3rd January 1973, the Philadelphia Flyers literally engaged themselves with the Atlanta Flames. They dominated the other team, attacked them physically, muscled them out of the scenario of the game and secured a 3-1 victory. This game was so intense in physical brutality and intensity, that Philadelphia Bulletin's Pete Cafone termed the Flyers collectively as the Broad Street Bullies CITATION Jac74 \l 1033 (Chevalier). Thus, the magical and skillful game of hockey suddenly turned into a game of violence. The Flyers squad was starred with players like Bobby Clarke, Dave Schultz, Bob Kelly, Don Saleski, Andre Dupont and Bernie Parent. These names started to strike fear in the hearts of their opponents. Every time they entered an arena to play a game, the opponent got heavily intimidated. It became somewhat obvious that the Flyers will literally fight their way to the victory. The world of ice hockey and the stage of NHL had never seen such a brutal and intimidating team before that, and there never has been such an aggressive and dominating ice hockey team till now.
The Broad Street Bullies initiated an era of extremely physical play style. This gained them a number of enemies of and off the game court. They engaged in an intensely physical rivalry with St. Louis Blues, Minnesota North Stars, New York Rangers and many other teams. Bobby Clarke was the young and dynamic captain of the Philadelphia Flyers during that time. This toothless captain was portrayed and presented as the face of the bullying and fighting they were associated with. He was the youngest captain in NHL history at that time. Clarke was aggressive and charismatic. He was perfectly accompanied by David Schultz. He was the main enforcer behind the display of brutal physical force. David became famous for his intense aggressive nature. He engaged in a number of fights. He always came forward and intimidated the person who ever dared to threaten him or any of his teammates this way or the other. His physically dominating style earned him the nickname The Hammer. He really hammered his opponents when necessary as well as when it was not so needed. During the 1974-75 season, David established an all-time record for the most penalty minutes (472 minutes). Andre Dupont was second in terms of having most penalty minutes in that season. During the 1974-75 season, the dominant stars of this team were involved in as much as 77 fights with different opponents CITATION Jay00 \l 1033 (Greenberg). This clearly shows how aggressive and violent these players were. The Philadelphia Flyers' stars were not only involved in fights on the ice hockey court but they were also known for their engagement in brawls outside the field. The Broad Street Bullies were charged for using obscene language and common assault on spectators for several times. They were presented in front of the court, they went through trials, they were penalized and suspended but all of these could not hold back these layers from continuing with their violent style of play CITATION Chu09 \l 1033 (Gormley).
These players were not only physically strong and violent but they were highly talented and skilled too. Their skills eventually got somewhat overshadowed as they continued to make the place into the headlines due to their more familiar representation of bullying. But their talent can never be ignored. The mixture of highly skilled expertise and physical domination established the Philadelphia Flyers as one of the major teams in the NHL history. They won a number of games. They won back to back Stanley Cups in 1973-74 and 1974-75 season. The Flyers became the first expansion team to defeat an Original Six team in a playoff series and to win the Stanley Cup as well. In the seasons of 1972-73 and 1974-75, Bobby Clarke won the Hart Memorial Trophy which is awarded to the Most Valuable Player of NHL for a particular season. In 1974-75 season, Clarke registered 89 assists -- a record for most number of assists at that time. Bernie parent won Vezina trophy for the two successive times in the 1973-74 and 1974-75 seasons. During the 1972-73 season, Rick MacLeish registered another record as he became the first Flyer to reach the milestone of 50 goals. Clarke was extremely famous for his stickhandling. Parent was considered as an excellent goalkeeper. Leach became an extremely renowned professional for his exquisite hair-trigger slapshots. They are usually presented as intimidating, threatening, dominating, reckless, violent and brutal. But they have achieved so much success that they would not really mind these terms associated with them. In fact, when questioned by some interviewers, Flyer squad members like Schultz mentioned that they actually enjoyed the way they used to play CITATION Jac05 \l 1033 (Jackson and Snider). They enjoyed the look of fear on their opponents' faces. The victorious professionals of the Broad Street really liked to bully their way through the Stanley Cup. The Flyers not only intimidated their NHL opponents. They used the same aggressive energy and tactics against every opponent they faced. The Central Red Army of Soviet Union came to tour North America. This team lost their only game against the dominating Flyers by a 1-4 margin.
This strategy of extremely physical play was invented and introduced by the Philadelphia Flyers. But it soon became famous. Many other teams were impressed with this style. They were so influenced that they started to adopt this particular strategy of the Broad Street Bullies. It became so popular that it spread all around the world. This strategy was adopted by many other sports too. The impact of this era was so huge that the whole sports world was thrilled. The aggressive atti...