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  • Sean Couturier scores twice, Flyers get first win of Rick Tocchet era in home opener

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    The Flyers have their first win, and so does Rick Tocchet as their head coach.

    Sean Couturier scored twice, with the latter serving as the winner, Trevor Zegras made a clutch play late to get it to him, and the Flyers piled on a couple of empty netters soon after to put away the defending champion Florida Panthers, 5-2, in their home opener at Xfinity Mobile Arena. 

    They’re 1-1-1 after an initial road trip full of some early rough patches to start. But maybe they’re on their way now. 

    Here are the highlights from Monday night in South Philly…

    Big Z

    Couturier lasered home the winning goal, but Zegras had his “Welcome to Philly” moment in setting him up for it. 

    Handling the puck behind the Florida net as a late power play from a Sam Bennett slash expired, Zegras saw the pressure closing in, but he didn’t shy away from it.

    Two checkers came crashing down on him. Somehow, he stayed upright and bodied both of them away, then wired the puck out to the front of the net with a wide-open Sean Couturier, who already had one goal on the night, there to receive it.

    The Flyers’ captain quickly made it two with a pinpoint shot over Florida goalie Daniil Tarasov’s outstretched glove for the 3-2 lead. 

    But it all started with Zegras, who the Flyers took a calculated risk trading for over the summer in the hopes that he could still prove a top-six center and a skater who could add a bit more punch to the power play. 

    He made his first mark Monday night, getting the Flyers to their first win as two empty-netters from Bobby Brink and then Christian Dvorak followed soon after to ice it.

    Seriously, though, how did Zegras stay on his feet from that hit?

    “I don’t know,” he said in the locker room postgame. “I really don’t know. My neck’s f***ed up.”

    “It’s a big moment, right?” Tocchet said of the play. “He got hit, too. That’s what I like. You know you’re gonna get hit, and you’re willing to take a hit to make a play. It’s a high-level play, and obviously, Coots buried it.”

    Captain’s orders

    Couturier produced a couple of vintage looks through the first period, dropped a hammer in the second, then had his winner in the third.

    The veteran center knocked the puck away from Anton Lundell up by the point, and with the angle, he got the jump to turn it the other way for an early breakaway scoring chance that was turned away at the last second. 

    Then, with Florida trying to get the puck out from their zone along the wall midway through the frame, Couturier cut across and put his stick in the way of an attempted pass from Uvis Balinskis that turned possession over to him. 

    Couturier kicked the puck out to Tyson Foerster, who had dropped down in support, and the winger was free to cut in toward the hashmarks and drag a shot across his body. It beat Panthers goalie Dannil Tarasov for the 1-0 Flyers lead. 

    Couturier was called for a hook in front of the Florida net later in the second period, but was otherwise pretty controlling and brought it back later on, when he broke out over center ice from a turnover that flipped from Travis Sanheim to Travis Konecny and then to him to be left all alone with Tarasov again. 

    He picked his corner and didn’t miss, sending the Flyers up 2-0 and the crowd on its feet chanting “Coooots!”

    The Flyers are getting younger, and they’re still in need of a true high-end center and just higher quality depth down the middle in general. But Couturier, as the captain and even at 32, still very much has a role here. 

    If he can sustain as their main shutdown center, and even find a bit of offense as he did Monday night, calling back to his Selke form, he can get the Flyers by as they are right now as the defensively responsible forward presence that lets the more offensive parts like Matvei Michkov and Travis Konecny go to work.

    “I don’t think he wants to prove anybody wrong. I mean, the guy’s a good hockey player,” Tocchet said of Couturier postgame. “He plays a 200-foot game, and he cares”

    And Monday night, the captain made all the difference.

    Power play pressure

    The Flyers’ power play didn’t score on their five power play tries Monday night, which isn’t great…

    But it can move the puck around, and it can get some decent-looking shots on the net while keeping the puck rolling downhill. 

    The top power-play unit of Konecny, Owen Tippett, Michkov, Trevor Zegras, and Jamie Drysdale had Florida on its heels during the second period, working a constant, efficient cycle that opened up lanes and tired the Panthers’ penalty killers out for a string of several chances in quick succession. 

    They kept the pressure on, Florida couldn’t get out, and it was continuous up until the power play clock hit zero. 

    There was no goal, but the effort alone was enough for fans to applaud it. 

    The power play, after years of being one of the league’s worst, actually looks kind of decent now – at least on Monday night it did. It also ended up a factor in the lead-up to Couturier’s winner, as the Flyers kept the puck down in the offensive zone while on the man advantage until the lane opened up for Zegras only after the timer ran out – and after he took that vicious hit.

    Vladar volatiliy

    Dan Vladar got the nod Monday night for his second start of the season and looked good through two periods.

    He kept the net looking small using his size, approach, and mechanics to take away space, much like he did on Thursday against the Panthers down in Sunrise. 

    Then the third period happened, mainly that shift where the Panthers kept the puck down in the Flyers’ end for two minutes straight without a stoppage and a delayed Tippett tripping penalty.

    The Panthers went on the power play and carried the puck down. Vladar got crossed up and lost track of the puck behind the net before realizing it had slipped back up to Sam Bennett with a lot of net to shoot at. 

    There was nothing he could do as Bennett fired it in for the 2-2 tie. 

    Still, he ultimately did hold off the final rush until Couturier’s deciding goal came through, going on to stop 24 of 26 shots in total. 

    He has his first win as a Flyer, too.

    A moment for No. 1

    The Flyers were introduced Monday night, then they needed a moment to acknowledge Bernie Parent. 

    The iconic goalie, who was a central figure to the Broad Street Bullies and the back-to-back Stanley Cups, passed away last month at 80 years old. 

    But Parent was always more than that. He was someone who stayed in Philadelphia after he retired, someone who gave back, and was always willing to talk to anyone with the biggest smile on his face. He was a friend. 

    In the dark of Xfinity Mobile Arena, with Parent’s No. 1 sewn on to the left shoulder of every Flyer’s jersey and painted on the ice behind the nets as the spotlights focused on them, public address announcer Lou Nolan read off a tribute to the Flyers legend, then asked the crowd to stand up and give a standing ovation in his honor rather than a somber moment of silence. 

    They obliged and echoed chants of “BERNIE!” one more time.

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  • Bernie Parent, Flyers legend and two-time Stanley Cup champion, dies at 80

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    Bernie Parent, the Hall of Famer considered one of the great goalies of all time who anchored the net for the Philadelphia Flyers’ only two Stanley Cup championships in the 1970s during their Broad Street Bullies heyday, has died. He was 80.The Flyers made the announcement Sunday but provided no details. Parent died overnight in his sleep, former teammate Joe Watson said.Watson, a star defenseman on the Stanley Cup teams, said by phone that he saw Parent and other former Flyers players at a function Friday night in Delaware.“Bernie was in such pain, he could hardly walk,” Watson said, citing Parent’s bad back. “We had a great time, but I felt bad because he was in such terrible pain. To see this happen, it’s very sad.”Parent’s steel-eyed stare through his old-school hockey mask landed him on the cover of Time magazine in 1975 when the Flyers reigned as one of the marquee teams in sports. He won Stanley Cup, Conn Smythe and Vezina trophies in back-to-back seasons when the Flyers captured the Stanley Cup in ‘74 and ’75, the first NHL expansion team to win the championship.“The legend of Bernie Parent reached far beyond the ice and his accolades,” the Flyers said in a statement. “Bernie had a deep love for Philadelphia and fans of the Flyers. He was passionate about his role as an ambassador for Ed Snider Youth Hockey & Education and inspired an entire generation of hockey fans. He dedicated his time, energy and enthusiasm to not only grow the game, but also to spread joy to anyone he encountered.”After he made his NHL debut with Boston in 1965, Parent was left unprotected by the Bruins in the 1967 expansion draft and was selected by the Flyers. After 3 1/2 seasons, he was traded to Toronto but ended up back in Philadelphia ahead of the 1973-74 season. He won a league-high 47 games that season and led the NHL in wins again the next season with 44.Parent was accidentally struck in the right eye with a stick in 1979 and was temporarily blinded. He never played again, retiring with 271 wins — 231 of them for the Flyers — over a 13-year career.“At his unbeatable, unflappable best on the ice when the stakes were highest, Bernie was a warm, gregarious bear of a man off the ice who was venerated in Philadelphia and adored throughout the hockey world,” Commissioner Gary Bettman said. “The entire National Hockey League family mourns the passing of this beloved icon and sends its deepest condolences to his wife, Gini, his family, and his countless fans and friends.”The Flyers beat the Bruins in six games to win the Stanley Cup in 1974 and beat Buffalo in 1975. Parent had shutouts in the clinchers each season.On the flight home from Buffalo, the Flyers plopped the Stanley Cup in the middle of the aisle. For close to 90 minutes, they couldn’t take their eyes off hockey’s ultimate prize.“We were able to just sit back, look at the Stanley Cup and just savor it,” Parent said in 2010. “It was just a special time.”With Parent the unstoppable force in net, “Only the Lord saves more than Bernie Parent,” became a popular slogan in Philadelphia that stuck with him through the decades.“We used to joke about it in the dressing room. We’d say, ‘Bernie, how many goals do you need?’ He’d say, ‘One, two, that’s it, and we’ll win the game,’” said Gary Dornhoefer, a winger on the two Cup teams.Parent, team captain Bobby Clarke and Dave “The Hammer” Schultz all became stars for the Flyers under owner Ed Snider in an era when the team was known for its rugged style of play that earned the Bullies nickname. They embraced their moniker as the most despised team in the NHL and pounded their way into the hearts of Flyers fans. More than 2 million fans packed Philadelphia streets for each of their championship parades.“We always felt comfortable with Bernie in the net,” former Flyers winger and enforcer Bob Kelly said. “He would challenge the guys in practice. He’d stop the puck and throw it back at you and say, ‘Go ahead, try and catch this one.’ He was the first guy to jump in line to help another teammate if they needed it. He was a real testament to what a team player is all about.”Parent’s No. 1 jersey was retired by the Flyers and still hangs in the rafters of their arena. In 1984, he became the first Flyers player inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. He is still their career leader in shutouts with 50.Parent remained connected with the team over the years as an ambassador.“He was so good with people,” said Watson, who first met Parent in 1963. “A lot of athletes don’t get it or don’t give fans the time of day. Bernie gave everyone the time of day. He’d always have his rings on. He’d show them to the people and people loved to see them. This past Friday in Delaware, people were coming up, they wanted to see the rings. People were so excited to see him. He had a great sense of humor. Bernie was a funny guy.”Flyers coach Rick Tocchet, who played 11 seasons over two stints with the team, choked back tears at the New Jersey practice rink as he described Parent’s influence.“As a young kid, you’re stressed trying to make the team. When he would come in, he’d just break the room up. He really helped me out when it came to that,” Tocchet said. “It seemed like every day was a great day to him. I don’t know if he ever had a bad day. But that (Stanley Cup) group was very close, and Bernie was kind of the glue. Bob Clarke obviously unreal, and Billy Barber and all those guys, they came around a lot. Bernie was one of those guys, he would just, we’d lose three in a row, somehow he’d come in there and loosen us up the Bernie way.”The final career highlight came in 2011 when Parent was in the net for an alumni game outdoors at the baseball stadium Citizens Bank Park ahead of the NHL Classic. “Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!” echoed throughout the park for the affable goalie, who played 5 minutes, 32 seconds and stopped all six shots. Each save made the “Bernie!” chants return.“He was a man who was always happy, always laughing and was always fun to be around,” Clarke said. “He did what all great hockey players do: He played for the hockey team. The two years that we won the Stanley Cup, he was the only member of that team that we could not have been without if we were going to win. He was the best goalie in hockey for those two years.”Parent was the third Hall of Fame goaltender to die this month. Ken Dryden, who helped the Montreal Canadiens win six Stanley Cup titles in the 1970s, died at 78 after a fight with cancer. Ed Giacomin, one of the faces of the New York Rangers’ franchise in the 1960s and ’70s, died at 86 of natural causes.“They’re big losses,” Kelly said. “They were just prime, super goaltenders.”

    PHILADELPHIA —

    Bernie Parent, the Hall of Famer considered one of the great goalies of all time who anchored the net for the Philadelphia Flyers’ only two Stanley Cup championships in the 1970s during their Broad Street Bullies heyday, has died. He was 80.

    The Flyers made the announcement Sunday but provided no details. Parent died overnight in his sleep, former teammate Joe Watson said.

    Watson, a star defenseman on the Stanley Cup teams, said by phone that he saw Parent and other former Flyers players at a function Friday night in Delaware.

    “Bernie was in such pain, he could hardly walk,” Watson said, citing Parent’s bad back. “We had a great time, but I felt bad because he was in such terrible pain. To see this happen, it’s very sad.”

    Parent’s steel-eyed stare through his old-school hockey mask landed him on the cover of Time magazine in 1975 when the Flyers reigned as one of the marquee teams in sports. He won Stanley Cup, Conn Smythe and Vezina trophies in back-to-back seasons when the Flyers captured the Stanley Cup in ‘74 and ’75, the first NHL expansion team to win the championship.

    “The legend of Bernie Parent reached far beyond the ice and his accolades,” the Flyers said in a statement. “Bernie had a deep love for Philadelphia and fans of the Flyers. He was passionate about his role as an ambassador for Ed Snider Youth Hockey & Education and inspired an entire generation of hockey fans. He dedicated his time, energy and enthusiasm to not only grow the game, but also to spread joy to anyone he encountered.”

    After he made his NHL debut with Boston in 1965, Parent was left unprotected by the Bruins in the 1967 expansion draft and was selected by the Flyers. After 3 1/2 seasons, he was traded to Toronto but ended up back in Philadelphia ahead of the 1973-74 season. He won a league-high 47 games that season and led the NHL in wins again the next season with 44.

    Parent was accidentally struck in the right eye with a stick in 1979 and was temporarily blinded. He never played again, retiring with 271 wins — 231 of them for the Flyers — over a 13-year career.

    “At his unbeatable, unflappable best on the ice when the stakes were highest, Bernie was a warm, gregarious bear of a man off the ice who was venerated in Philadelphia and adored throughout the hockey world,” Commissioner Gary Bettman said. “The entire National Hockey League family mourns the passing of this beloved icon and sends its deepest condolences to his wife, Gini, his family, and his countless fans and friends.”

    The Flyers beat the Bruins in six games to win the Stanley Cup in 1974 and beat Buffalo in 1975. Parent had shutouts in the clinchers each season.

    On the flight home from Buffalo, the Flyers plopped the Stanley Cup in the middle of the aisle. For close to 90 minutes, they couldn’t take their eyes off hockey’s ultimate prize.

    “We were able to just sit back, look at the Stanley Cup and just savor it,” Parent said in 2010. “It was just a special time.”

    With Parent the unstoppable force in net, “Only the Lord saves more than Bernie Parent,” became a popular slogan in Philadelphia that stuck with him through the decades.

    “We used to joke about it in the dressing room. We’d say, ‘Bernie, how many goals do you need?’ He’d say, ‘One, two, that’s it, and we’ll win the game,’” said Gary Dornhoefer, a winger on the two Cup teams.

    Parent, team captain Bobby Clarke and Dave “The Hammer” Schultz all became stars for the Flyers under owner Ed Snider in an era when the team was known for its rugged style of play that earned the Bullies nickname. They embraced their moniker as the most despised team in the NHL and pounded their way into the hearts of Flyers fans. More than 2 million fans packed Philadelphia streets for each of their championship parades.

    “We always felt comfortable with Bernie in the net,” former Flyers winger and enforcer Bob Kelly said. “He would challenge the guys in practice. He’d stop the puck and throw it back at you and say, ‘Go ahead, try and catch this one.’ He was the first guy to jump in line to help another teammate if they needed it. He was a real testament to what a team player is all about.”

    Parent’s No. 1 jersey was retired by the Flyers and still hangs in the rafters of their arena. In 1984, he became the first Flyers player inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. He is still their career leader in shutouts with 50.

    Parent remained connected with the team over the years as an ambassador.

    “He was so good with people,” said Watson, who first met Parent in 1963. “A lot of athletes don’t get it or don’t give fans the time of day. Bernie gave everyone the time of day. He’d always have his rings on. He’d show them to the people and people loved to see them. This past Friday in Delaware, people were coming up, they wanted to see the rings. People were so excited to see him. He had a great sense of humor. Bernie was a funny guy.”

    Flyers coach Rick Tocchet, who played 11 seasons over two stints with the team, choked back tears at the New Jersey practice rink as he described Parent’s influence.

    “As a young kid, you’re stressed trying to make the team. When he would come in, he’d just break the room up. He really helped me out when it came to that,” Tocchet said. “It seemed like every day was a great day to him. I don’t know if he ever had a bad day. But that (Stanley Cup) group was very close, and Bernie was kind of the glue. Bob Clarke obviously unreal, and Billy Barber and all those guys, they came around a lot. Bernie was one of those guys, he would just, we’d lose three in a row, somehow he’d come in there and loosen us up the Bernie way.”

    The final career highlight came in 2011 when Parent was in the net for an alumni game outdoors at the baseball stadium Citizens Bank Park ahead of the NHL Classic. “Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!” echoed throughout the park for the affable goalie, who played 5 minutes, 32 seconds and stopped all six shots. Each save made the “Bernie!” chants return.

    “He was a man who was always happy, always laughing and was always fun to be around,” Clarke said. “He did what all great hockey players do: He played for the hockey team. The two years that we won the Stanley Cup, he was the only member of that team that we could not have been without if we were going to win. He was the best goalie in hockey for those two years.”

    Parent was the third Hall of Fame goaltender to die this month. Ken Dryden, who helped the Montreal Canadiens win six Stanley Cup titles in the 1970s, died at 78 after a fight with cancer. Ed Giacomin, one of the faces of the New York Rangers’ franchise in the 1960s and ’70s, died at 86 of natural causes.

    “They’re big losses,” Kelly said. “They were just prime, super goaltenders.”

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  • Bernie Parent, the beloved goalie who backstopped the Flyers to back-to-back Stanley Cups, dies at 80

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    Bernie Parent, the beloved goalie who backstopped the Philadelphia Flyers to back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1974 and 1975, died Sunday, the organization announced.

    Parent was 80. 

    One of the major faces of the “Broad Street Bullies” and the greatest goaltender in franchise history, Parent was crucial to the Flyers’ rise into NHL respectability, Philadelphia’s transformation into a hockey town and, above all, those consecutive Stanley Cup titles and the ensuing parades that saw Lord Stanley go traveling down Broad Street. 

    During the Flyers’ golden era, Parent wasn’t just the team’s star goaltender, he was the best in hockey. 

    He won two Vezina Trophies as the league’s best goaltender for the 1973-74 and 1974-75 seasons, the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs’ MVP for those respective seasons, and at the end of all of it, the Cup – first over the Boston Bruins in ’74 and then the expansion Buffalo Sabres in ’75.

    Philadelphia embraced all of it. 

    “Only the Lord saves more than Bernie Parent” became one of the famous sayings from fans during the Flyers’ Cup runs, and the image of Parent and Flyers captain Bobby Clarke skating off with the Cup, as fans surrounded them on the Spectrum ice after they defeated Boston, has become an essential part of Philadelphia sports lore.

    Parent’s impact went far beyond the crease, though. 

    After he retired, he remained in the area and around the Flyers. 

    He was a common face around what is now called the Xfinity Mobile Arena during the season for fans to approach and greet, and kept involved in the community as an ambassador for the Ed Snider Youth Hockey & Education Foundation, which has helped countless kids throughout the Delaware Valley get introduced to hockey. 

    “He dedicated his time, energy and enthusiasm to not only grow the game, but also to spread joy to anyone he encountered,” the Flyers said in a statement. “Anyone who had the pleasure of being around Bernie always walked away with a smile. He will be dearly missed. We offer our condolences to his beloved wife, Gini, and the entire Parent family.”

    When the Flyers hosted the NHL’s Winter Classic at Citizens Bank Park in 2012, they held an alumni game with the New York Rangers on New Year’s Eve a couple of days before. 

    Parent, at 66 years old, trained up to make one last appearance between the pipes. He stacked the pads and threw up a wall against the Rangers alum streaking down the ice for several minutes, until a stoppage allowed the Hockey Hall of Famer to make his exit.

    The fans, who packed the converted ballpark, stood and roared for Parent as the cameras focused on him making his way to the bench, with hugs and high fives pouring in from his former teammates and the generations of Flyers that succeeded him.

    Then “BERNIE!” chants from a 45,000-capacity stadium showered him. It meant that much. He meant that much.

    “It’s a beautiful thing,” as he would always say.

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