The Montreal Canadiens advanced to the 2021 Stanley Cup Final through a spirited playoff run. They lost Game 1 to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday thanks to a star effort by Tampa forward Nikita Kucherov.
The Canadiens have won 24 Stanley Cups, more than any other NHL franchise (sometimes written as 23 because one came before the NHL era). With storied dynasties in the 1950s and 1960s already to their credit, they assembled one of the greatest collections of talent in the history of the game in the 1970s.
They reached the Stanley Cup Final in 1976 with the pride of their franchise, and the pride of sport according to some, on the line against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Broad Street Bullies Take the NHL by Storm
The Flyers of the mid-1970s, nicknamed the Broad Street Bullies, revolutionized the sport of hockey following the first NHL expansion era in ways that many traditionalists associated with the league didn’t like. Prominent Flyers personalities from the era spoke to Sports Illustrated in 2014 about their image.
"“Everybody hated us. We loved that.”- Flyers founder Ed Snider“We were loved in Philly and that’s the only place we cared about…We’ll do the best we can for our fans and for ourselves before we worry what the NHL thinks about us.” -Former winger Bob “The Hound” Kelly“It was the old ‘Us Against The World’ theory. The refs are trying to screw us, the league was trying to screw us, but screw them, we’ll beat them anyway.” -Former captain Bobby Clarke"
Their polarizing and aggressively brutal style led them to back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1973-74 and 1974-75. The Bullies legitimized the 1967 NHL Expansion and the place of the Flyers franchise in the city of Philadelphia. Their folk-hero status in Philadelphia didn’t translate well in opposing cities, however.
Stanley Cup Final- Good vs. Evil
The 1976 Stanley Cup Final featured directly contrasting styles. The Flyers advanced with an intimidating physical style, and the Habs advanced with a finesse style that was more appreciated in past eras of the NHL.
Bad publicity surrounding the NHL during the mid-1970s grew due to what some people considered frighteningly violent incidents on the ice, and the Broad Street Bullies were the unquestionable face of the narrative. The Flyers “had blemished hockey’s image, and NHL officials privately hoped that some club would beat the ‘bad guys’ at their own game” (The Hockey Chronicle, Canadiens Teach Bad Boy Flyers a Lesson, 6/29/21).
The Canadiens swept the Flyers behind the efforts of nine future Hall of Famers including Ken Dryden, Jacques Lemaire, and Guy Lafleur. It was their first of four consecutive Stanley Cups and the beginning of arguably the greatest dynasty in NHL history.
The Flyers kept the mantra of the Broad Street Bullies long after the loss, but the mentality has dwindled away in recent years. While the NHL has undoubtedly transitioned into a finesse style of play in the modern era, the Flyers could still use some added toughness and physical play to restore any kind of identity to a franchise that desperately needs it.