There are many eras of Flyers history. Most fans want to embrace and fondly remember two of them.
First, and foremost, is the Broad Street Bull Era. After all, they were the team that won two Stanley Cups, gave the team their identity, and helped inspire the classic film, Slapshot. Then, some loved the '90s Legion of Doom/Eric Lindros Era. It makes sense. It was a dominant team that was always a Stanley Cup contender.
However, there is one era of Flyers history that gets ignored: the 1980s. Starting with the 1980 loss in the Stanley Cup to the upstart New York Islanders, the Flyers of the 1980s would go to two Stanley Cups and lose to the Edmonton Oilers dynasty and just fall short to the Montreal Canadiens in the 1989 Eastern Conference Finals. This compares to the Lindros Era with three Eastern Conference Finals losses and one Stanley Cup sweep in six years.
So why does the 1980s team get forgotten?
Dynasties
The Flyers' Stanley Cup loss in six games to the Isles in the 1980s pretty much heralded the end of the Broad Street Bullies. Other teams had gotten bigger and learned from the Flyers, and the team got older. From 1974 to 1980, the Flyers captured two Stanley Cups, lost two more, and fell short in two conference finals. It was the greatest era in Flyers history.
Unfortunately, in the 1980s, the NHL was dominated by two teams. The Islanders would win the first of four Stanley Cups. In their last championship, they dropped a Wayne Gretzky-led Edmonton Oilers in four games. The Oilers would win five of the next seven Cups, with the Calgary Flames and Montreal Canadiens taking the other two (ironically, each losing to the other in the one they won).
The Flyers were pretty much the "also-rans" during that time. They were dominant. They were strong. They just weren't quite good enough to make it all the way. The closest they came was in 1987 when an injury-riddled Flyers fell in seven games to the Oilers. This came two years after the Flyers fell in five to that same Oilers team.
The Players
From Bobby Clarke to Bernie Parent and even Dave Schultz, the Bully Era is filled with heroes. In the Lindros Era, you had Eric Lindros, John LeClair, Mark Recchi, Rod Brind'Amour, Keith Primeau, etc. Even the late 2000s had guys like Daniel Briere, Jeff Carter, Simon Gagne, and Mike Richards, which would lead to Claude Giroux, Jake Voracek, and Wayne Simmonds.
The 1980s had some of the best players in Flyers history. Tim Kerr was a master on the power-play. His 34 power-play goals in 1986 are still an NHL record! As a team last year, the Flyers had just 32. Peter Zezel and Dave Poulin also poured on the points during this time.
If you look at the Flyers leaderboards, Brian Propp is near the top of all of them. On a team filled with young players, he was one of the fastest and highest point-producing players. Rick Tocchet, who joined near the end of the 1980s, was one of the best scoring and yet physical players. Scott Mellanby was also starting as a young player who would embark on a long career. Ron Sutter was a steady and solid center.
On defense, the Flyers had the great duo of Mark Howe and Brad McCrimmon. They are arguably the best defensive pairing this team has ever had, with Howe earning a spot in the Hockey Hall of Fame along with his father. McCrimmon may not have gotten his due playing alongside Howe, but he was a great blueliner.
A big complaint about the Flyers is their lack of quality goaltending. In the 1980s, that wasn't a problem. Look at the goalies that the Flyers had: Pete Peeters, Pelle Lindbergh, Bob Froese, and Ron Hextall. Most seasons, those goalies had a respectable GAA and save percentage. Those numbers were also when guys like Gretzky and Mario Lemieux were posting 150+ point seasons.
It's the 1980s
The players were solid, if not in some cases spectacular. The Flyers had a great run in the mid-1980s despite playing against some of the best teams in the NHL. To be honest, there is no reason that this version of the Flyers should be forgotten based on a cursory look.
If I had to take a guess, I would think that hockey changed after 1990. More people got cable TV after that year. ESPN began to cover hockey more. EA Sports' NHL games in the 90s were super awesome and helped to bring the game closer to teenagers at the time. As hockey expanded, the sport got more popular. In a bit of irony, it was the 1990 team that missed the playoffs for the first time since the 1972 team.
The Flyers in the '90s got more exposure, especially as Lindros and Co. went on so many deep playoff runs. Yes, the Flyers in the mid-1980s were slightly more successful, but hockey was still just a minor sport at that time. Its popularity would explode in the 1980s and the Legion of Doom Flyers. After all, it was the Attitude Era of the WWF (now WWE). The big, bad Flyers fit that tough style we wanted to see in sports.
The 1980s team was physical, but not like the Bullies or the Doomers. They could score and had some great goalies, but could never finish the job. Yet, they went to more Stanley Cups than any other era, save the Bullies. This is a team that should not be forgotten. They are an integral part of this team's identity and who they are now. After all, their new head coach is Tocchet, a product of that time.
If Tocchet can help produce on the ice now something similar to what we saw in the 1980s, we'd all be happy. Just to see this team make the playoffs again would be nice for a change of pace.