If you look at the final score between the Flyers and Senators after an early March matchup in 2004, it doesn’t look that remarkable. That’s because the real story of the game was deeper than just the box score.
But before we get into that, we have to set the scene. There was bad blood between the two teams before this game began. A little over a week before, Ottawa’s Martin Havlat responded to a Mark Recchi slash by whacking the Flyers’ forward in the face with his stick. Havlat was suspended for two games, and his first game back just so happened to be against Philadelphia. Funny how it worked out that way, huh?
The scene was set. The Flyers were going to make Havlat pay, one way or another. This was long after the Broad Street Bullies era, but that team would’ve been proud of what took place. Except it took longer than expected to get there.
It looked like the game would be played like any other. There were penalties throughout, but nothing too out of the ordinary at first. As the clock wound down in the third, the two sides had only combined for 22 penalty minutes.
Until the fuse was lit and it was no longer a hockey game.
The Flyers and Senators completely lost the plot of the hockey game
Donald Brashear and Rob Ray decided enough was enough. Two heavyweights going at it wasn’t out of the ordinary. And in the end, this fight almost became secondary to what followed. It was merely the beginning of a sequence that turned 32 seconds of game time into absolute chaos.
It quickly became a race of who could empty their bench faster. While being escorted to the penalty box, Brashear became involved with Todd Simpson and Brian Pothier. The latter finished the night with no penalty minutes despite reaching around the linesman and landing a few punches on Brashear. Guess the referees had other things to worry about.
Like Robert Esche leaving his crease and getting involved in the scrum in front of him. Oh, and Patrick Lalime skating down the length of the ice to go after Esche, equipment discarded and ready to go - nothing like a goalie fight to get the blood pumping.
This brawl didn't happen all at once, either. That would have been too easy. There were five rounds of fighting in 32 seconds of game time involving 20 different players. So when Patrick Sharp and Jason Spezza squared off in the final fight of the night, it was just about getting your name on the penalty sheet at that point.
By the time the fights ended, the Senators had three skaters on the bench to the Flyers' two. Good thing there was only 1:13 left in the game.
17 players finished the night with zero penalty minutes. The irony in all of this? Havlat was one of them and only ended up in the box to serve Zdeno Chara's instigator penalty. That's one way to make sure there's no retribution. Even funnier than that? They still had to finish the game after everything was sorted out.
The final numbers were absurd. The 419 combined penalty minutes broke the previous record of 406 set by the Minnesota North Stars and Boston Bruins in 1981. The closest a game has come since was the Islanders and Penguins' 346 combined minutes in 2011. The Flyers' 213 penalty minutes stand as an NHL record for most by a single team. And there's no doubt the 409 penalty minutes in the third period alone will be hard to beat.
The final score quickly became irrelevant. No one will remember who scored or when they did it. The only thing that matters is the 32 seconds when things exploded. And you'd be hard-pressed to find a more exciting moment in franchise history.
Add us as a preferred source on Google