From the June 27, 1997 edition of The Hockey News: How Detroit's goaltending, skill, and coaching saw them past the overmatched Flyers
From the June 27, 1997 edition of The Hockey News: How Detroit's goaltending, skill, and coaching saw them past the overmatched Flyers
The 2024 Stanley Cup Final is set, with the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers poised to battle it out for the sport's top prize, the former looking to end a multi-generation national Cup drought, the latter looking to prove that ice hockey can thrive on the fringes of the Everglades.
Though the match-up was set yesterday, we'll have to wait until Saturday night for Game 1, so now feels like the perfect moment to reminisce about Cup Finals of yore, namely the 1997 duel between the Red Wings and Flyers in which Steve Yzerman and Detroit captured snapped a 42-year championship drought.
Here's an entry from the THN Archive on how the Red Wings bested the Flyers in the '97 Final:
"GOALTENDING, COACHING, SKILL DECIDED SERIES" by Bob McKenzie, June 27, 1997 / Vol. 50, Issue 38
We’ll never know whether Chris Osgood would have led the Detroit Red Wings to the Stanley Cup this year, but coach Scott Bowman’s decision to go with veteran Mike Vernon certainly looks like a stroke of genius.
The diminutive 34-year-old Vernon stopped 102 of 108 shots in the four-game sweep of the Philadelphia Flyers for a save percentage of 94.4. Vernon, the Conn Smythe Trophy winner, provided Detroit with the kind of goaltending Philadelphia could only dream of.
Goaltending was just one area in which the Wings had it all over the Flyers. Here are the other reasons why Detroit beat Philly silly:
OFFENSIVE DEPTH The Wings had four solid lines, all of them scoring at least three goals in the final, while the Flyers were, at best, a three-line team which didn’t have a single unit generating offense.
LARRY MURPHY AND NICKLAS LIDSTRÖM Who says nice guys don’t finish first? Eric Lindros and John LeClair managed just two even-strength goals and were a collective minus-10 thanks in large part to Lidström (plus-6) and Murphy (plus-10).
INJURIES The Wings lost one-man game to injury through the playoffs (Joey Kocur); the Flyers 40. The loss of Petr Svoboda and Paul Coffey and Kjell Samuelsson’s slow return to form crippled the Flyer blueline, although the Wings being healthy was a greater factor than the Flyers missing players. “It was amazing,” Bowman said. “No injuries. It’s the best I ever remember it.”
LAST MINUTE, FIRST MINUTE Six times in the final, including three times in Game 3, the Flyers allowed the Red Wings to score early or late in a period.
SKILL, SPEED, SMARTS Nowhere was the Wings’ edge in these areas as evident as their ability to take Flyer dump-ins, trap Flyer forecheckers and provide quick transition for countless odd-man rushes.
STAR STRUCK The Big E crashed and burned in his first Cup final. Initially, the effort
was there, but when the results failed to materialize, he, like his teammates, lost his focus.
COACHING Terry Murray’s use of the phrase “choking situation” made matters worse for a team already on the ropes and underlined a chemistry problem between him and his players. The Wings and Bowman, meanwhile, were in harmony this year, unlike two years ago when he ripped them for showing no heart against the New Jersey Devils.
EXPERIENCE Past Wing failures taught them how to win. The Flyers were befuddled at the first sign of adversity. They’ll no doubt return one day better for the experience. ■
THN Archive is an exclusive vault of 2,640 issues and more than 156,000 stories for subscribers, chronicling the complete history of The Hockey News from 1947 until today. Visit THN.com/archive and subscribe today at subscribe.thehockeynews.com
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