title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: With Lindros out indefinitely, the Flyers rallied to overcome the distractions and a 15-point deficit in the standings to win the Atlantic Division and the top seed in the East on the last day of the regular season. They easily defeated their first-round opponent, Buffalo, in five games. Primeau's goal in the fifth overtime of Game 4 against the team's second-round opponent, Pittsburgh, turned that series in the Flyers' favor as they won in six games, coming back from a 2–0 series deficit. After dropping Game 1 to New Jersey in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Flyers won three-straight games to take a 3–1 series lead. However, New Jersey won game 5. In Game 6, Lindros returned to the lineup for the first time since March in another losing effort. Early in Game 7, Lindros was handed another concussion and leaving the Philadelphia crowd deflated after being on the receiving end of a controversial hit by Scott Stevens. Without him, the Flyers lost the decisive game 2–1. It was the second time in franchise history the team lost a series after being up 3–1. Lindros never again wore a Flyers uniform, as he sat out the following season awaiting a trade.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: Craig Ramsay was named the permanent head coach as Neilson was not asked to return for the 2000–01, which became a matter of some controversy. Ramsay lasted only until December when he was replaced by former Flyer great Bill Barber. Brian Boucher, who as a rookie backstopped the Flyers' playoff run the previous season, could not duplicate his performance and lost the starting goaltending job to Roman Čechmánek, a former star in the Czech Republic. The performance of Cechmanek, worthy of a Vezina nomination, along with Bill Barber winning the Jack Adams Award as head coach of the year, helped the Flyers stay afloat, but they lost in the first round of the playoffs to Buffalo in six games.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: In the off-season, the Flyers re-vamped their lineup by signing Jeremy Roenick and finally trading Eric Lindros to the Rangers for Kim Johnsson, Jan Hlavac, Pavel Brendl and a 2003 third-round draft pick (Stefan Ruzicka). Desjardins stepped down as team captain eight games into the season and was replaced by Primeau. The Flyers began 2001–02 with high expectations and with Roenick leading the team in scoring, the Flyers finished with an Atlantic Division title. The power play was one of the NHL's worst however, so Adam Oates, the third leading point-producer in the League at the time, was acquired from Washington at the NHL trade deadline. However, it was of no benefit as the Flyers could not muster much offense, scoring only two goals in their five-game, first-round playoff loss to the Ottawa Senators. It turned out there was much discontent in the locker room as Bill Barber was fired. The Flyers hired a proven winner when they turned to former Dallas Stars and Stanley Cup-winning head coach Ken Hitchcock.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: In 2002–03, Roman Cechmanek had a 1.83 goals against average (GAA) and the Flyers acquired Sami Kapanen and Tony Amonte prior to the trade deadline; however, they fell one point short of a second straight Atlantic Division title. Consequently, the Flyers endured a long, brutal seven-game first-round match-up with Toronto that featured three multiple overtime games, all in Toronto. After winning Game 7, 6–1, the Flyers fought Ottawa in the second round with equal vigor as they split the first four games of the series, with Cechmanek earning shutouts in both wins. His inconsistency showed through, however, as he allowed ten goals in the final two games, and Ottawa advanced in six games. He was later traded to Los Angeles for a 2004 second-round draft pick during the off-season despite having the second-best GAA in the League over his three years in Philadelphia.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: Free-agent goaltender Jeff Hackett was signed from Boston to replace Cechmanek and challenge backup Robert Esche for the starter's spot in 2003–04, but he was forced to retire in February due to vertigo. During the course of the season, serious injuries suffered by both Roenick (broken jaw) and Primeau (concussion) in February forced the Flyers to trade for Chicago's Alexei Zhamnov, who filled in well and kept the Flyers afloat. On March 5, 2004, the Flyers set an NHL record in a game against Ottawa where they set a combined record of 419 penalty minutes in a single game. Esche entrenched himself as starter and remained in that position even after the Flyers re-acquired Sean Burke from the Phoenix Coyotes as the Flyers clinched the Atlantic Division title over New Jersey on the last day of the season. Though solid in net, Esche's performance was trumped by the play of captain Keith Primeau in the playoffs. Primeau led the Flyers past the defending Stanley Cup champion Devils in five, Toronto in six on their way to the Eastern Conference Finals, and a match-up with Tampa Bay. Despite winning Game 6 on the late-game heroics of Primeau and winger Simon Gagné, the Flyers came up short once again, losing Game 7 in Tampa, 2–1.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: With the NHL preparing for looming labor unrest, the Flyers let their leading scorer, Mark Recchi, leave for Pittsburgh during the off-season. Unsure about the future, the Flyers were unsure about his worth. The NHL lockout forced the cancellation of the 2004–05 NHL season. The Flyers were one of the more active teams once the NHL lockout came to an end. Replacing the high-profile names of Amonte, LeClair and Roenick were superstar Peter Forsberg, along with defensemen Derian Hatcher and Mike Rathje, as well as several players from the Calder Cup-winning Philadelphia Phantoms. When all was said and done, the team had experienced a turnover of nearly two-thirds of the roster.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: The Flyers began the 2005–06 NHL season with lofty expectations. Despite being hampered by injuries prior to and during the season, the Flyers lived up to those expectations in the first half of the season, reaching the top of the league standings in January while simultaneously holding a 10-point lead in the Atlantic Division. The "Deuces Wild" line of Forsberg, Gagne, and Mike Knuble recorded 75, 79 and 65 points respectively while Gagne, with Forsberg feeding him, scored a career-high of 47 goals. However, the injuries began to accumulate and take their toll, the most crippling of which was Keith Primeau's season-ending concussion. Derian Hatcher served as interim captain for the remainder of the season. The Flyers had been first in the league prior to the Olympic break, where an injury to Forsberg occurred. All told, the Flyers were third in the NHL with 388 man-games lost to injury, tops amongst playoff teams. The second half of the regular season was defined by a record hovering around .500, sending the Flyers on a steady slide in the standings. The Flyers fell short of an Atlantic Division title, finishing second by tie-breaker to New Jersey, drawing the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference and a first-round match-up with fourth-seeded Buffalo. The Flyers lost the series in six games.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: The Flyers' 40th anniversary season turned out to be the worst in franchise history. The Flyers traded Michal Handzus to Chicago, lost Kim Johnsson to free agency and Eric Desjardins and team captain Keith Primeau retired in the off-season. Peter Forsberg replaced Primeau as team captain, but a chronic foot injury developing in last season's Olympics had him in and out of the lineup throughout the season and limited his effectiveness. Eight games into the regular season and with a record of 1–6–1, general manager Bobby Clarke resigned and head coach Ken Hitchcock was fired. Assistant coach John Stevens replaced Hitchcock and assistant general manager Paul Holmgren took on Clarke's responsibilities on an interim basis.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: The changes did little to improve the Flyers fortunes in 2006–07 as setting franchise records for futility became the norm. They had several multiple-game losing streaks, including a franchise-worst 10-game losing streak and a 13-game home losing streak that stretched from November 29 to February 10. Ultimately, the Flyers finished with a 22–48–12 record, the most losses and the worst winning percentage in franchise history, and the worst record in the league. They also set the NHL record for the biggest points drop off in the standings in a one-year span (101 points in 2005–06 to 56 points in 2006–07, a difference of 45 points). The Flyers lost the NHL draft lottery to the Chicago Blackhawks and received the second overall selection.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: With the team clearly on the verge of missing the playoffs for the first time in 13 years, Paul Holmgren set his sights on rebuilding the team and preparing for the future. Forsberg, unwilling to commit to playing next season, was traded to Nashville for Scottie Upshall, Ryan Parent and 2007 first- and third-round draft picks at the deadline. Veteran defenseman Alexei Zhitnik was traded to the Atlanta Thrashers for prospect defenseman Braydon Coburn, while disappointing off-season acquisition Kyle Calder was sent to Detroit via Chicago in exchange for defenseman Lasse Kukkonen. The Flyers also acquired goaltender Martin Biron from Buffalo for a 2007 second-round pick. Given wide praise for his efforts, the Flyers gave Holmgren a two-year contract and removed the interim label from his title.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: Before the 2007–08 season began the Flyers made a trade that sent the first-round draft pick they had acquired in the Forsberg trade (23rd overall) back to Nashville in exchange for the rights to negotiate with impending unrestricted free agents Kimmo Timonen and Scott Hartnell. Both were subsequently signed to six-year contracts. After much speculation about whether the Flyers would keep or trade the second overall pick in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft, the Flyers opted to keep it, using it to select New Jersey native James van Riemsdyk.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: The Flyers wasted no time in addressing their free-agent needs. On July 1, the Flyers signed Buffalo co-captain Daniel Briere to an eight-year, $52 million contract. Continuing to revamp their defensive core, Joni Pitkanen and Geoff Sanderson were traded to Edmonton in exchange for Oilers captain Jason Smith and Joffrey Lupul. Smith was later named Flyers captain on October 1.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: The season began in the image of the "Broad Street Bullies" era, with multiple-game suspensions handed out to five separate players, the most serious being 25-game suspensions to both Steve Downie and Jesse Boulerice for two separate incidents. A 7–3 start in October and a 9–3–1 January run had the Flyers near the top of both the Division and Conference standings. However, a disastrous ten-game losing streak in February, reminiscent of such a streak the previous season, nearly derailed the Flyers' year. An 8–3–4 run in March, coupled with two huge wins over New Jersey and Pittsburgh over the final weekend of the regular season, put the Flyers back in the 2008 playoffs as the sixth seed, setting up a first-round matchup with Washington. After taking a three-game-to-one lead over the Capitals, Washington then won Games 5 and 6 to force a deciding Game 7 in Washington. After an evenly fought game, the Flyers ultimately won the series in overtime via a Joffrey Lupul powerplay goal. The Flyers then drew a matchup with heavily favored Montreal in the second round. Despite being outshot a majority of the series, the Flyers upset the Canadiens in five games, advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2003–04 to face Pittsburgh. Before the start of the series, the Flyers suffered a fatal blow when it was learned that Kimmo Timonen was out with a blood clot in his ankle. Coupled with a gruesome facial injury to Braydon Coburn in Game 2, Pittsburgh ran roughshod over the Flyers' depleted defense and jumped out to a 3–0 series lead. The Flyers won Game 4 at home to stave off elimination, and although Timonen returned for Game 5, Pittsburgh finished off the Flyers in five games.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: The Flyers began the 2008–09 season by naming Mike Richards the 17th captain in team history on September 17, with Jason Smith having departed to Ottawa as a free agent. The Flyers were looking to build on the success of the previous season, but instead got off to an 0–3–3 start. However, despite a solid December and January and finishing with four points more than the year before, for the most part, the 2008–09 Flyers played inconsistently and looked like different teams, playing at the top of their ability one night and a sub-par performance the next. Derian Hatcher missed the entire regular season and playoffs with a knee injury, and Steve Downie was traded to Tampa Bay with Steve Eminger, whom they had previously acquired in a trade with Washington prior to the season for defenseman Matt Carle. Two pleasant surprises were the emergence of rookie center Claude Giroux and defenseman Luca Sbisa, who was drafted by the Flyers in June with the 19th overall pick acquired from the Columbus Blue Jackets in exchange for R. J. Umberger, a victim of team salary cap constraints. Scottie Upshall also found himself the victim of such a crunch; he was traded to Phoenix in exchange for Daniel Carcillo at the NHL trade deadline.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: Despite holding on to the fourth seed in the East for much of the season, thanks to a 4–5–1 finish to the season, highlighted by a home loss to the Rangers on the last day of the regular season, the Flyers slipped to the fifth seed and lost home-ice advantage in their first-round series with Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh dominated the Flyers in Game 1, and despite a better effort by the Flyers in Game 2, Pittsburgh came to Philadelphia with a 2–0 series lead. The Flyers were the better team in Games 3 and 4, but Pittsburgh gained a split in Philadelphia and took a 3–1 series lead. After a decisive 3–0 win in Game 5, the Flyers jumped out to a 3–0 lead in Game 6, but promptly fell victim to the inconsistencies that plagued the team all season and gave up five unanswered goals in a season-ending 5–3 loss. Giroux led the team in scoring in the playoffs. Jeff Carter ended the regular season with 46 goals, second in the NHL after Washington's Alexander Ovechkin. Mike Richards just missed out on the Frank J. Selke Trophy in the closest vote in the history of the award.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: The Flyers began the 2009–10 season with some major changes, allowing goaltenders Martin Biron and Antero Niittymaki to depart via free agency, replacing them with former Ottawa netminder Ray Emery and former Flyer Brian Boucher, and significantly upgrading the defense with the addition of Chris Pronger from Anaheim. Pronger came at a price, however, costing the Flyers Joffrey Lupul, Luca Sbisa and the Flyers' first-round draft picks in both 2009 and 2010. The season began in earnest, though it soon unraveled with mediocre play that cost head coach John Stevens his job in December. Peter Laviolette was hired as his replacement in order to reinstitute accountability and restore success to the Flyers, though the results were not immediate; the Flyers suffered a 2–7–1 stretch immediately following his arrival. Injuries took a major toll on the Flyers, with Blair Betts, Daniel Briere, Jeff Carter, Simon Gagne and Kimmo Timonen all missing significant numbers of games, though no position was nearly affected as much with injuries as goaltending. Emery suffered a hip injury in December, played sporadically afterwards and ultimately underwent season-ending surgery. Boucher suffered a hand injury shortly thereafter, which allowed journeyman goaltender Michael Leighton to step in and make an immediate impact. Leighton went 8–0–1 in his first ten starts, including a tough 2–1 overtime loss in the 2010 Winter Classic to Boston at Fenway Park on New Year's Day. However, Leighton was forced out of the line-up in March with a high ankle sprain, necessitating Boucher's return as starter. All told, seven different goaltenders suited up for the Flyers at various points throughout the year. Mediocre play down the stretch forced the Flyers into a do-or-die shootout with the Rangers in the final game of the regular season. Boucher stopped final shooter Olli Jokinen to clinch the seventh seed in the East and a first-round matchup with New Jersey.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: Boucher and the Flyers consistently outplayed Martin Brodeur and New Jersey and pulled off the upset in five games. However, the victory was costly, as Carter suffered a broken foot and Gagne a broken toe in Game 4, while Ian Laperriere suffered a grievous facial injury by blocking a shot in Game 5. The Flyers then faced sixth-seeded Boston in the second round, and despite playing at an even level with the Bruins, the Flyers found themselves in a 3–0 series deficit. Gagne returned in Game 4 and scored in overtime to force a Game 5, which the Flyers won convincingly, 4–0. Boucher suffered MCL sprains during the game in both knees which forced Leighton back into net in his first time suiting up since March. Boucher and Leighton became the first goalies since 1955 to share a playoff shutout. A 2–1 Flyers win in Game 6 forced a Game 7 in Boston. Falling behind 3–0 in Game 7, the Flyers pulled off the biggest comeback in both franchise and League history, winning 4–3 on a late goal by Gagne to join the Maple Leafs in 1942, the Islanders in 1975 and the Boston Red Sox in 2004 as the only sports teams to win a playoff series after trailing 3–0.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: In the Eastern Conference Finals, the Flyers had home-ice advantage as they faced eighth-seeded Montreal. Leighton became the first Flyers netminder to record three shutouts in a series, and Carter and Laperriere returned to the lineup as the Flyers won the Eastern Conference Championship in five games, advancing to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since to face the Chicago Blackhawks. Dropping two close games in Chicago, the Flyers returned home to win Game 3 in overtime and Game 4 to even the series. A convincing 7–4 win by Chicago in Game 5, however, put the Flyers one game away from elimination. A late Scott Hartnell goal in Game 6 forced overtime, but Patrick Kane scored just over four minutes into overtime to eliminate the Flyers and give Chicago their first Stanley Cup since . Ville Leino, acquired in a mid-season trade from Detroit, set the Flyers rookie playoff scoring record and tied the NHL record with 21 points. Briere led the NHL playoff scoring race with 30 points, one point ahead of Conn Smythe Trophy winner, Jonathan Toews.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: Coming off the close loss to Chicago in the Finals, the Flyers traded Gagne to Tampa Bay to clear up cap space, acquired Andrej Meszaros from Tampa Bay in a separate trade and signed free agent Sean O'Donnell to shore up the defensive corps. The Flyers started the 2010–11 season with rookie goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky from the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) in Russia, who recorded an opening-night win in his NHL debut against Pittsburgh and had steady numbers throughout the season. Boucher remained as the team's backup goaltender, while Leighton played one game in December after recovering from a back injury before being demoted to Adirondack in the American Hockey League (AHL). The Flyers led both the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference for the majority of the season, and challenged Vancouver for the overall NHL lead. Kris Versteeg was brought in from Toronto to add additional offense for the stretch drive and playoffs. However, lackluster play throughout March and April, coupled with a broken hand suffered by Chris Pronger in late February that ended his regular season, cost the Flyers the top seed in the East during the last week of the regular season, although the Flyers hung on to win their first Atlantic Division title since 2003–04 and clinched the second seed in the East.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: The Flyers drew Buffalo in the first round. Bobrovsky played well in a 1–0 Game 1 loss, but was replaced in Game 2 by Boucher, who held on for a 5–4 Flyers win. Boucher played well in a Game 3 win and a Game 4 loss, but was replaced himself in a favor of Leighton during a bad first period in Game 5, which Buffalo won in overtime. Pronger returned to the lineup and Leighton started Game 6 but was replaced by Boucher after a poor first period, though nonetheless the Flyers went on to win in overtime and forced a Game 7, which Boucher started. The Flyers dominated Buffalo, 5–2, and became the first team to win a playoff series starting three different goaltenders since 1988. The Flyers then drew a rematch with the Boston Bruins in the second round. Boston dominated the Flyers in Game 1, where Boucher was again replaced, this time by Bobrovsky. Pronger again left the lineup with an undisclosed injury, while Boston won Game 2 in overtime and again dominated the Flyers in Game 3 to take a 3–0 series lead. Bobrovsky started Game 4, but there was no comeback like in their previous meeting, as Boston completed the sweep. The Flyers tied an NHL record with seven playoff in-game goalie changes, and were the only NHL team not to record a shutout in either the regular season or playoffs.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren made two franchise-altering trades within the span of an hour on June 23, 2011, trading Mike Richards to the Los Angeles Kings for Brayden Schenn, Wayne Simmonds and a 2012 second-round draft pick, and Jeff Carter to Columbus for their 2011 first-round pick (with which the Flyers selected Sean Couturier), 2011 third-round pick (with which the Flyers selected Nick Cousins) and Jakub Voracek. Later that same day, Holmgren addressed the Flyers' long-standing goaltending issues by signing the Phoenix Coyotes' Ilya Bryzgalov to a nine-year, $51 million contract. On July 1, the Flyers signed Jaromir Jagr to a one-year contract, Maxime Talbot to a five-year contract and Andreas Lilja to a two-year contract. Additionally, Chris Pronger was named Flyers captain; however, 13 games into the 2011–12 season, he was lost for the remainder of the regular season and playoffs with severe post-concussion syndrome. Bryzgalov's play ranged from spectacular to sub-par, including being benched in favor of Sergei Bobrovsky for the Flyers' 3–2 loss to the New York Rangers in the 2012 Winter Classic, but also being named NHL First Star for the month of March. Twelve rookies suited up for the Flyers during the season, with the play of Couturier, Schenn and Matt Read standing out impressively.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: The Flyers drew Pittsburgh in the first round of the 2012 playoffs, a series in which the two teams combined for an NHL-record 45 goals in the first four games and a total of 309 penalty minutes in an intense, fight-filled series. The Flyers pulled off the upset in six games against a heavily favored Pittsburgh team. In the second round against New Jersey, the Flyers were heavily favored to win the series, but the Flyers' run-and-gun style of play was stymied by the Devils' forechecking and defense, and, although they won the first game at home in overtime, the Flyers lost four games in a row and were eliminated in five. Briere and Giroux ended the playoffs tied with five other players for the League lead in playoff goals with eight, despite their team being eliminated in the second round.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: The team began the lockout-shortened 2012–13 season by naming Claude Giroux captain on January 15, 2013, and starting off at 0–3–0, their worst start in 17 years. The franchise finished at a record of 23–22–3, fourth in the Atlantic and tenth in the East. The team failed to qualify for the playoffs for the first time since the 2006–07 season and only the ninth time in team history. During the off-season, the Flyers used their two contract buyouts allotted by the new league collective bargaining agreement on Bryzgalov and Briere, and signed free agents Mark Streit (four years, $21 million) and Vincent Lecavalier (five years, $22.5 million).


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: On October 7, head coach Peter Laviolette and assistant coach Kevin McCarthy were both fired just three games into the 2013–14 season after the team again began the season 0–3–0. Assistant coach Craig Berube, who previously played for the Flyers and served two stints as head coach of the Flyers' AHL affiliate, the Philadelphia Phantoms, was named the new head coach, while John Paddock and former Flyer Ian Laperriere were announced as Berube's assistants. The team went 42–27–10 with Berube behind the bench, clinching a playoff berth and ultimately falling in seven games to the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference First Round.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: On May 7, 2014, the club announced that general manager Paul Holmgren had been promoted to president, with assistant general manager Ron Hextall filling his vacancy. Hextall laid out a new plan for the franchise to develop players from within their system, rather than through outside acquisitions. In order to free up valuable cap space, Scott Hartnell was traded before the start of the 2014–15 NHL season, following Braydon Coburn and Kimmo Timonen being traded away mid-season.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: The Flyers did not qualify for the playoffs for the second time in three seasons in 2014–15, and head coach Berube was subsequently fired after the season. The Flyers finished with 33 wins and 31 losses for 84 points. On May 18, 2015, the Flyers hired the former head coach of the University of North Dakota's men's ice hockey team, Dave Hakstol. Hakstol had been North Dakota's coach for the past 8 seasons, during which he accumulated a 289–143–43 record and led the school to the NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Championship in each season at the helm. In 2014–15, the University went 29–10–3 and advanced to the Frozen Four for the seventh time during Hakstol's tenure.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: The Flyers began the 2015–16 season with a record of 4–2–1 in their first seven games. They found themselves outside of the playoff picture near the halfway point of the regular season, but a second-half surge, including a combined record of 17–7–5 in February and March, placed them into playoff position. On the second-to-last day of the season, the Flyers clinched the final wild-card playoff berth with a win over Pittsburgh and an Ottawa win over Boston, which consequently eliminated the Bruins from playoff contention. The Flyers faced Washington in the first round, losing the first three games of the series. The Flyers would rally to win the next two games, but lost the series in six games.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: On April 11, 2016, Flyers longtime chairman, co-founder, and former majority owner Ed Snider died after a two-year battle with bladder cancer. In the 2016–17 season, the Flyers won ten straight games during the months of November and December. However, they fell out of the playoff picture after that streak ended, struggling in the standings and letting other teams get ahead of them. They were eliminated from playoff contention during the last two weeks of the regular season, becoming the first team to miss the playoffs after having a winning streak of ten or more games in the process.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: Despite finishing sixth in their division, they won the second overall pick in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft lottery with just a 2.4% chance to win that particular pick. They used this pick to select Nolan Patrick from the Brandon Wheat Kings. In the 2017–18 season, the Flyers rallied from a 10-game losing streak early in the season to finish in third place in the Metropolitan Division but lost to Pittsburgh in six games in the first round of the 2018 playoffs. They clinched a playoff spot on the last game of the season, at home against the Rangers, winning 5–0 with the help of a Claude Giroux hat trick. In that game, Giroux became the first Flyer to have a 100-point season since Eric Lindros in 1995–96, finishing second in league scoring and fourth in MVP voting, while Couturier was a finalist for the Selke Trophy, and Simmonds was a finalist for the Mark Messier Leadership Award.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: After failing to meet expectations to start the 2018–19 season, Ron Hextall was fired as general manager. Two weeks later, Dave Hakstol was fired as head coach after the Flyers' 12–15–4 start to the season. Chuck Fletcher was hired as the team's general manager on December 3, 2018, and would later be named the team's president, after Paul Holmgren stepped down from the role. Due to racial controversy involving vocalist Kate Smith, at the end of the 2018–19 season, the Flyers removed her statue from outside the stadium and stopped playing her version of "God Bless America". The Flyers fell apart as the season went on, missing the playoffs.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: Heading into the 2019–20 season, the Flyers hired coach Alain Vigneault and signed forward Kevin Hayes in the hopes of bringing the team to cup contender status again. Opening day took place in the Czech Republic, Jake Voracek's birthplace. The Flyers beat the Blackhawks 4–2. The Flyers started off the season very well, tying a team record for the best November in team history with a record of 10–3–4. The Flyers produced consistent, cohesive hockey throughout the season. One of the most notable progressions in the team was the chemistry of the team and the success of the second line, which consisted of Scott Laughton, Kevin Hayes, and Travis Konecny. In February, the team pulled away from the pack of Wild-Card spot chasers and reached second place in the Metropolitan Division following a home win against the Rangers that put their February record at 9–3. The Flyers ended up with a nine-game winning streak, losing at home against the Boston Bruins, the NHL's points leader. The Flyers were scheduled to play at Tampa Bay on March 12, but the NHL suspended all games earlier in the day due to COVID-19 concerns. The Flyers were second in the Metropolitan Division, only 1 point behind the Capitals.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: The Flyers entered the postseason "bubble" in Toronto as the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference, meaning they had clinched a playoff appearance and were to play in a seeding round-robin between the top 4 teams of the conference. The Flyers beat the Bruins in the first game 4–1, the Capitals in the second game 3–1, and the Lightning in the third game 4–1 to claim the number 1 seed in the Eastern Conference for the first time since the 1999–2000 season. Despite high expectations after sweeping the round-robin play, going 0 for 11 on the power play was a detriment to the team's play. Regardless, they went into the first round against the 12-seed Canadiens, who had beat the 5-seed Penguins in the qualifying series, with much confidence. The Flyers jumped to a 3–1 series lead behind young goalie Carter Hart, who recorded two consecutive shutouts in Games 3 and 4. Montreal won Game 5 to extend their season, but the Flyers went on to win the series in six games. In the second round against the New York Islanders, the Flyers fell behind 3–1 in the series partially due to lack of production from the top two lines. The Flyers would rally to tie the series with an overtime win in Game 5 and a double-overtime win in Game 6, but the Islanders shut out the Flyers 4–0 in Game 7 to end their season.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: Despite having lost in the playoffs, the team had very high expectations entering the 2020–21 season. The NHL did not begin the season until January 13, 2021, due to the ongoing global pandemic. NHL divisions would be temporarily realigned due to travel restrictions, placing the Flyers in the East Division. The team managed to finish the first month of play tied for first place in the league, with a 7–2–1 record. However things began to unravel as the season continued. The team fell out of playoff contention by early March and would finish the season with the most goals scored against in the league. Management vowed to address the issues the team had suffered during the season by making several trades and free agent signings. On July 17, 2021, the team traded Nolan Patrick and Philippe Myers to the Nashville Predators in exchange for defenceman Ryan Ellis. The following week the team traded for defenceman Rasmus Ristolainen from the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for Robert Hägg, a 2021 first round pick, and a 2023 second round pick; and traded Jakub Voráček to the Columbus Blue Jackets for forward Cam Atkinson. The team also signed veteran defenceman Keith Yandle, back up goalie Martin Jones and forward Derick Brassard to short term deals.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: The Flyers began the 2021–22 season off to a steady pace by winning six out of the first ten games of the season, however once again things would start to fall apart for the team. Newly acquired Ryan Ellis was placed on injured reserved on November 16 and would be out for the remainder of the season, due to a lower body injury sustained in the preseason. The team then went on a ten game losing streak at which point Alain Vigneault was fired from head coaching duties following a 7–1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, and replaced by assistant coach Mike Yeo. The team would show a brief sign of resurgence under Yeo before the team collapsed again by losing a franchise record thirteen games in a row. In early February center Sean Couturier was ruled out for the rest of the season after completing back surgery for an injury sustained earlier in the year. On March 17, longtime Flyers captain Claude Giroux played in his 1000th career NHL game, a 5–4 home victory over the Nashville Predators, becoming the second Flyer in history to play 1000 games with the franchise. On March 19, Giroux was traded along with Connor Bunnaman, German Rubtsov and a 2024 5th round pick to the Florida Panthers in exchange for Owen Tippett, a 2024 1st-round draft pick, and a 2023 3rd-round pick. The team finished the season with the fourth worst record in the league going 25–46–11, failing to make the playoffs for the second straight year, something that the franchise had not done since the 1989–90 and 1990–91 seasons.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: On April 4, 1966, Bill Putnam – a member of the Philadelphia group that was selected by the NHL for one of the six new franchises – announced a name-the-team contest and orange, black and white as the team colors. Wanting what he referred to as "hot" colors, Putnam's choice was influenced by the orange and white of his alma mater – the University of Texas at Austin – and the orange and black of Philadelphia's previous NHL team, the Quakers. Also announced on April 4 was the hiring of a Chicago firm to design the team's arena.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: Details of the name-the-team contest were released on July 12, 1966. Ballots were available at local Acme Markets grocery stores – sponsor of the contest. The top prize was an RCA 21" color television, with two season tickets for both the second- and third-prize winners, and a pair of single-game tickets for the next 100 winners. Among the names considered behind the scenes were Quakers, Ramblers and Liberty Bells. The first two were the names of previous Philadelphia hockey teams and – given the connotations of losing (Quakers) and the minor leagues (Ramblers) – were passed over. Liberty Bells, although seriously considered, was also the name of a local race track. Bashers, Blizzards, Bruisers, Huskies, Keystones, Knights, Lancers, Raiders and Sabres were among the other names considered.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: It was Ed Snider's sister Phyllis who named the team when she suggested "Flyers" on a return trip from a Broadway play. Ed knew immediately it would be the winning name, since it captured the speed of the game and went well phonetically with Philadelphia. On August 3, 1966, the team name was announced. Of the 11,000 ballots received, more than 100 selected Flyers as the team name and were entered into a drawing to select a winner. Alec Stockard, a nine-year-old boy from Narberth, Pennsylvania, who had spelled it "Fliers" on his entry, won the drawing and was declared the winner.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: With the name and colors already known, Philadelphia advertising firm Mel Richmann Inc. was hired to design a logo and jersey. With Tom Paul as head of the project, artist Sam Ciccone designed both the logo and jerseys to represent speed. Ciccone's winged "P" design – four stylized wings attached to a slanted "P" with an orange dot to represent a puck – was considered the "obvious choice" over his other designs, which included a winged skate. Ciccone's jersey design, a stripe down each shoulder and down the arms, represented wings. The flying "P" has remained the same since the beginning and was ranked the sixth-best NHL logo in a 2008 "Hockey News" poll. The Flyers unveiled a 3D version of this logo with metallic accents during the 2002–03 season which was used on orange third jerseys until the end of the 2006–07 season.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: In the 21st century, the Flyers have left the "Broad Street Bullies" nickname behind them, as perhaps an anecdote of their history, now instead favoring a disciplined two-way brand of hockey.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: The team's 2008–09 retro uniforms used a lighter shade of orange than their original uniforms. This shade did not match earlier versions of the darker 'burnt orange' that was associated with the Flyers, but continued on once the retros became their primary jerseys (with a white version) in 2010–11.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: As with his logo design, Ciccone's jersey design was meant to represent speed. The home jersey was orange with a white stripe down each shoulder and down the arms (meant to represent wings) with a white number on the back and black sleeve numbers. The away jersey was white with orange striping, an orange number on the back and white sleeve numbers. Other than a few minor alterations to the numbers and the switch the NHL made to wear white at home and dark on the road for 1970–71, this general design was used until the end of the 1981–82 season.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: The Flyers unveiled second-generation jerseys for the 1982–83 season. The main difference was the increased width of the shoulder and arm stripes with black trim added to the border of the stripes. Also, a pinstripe (black for the white jersey, orange for the dark) was added to the bottom of each sleeve. With the exception of a similarly designed black jersey replacing the orange and the NHL switching back to wearing darks at home and whites on the road prior to 2003–04, this design was used until the end of the 2006–07 season.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: Many NHL teams started using third jerseys during the mid-1990s and the Flyers unveiled a black third jersey that was similar in design to their second-generation jerseys during the 1997–98 season. During the 2000 Stanley Cup playoffs, the black jersey became the primary dark jersey with the orange jersey being retired after the 2000–01 season (although it was worn for one final game early in the following season on Halloween night). In 2002–03, a new orange third jersey was introduced which was a radical departure from any jersey the Flyers had used before. Unique striping and fonts were used along with the aforementioned metallic 3D logo and the first use of a color other than orange, black or white on a Flyers jersey – silver/gray. These jerseys were used until the end of the 2006–07 season.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: The Flyers, along with the rest of the NHL, unveiled new jerseys prior to the 2007–08 season. The black jersey featured white shoulders with orange and black sections at the elbow and black cuffs. The white road jersey featured orange shoulders with black and white sections at the elbow, and black cuffs. The Flyers unveiled a new orange third jersey based on their 1973–74 jerseys during the 2008–09 season, featuring white player nameplates with black letters which were used occasionally during that season. This uniform replaced the black jerseys as the primary home jersey during the 2009 Stanley Cup playoffs and the subsequent 2009–10 season. The team wore the 1973–74 white jersey – reverse of their current home uniform but with a black nameplate with white lettering – at the 2010 NHL Winter Classic versus the Boston Bruins at Fenway Park. For the 2010–11 season, the Winter Classic jersey was adopted as the team's primary road jersey and the team's alternate black jersey was retired.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: In January 2012, for their second Winter Classic appearance – this time against their arch-rivals the New York Rangers at Citizens Bank Park – the Flyers wore a traditional sweater design in orange with cream and black trim, featuring a cream nameplate with black lettering, as well as black numbers. It also contained a neck tie string which no other Flyers jersey has had before it. This design was later adopted as a third jersey for the 2014–15 season.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: For the 2016–17 season, the Flyers retired their Winter Classic third jerseys in favor of a commemorative 50th-anniversary jersey. The uniform is white with orange and black striping, along with gold numbers, black nameplate with white lettering bordered in gold, and the classic Flyers logo with gold borders. The franchise's founding season is inscribed on the neckline.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: The Flyers wore a black uniform for the 2017 NHL Stadium Series, featuring enlarged black numbers with white trim, orange striping on the sleeves and tail, and orange nameplate with black lettering. The said uniform will become the team's third uniform option starting in the 2018–19 season.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: During the 2019 NHL Stadium Series, the Flyers wore orange and black uniforms minus the white elements. The black helmets also featured an enlarged Flyers logo on both sides.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: For the 2020–21 season, the Flyers released a special "Reverse Retro" alternate uniform. The design was a callback to the darker burnt orange jersey they wore from 1982 to 2001; however, the white and black colors on the sleeves and numbers were reversed. In the 2022–23 season, the Flyers' "Reverse Retro" uniform was based on their early 1980s uniforms, but with black and orange relegated to the logo and lower sleeves.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: The Flyers were the first and one of only two NHL teams (the Hartford Whalers being the other) to wear Cooperalls, hockey pants that extend from the waist to the ankles, in 1981–82. They wore them the following season as well, but returned to the traditional hockey pants in 1983–84 due to Cooperalls being banned from the NHL for safety reasons.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: The Flyers debuted a short-lived skating mascot named "Slapshot" in 1976 but dropped the character by the next season. It was the only mascot in Flyers' team history until 2018, although the team did occasionally employ the services of "Phlex", the then-mascot of the team's minor-league affiliate Philadelphia Phantoms (1996–2009), who became the Adirondack Phantoms (2009–2014) and are now re-branded the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, playing in the PPL Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: On September 24, 2018, the Flyers introduced their new mascot, "Gritty", a seven-foot tall, fuzzy orange creature.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: The Philadelphia Flyers has an affiliation with a number of inductees to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Flyers inductees include 13 former players and six builders of the sport. The six individuals recognized as builders by the Hall of Fame includes former general managers, head coaches, and owners. Inducted in 1984, Bernie Parent was the first player affiliated with the Flyers to be inducted in the Hockey Hall of Fame.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: In addition to players and builders, members of Philadelphia's sports media have also been recognized by the Hockey Hall of Fame. In 1997, Gene Hart, a sports announcer for the Flyers, received the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award from the Hockey Hall of Fame for his contributions to hockey broadcasting. In 2013, Jay Greenberg of the "Philadelphia Daily News" was awarded the Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award for his work in hockey journalism.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: The Flyers have retired six of their jersey numbers and taken another number out of circulation. Barry Ashbee's number 4 was retired a few months after his death from leukemia. Bernie Parent's number 1 – Parent wore number 30 during his first stint with the Flyers – and Bobby Clarke's number 16 were retired less than a year after retiring while Bill Barber's number 7 and Mark Howe's number 2 were retired shortly after their inductions into the Hockey Hall of Fame. The number 31, last worn by goaltender Pelle Lindbergh, was removed from circulation after Lindbergh's death on November 11, 1985, but it is not officially retired. The NHL retired Wayne Gretzky's No. 99 for all its member teams at the 2000 NHL All-Star Game. In 2018, the Flyers retired Eric Lindros' number 88.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: Established in 1988, the Flyers Hall of Fame was designed to "permanently honor those individuals who have contributed to the franchise's success." Candidates for the hall are nominated and voted upon by a panel of media members and team officials. To date, 27 former players and executives have been inducted.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: "This is a partial list of the last five seasons completed by the Flyers. For the full season-by-season history, see List of Philadelphia Flyers seasons"


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: "Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime Losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against"


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: These are the top-ten regular season point-scorers in franchise history. Figures are updated after each completed NHL regular season.


title: Philadelphia Flyers

text: Also known as the Battle of Pennsylvania, the Flyers-Penguins rivalry is considered by many to be one of the most intense rivalries in the NHL. Both teams entered the league in 1967 with the Flyers finding success in the league early on while the Penguins struggled in the early years. The Flyers record against the Penguins from 1967 to 1989 was 89–36–19, and most notably during this time the Penguins had a 42 game winless streak at the Spectrum, lasting from 1974 until 1989. The two teams met for the first time in the playoffs in the 1989 Patrick Division Finals, where the Flyers defeated the higher seeded Penguins in seven games. The teams faced each other again in the 1997 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, with the Flyers winning the series in five games. Penguins legend Mario Lemieux decided to retire at the end of the series for the first time and left the ice to a standing ovation in Philadelphia after game five. The Flyers would go on to win over the Penguins again in the 2000 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, most remembered for Keith Primeau scoring the game winning goal in the fifth overtime period of game four, becoming the third longest playoff game in league history with a total game time of 152 minutes. The Penguins first playoff victory against the Flyers came during the 2008 Eastern Conference Finals, winning the series in five games to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals. The two teams would meet again in the playoffs the following year in the 2009 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, with the Penguins defeating the Flyers in six games. The rivalry would come to a boiling point during the 2012 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals when both teams combined for an NHL record 45 goals in the first four games of a playoff series, as well as accumulating 309 penalty minutes. Game three saw a total combined 158 penalty minutes between the two teams, as well as multiple suspensions. The Flyers went on to win the series in six games. The Penguins defeated the Flyers in the first round of the 2018 playoffs in six games, with the Penguins outscoring the Flyers 28–15. The rivalry has been showcased during the NHL Stadium Series outdoor games in 2017 at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh and in 2019 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.


title: Cradle of Filth

text: Cradle of Filth are an English extreme metal band formed in Suffolk in 1991. The band's musical style evolved originally from black metal to a cleaner and more "produced" amalgam of gothic metal, symphonic metal and other metal genres. Their lyrical themes and imagery are heavily influenced by Gothic literature, poetry, mythology and horror films. The band consists of its founding member, vocalist Dani Filth, drummer Martin 'Marthus' Škaroupka, bassist Daniel Firth, guitarists Marek 'Ashok' Šmerda and Donny Burbage, and keyboardist Zoe Marie Federoff.


title: Cradle of Filth

text: The band has broken free from its original niche by courting mainstream publicity. This increased accessibility has brought coverage from the likes of "Kerrang!" and MTV, along with frequent main stage appearances at major festivals such as Ozzfest, Download and even the mainstream Sziget Festival. They have sometimes been perceived as Satanic by casual observers, even though their outright lyrical references to Satanism are few and far between; their use of Satanic imagery has arguably always been more for shock value than any seriously held beliefs.


title: Cradle of Filth

text: Cradle of Filth's first three years saw three demos ("Invoking the Unclean", "Orgiastic Pleasures Foul" and "Total Fucking Darkness") recorded amidst the sort of rapid line-up fluctuations that have continued ever since, with the band having more than thirty musicians in its history. An album entitled "Goetia" was recorded prior to the third demo and set for release on Tombstone Records, but all tracks were wiped when Tombstone went out of business and the band could not afford to buy the recordings from the studio. The band eventually signed to Cacophonous Records, and their debut album, "The Principle of Evil Made Flesh", was Cacophonous's first release in 1994. A step-up in terms of production from the rehearsal quality of most of their demos, the album was still nevertheless a sparse and embryonic version of what was to come, with lead singer Dani Filth's vocals in particular bearing little similarity to the style he was later to develop. The album was well-received however, and as recently as June 2006 found its way into "Metal Hammer"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s list of the top ten black metal albums of the last twenty years.


title: Cradle of Filth

text: Cradle's relationship with Cacophonous soon soured, the band accusing the label of contractual and financial mismanagement. Acrimonious legal proceedings took up most of 1995, and the original version of the band's second album, "Dusk... and Her Embrace" was recorded by the "Principle..." lineup for Cacophonous but scrapped. Subsequently re-worked with new band members for Music For Nations (see below), the embryonic Cacophonous version was eventually released as "Dusk... and Her Embrace: The Original Sin" in July 2016.


title: Cradle of Filth

text: The band finally signed to Music for Nations in 1996 after only one more contractually obligated Cacophonous recording: the EP "V Empire or Dark Faerytales in Phallustein", which, it has since been conceded, was hastily written as a Cacophonous escape-plan. Despite the circumstances of its release however, its handful of tracks are staples of the band's live sets to this day, and "Queen of Winter, Throned" was listed among twenty-five "essential extreme metal anthems" in a 2006 issue of "Kerrang!" magazine. The EP also marked Sarah Jezebel Deva's debut with the band, replacing Andrea Meyer, Cradle's first female vocalist and self-styled "satanic advisor". Deva appeared on every subsequent Cradle release and tour until 2010's "Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa", but was never considered a full band member, since she also performed with The Kovenant, Therion and Mortiis, and fronted her own Angtoria project along with Cradle's former bass guitar player, Dave Pybus.


title: Cradle of Filth

text: The re-worked and re-recorded "Dusk... and Her Embrace" followed the same year: a critically acclaimed breakthrough album that greatly expanded the band's fan-base throughout Europe and the rest of the world. Cradle's inaugural album for Music for Nations set the tone for what was to follow. The album's production values matched the band's ambition for the first time, whilst Filth's vocal gymnastics were at their most extreme.


title: Cradle of Filth

text: The increasingly theatrical stage shows of the 1997 European tour helped keep Cradle in the public eye, as did a burgeoning line of controversial merchandise, not least the notorious T-shirt depicting a masturbating nun on the front and the slogan "Jesus is a cunt" in large letters on the back. The T-shirt is banned in New Zealand, a handful of fans have faced court appearances and fines for wearing the shirt in public, and some band members themselves attracted a certain amount of hostile attention when they wore similar "I Love Satan" shirts to the Vatican. Alex Mosson, the Lord Provost of Glasgow from 1999 to 2003, called the shirts (and by implication the band) "sick and offensive". The band obviously approved, using the quote on the back cover of the 2005 DVD "Peace Through Superior Firepower".


title: Cradle of Filth

text: In 1998, Filth began his long-running "Dani's Inferno" column for "Metal Hammer", and the band appeared in the BBC documentary series "Living with the Enemy" (on tour with a fan and his disapproving mother and sister) and released its third studio album, "Cruelty and the Beast". A fully realised concept album based on the legend of the "Blood Countess" Elizabeth Báthory, the album boasted the casting coup of Ingrid Pitt providing guest narration as the Countess; a role she first played in Hammer Film Productions' 1971 film "Countess Dracula". The album led to Cradle's US debut, and Dani claimed it in 2003 as the Cradle album of which he was most proud, although he conceded dissatisfaction with its sound quality.


title: Cradle of Filth

text: The following year the band continued primarily to tour, but did release the EP "From the Cradle to Enslave", accompanied by the band's first music video, which formed the centrepiece of the DVD "PanDaemonAeon". Replete with graphic nudity and gore, the video was directed by Alex Chandon, who would go on to produce further Cradle promo clips and DVD documentaries, as well as the full-length feature film "Cradle of Fear".


title: Cradle of Filth

text: The band released their fourth studio album in the Autumn of 2000. "Midian" was based around the Clive Barker novel "Cabal" and its subsequent film adaptation "Nightbreed". Like "Cruelty and the Beast", "Midian" featured a guest narrator, this time Doug Bradley, who starred in "Nightbreed" but remains best known for playing Pinhead in the "Hellraiser" series. Bradley's line "Oh, no tears please" from the song "Her Ghost in the Fog" is a quote of Pinhead's from the first "Hellraiser" ("No tears, please. It's a waste of good suffering..."), and Bradley would reappear on later albums "Nymphetamine", "Thornography" and "Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder". The video for "Her Ghost in the Fog" received heavy rotation on MTV2 and other metal channels, and the track also found its way onto the soundtrack of the werewolf movie "Ginger Snaps" (it would also feature, much later, in the video game "Brütal Legend").


title: Cradle of Filth

text: The longest-ever interim period between full-length Cradle albums was nevertheless a busy time for the band. "Bitter Suites to Succubi" was released on the band's own Abracadaver label, and was a mixture of four new songs, re-recordings of three songs from "The Principle of Evil Made Flesh", two instrumental tracks and a cover of The Sisters of Mercy's "No Time to Cry". Stylistically similar to "Midian", the collection was, at the time, unique among Cradle releases in that it featured exactly the same band members as its predecessor. Further stop-gap releases followed in the form of the "best of" package "Lovecraft & Witch Hearts" and the live album, "Live Bait for the Dead". Finally, the band (principally Dani) also found time to appear in the horror film "Cradle of Fear" while they negotiated their first major-label signing with Sony Music.


title: Cradle of Filth

text: "Damnation and a Day" arrived in 2003; Sony's heavyweight funding underwriting Cradle's undiminished ambition by finally bringing a real orchestra into the studio (the 101 piece Budapest Film Orchestra including the 40 piece Choir replacing the increasingly sophisticated synthesisers of previous albums) and thus marking the band's belated gestation—for one album only—into full-blown symphonic metal. "Damnation" featured the band's most complex compositions to date, outran its predecessors by a good twenty minutes and produced two more popular videos: the Jan Švankmajer-influenced "Mannequin" and "Babalon A.D. (So Glad for the Madness)", based on Pier Paolo Pasolini's film "Salò". Roughly half the album trod the conceptual territory of John Milton's "Paradise Lost"—showing the events of the fall of man through the eyes of Lucifer—while the remainder comprised stand-alone tracks such as the Nile tribute "Doberman Pharaoh" and the aforementioned "Babalon A. D."; a reference to Aleister Crowley. "Babalon A. D." was the first DVD-only single to reach the UK's top 40 charts, according to the "Guinness Book of Records of British Hit Singles and Albums". Feeling that Sony's enthusiasm quickly palled however, Cradle jumped ship to Roadrunner Records after barely a year.


title: Cradle of Filth

text: 2004's "Nymphetamine" was the band's first full album since "Dusk...and Her Embrace" to not be based around any sort of overarching concept (although references to the works of H. P. Lovecraft are made more than once). Cradle's bass guitarist Dave Pybus described it as an "eclectic mix between the group's "Damnation" and "Cruelty" albums with a renewed vigour for melody, songmanship and plain fucking weirdness." "Nymphetamine" debuted at No. 89 on the Billboard Top 200 chart, selling just under 14,000 copies, and the band's growing acceptance by the mainstream was confirmed when the album's title track was nominated for a Grammy award. The album's track "Coffin Fodder" was referenced in an episode of the Channel 4 sit-com "The IT Crowd" in February 2006.


title: Cradle of Filth

text: "Thornography" was released in October 2006. According to Dani Filth, the title "represents mankind's obsession with sin and self... an addiction to self-punishment or something equally poisonous... a mania." On the subject of the album's musical direction, Filth told "Revolver" magazine, "I'm not saying it's 'experimental', but we're definitely testing the limits of what we can do... A lot of the songs are really rhythmical—thrashy, almost—but they're all also really catchy." A flurry of pre-release controversy saw Samuel Araya's original cover artwork scrapped and replaced in May 2006, although numerous CD booklets had already been printed with the original image. "Thornography" received a similar reception to "Nymphetamine", garnering generally positive reviews, but raising a few eyebrows with the inclusion of a cover of Heaven 17's "Temptation" (featuring guest vocals from Dirty Harry), which was released as a digital single and accompanying video shortly before the album. "Thornography" entered the Billboard chart at No. 66, having sold nearly 13,000 copies.


title: Cradle of Filth

text: Long-term drummer Adrian Erlandsson departed the band in November 2006, with the intention of devoting his energies to his two side projects, Needleye and Nemhain. The official press release from Roadrunner saw Erlandsson state "I have enjoyed my time with Cradle but it is now time to move on. I feel I am going out on a high as "Thornography" is definitely our best album to date". He was replaced by Martin Škaroupka.


title: Cradle of Filth

text: Work on the eighth studio album, released in October 2008 as "Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder", began early that year following a GWAR-supported tour which took place in Russia, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Romania, Slovakia and North America. "Godspeed" is a concept album based around the legend of Gilles de Rais, a 15th-century French nobleman who fought alongside Joan of Arc and accumulated great wealth before becoming an occultist, sexual deviant and murderer. "Kerrang!" preferred the album to the "relatively weak" "Thornography", calling it "grandiose and epic", while "Metal Hammer" said it had "genuine narrative depth and emotional resonance", and "Terrorizer" called it "cohesive, consistent and convincing". It sold 11,000 copies in its week of release, entering the Billboard 200 at No. 48.


title: Cradle of Filth

text: Cradle's relationship with Roadrunner came to an end in April 2010, with the announcement that the band's next album would be released by the British independent label Peaceville Records, using Cradle's own Abracadaver imprint. Dani Filth cited "the artistic restrictions and mindless inhibitions imposed by a major label" as the band's reason for going independent. Early press releases named the new album "All Hallows Eve", but by August 2010 the title was confirmed as "Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa". Released on 1 November 2010, it is a concept album in the same vein as its predecessor, "Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder"; this time centring on the demon Lilith, the first wife of the biblical Adam, and also making reference to Greek, Egyptian and Sumerian mythology, the Knights Templar and the Carmelite Nuns. The label referred to it as "a dark tapestry of horror, madness and twisted sex", while Filth called its sound "creepily melodic, like Mercyful Fate or a dark Iron Maiden". "Metal Hammer"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s Dom Lawson felt it was "another sumptuous and spectacular eruption of gothic melodrama, perverted sonic schlock and balls-out extreme metal bombast", and likened it to an "instalment in an ongoing series of novels."


title: Cradle of Filth

text: An EP entitled "Evermore Darkly", featuring "new tracks and rarities", was released in October 2011. The package included a DVD with a tour documentary, a live DVD recorded at 2011's Graspop festival and the video for "Lilith Immaculate".


title: Cradle of Filth

text: In April 2012, the compilation album "Midnight in the Labyrinth" was released, featuring orchestral re-recordings of songs from the band's first three albums and the "V Empire" EP. Dani Filth had described it in the preceding months as "reinventing" the tracks as "full soundtrack quality stuff... with choirs, strings and some narration". This album's version of "Summer Dying Fast" was included on "Evermore Darkly" as a teaser for the full release (the "Evermore" track listing subtitles this version ""Midnight in the Labyrinth" breadcrumb trail"), and "A Gothic Romance (Red Roses for the Devil's Whore)" was released online via Peaceville's website on 4 April. Sarah Jezebel Deva returned to provide female vocals for "Midnight in the Labyrinth"; her first work with Cradle since her departure in 2008.


title: Cradle of Filth

text: Cradle's tenth studio album, "The Manticore and Other Horrors", was released on 29 October 2012 in Europe, and on 30 October in North America. Paul Allender told Ultimate Guitar that "The last thing we want to do is come out with another album that sounds like the last two. We decided to change direction and go back to what we used to do with the female vocals; all the strong melody lines and harmonies... I've put a lot of punk-orientated riffs back into it again. It's really gone quite dark and pretty hardcore."


title: Cradle of Filth

text: On 2 September 2013, via his monthly blog, Dani Filth announced the crowd-funded Cradle of Filth comic book, "The Curse of Venus Aversa", and "a career spanning double-disc 'best of'" compilation that is yet to be named.


title: Cradle of Filth

text: In March 2014, Cradle of Filth announced the first ever commercial release of their 1993 demo "Total Fucking Darkness". The album arrived on CD and limited edition vinyl the following May, on the independent Mordgrimm label. It features all the tracks from the original cassette, plus previously unreleased rehearsal recordings and the sole surviving track from their abandoned "Goetia" album.


title: Cradle of Filth

text: In April 2014, Paul Allender stated on his official Facebook account that he had once again left Cradle of Filth, in favour of his new band White Empress. Dani Filth stated about Allender departing the band: "Paul has been enthralled ["sic"] in his own project and he could not do the tour due to personal reasons. Since then the band has grown as a unit, we were only writing as one guitarist for the last three records and we now have two very competent guitarists. Paul had a very strong opinion about doing that [writing single guitar parts], and we're a two-guitar band. So that may be one of the things that kind of opened the fissure a bit."


title: Cradle of Filth

text: James McIlroy also left the band at around this point due to imminent surgery for a spinal injury. Both guitarists were replaced for upcoming tours by Marek "Ashok" Šmerda of the Czech groups Root and Inner Fear, and Richard Shaw of English acts Emperor Chung and NG26.


title: Cradle of Filth

text: On 2 April 2014, Cradle of Filth's website announced that they were working on their follow-up to "The Manticore and Other Horrors". Dani Filth announced that they expected a Spring 2015 release and that three songs had already been written.


title: Cradle of Filth

text: On 11 November 2014 it was reported on the official Cradle of Filth Facebook page that they had signed to Nuclear Blast Records for their new album and were expected to begin recording the follow up to "The Manticore And Other Horrors" later the same month. In early 2015, the working title of the album was revealed as "Hammer of the Witches" (inspired by the 1486 treatise on the prosecution of witches by Heinrich Kramer). This title was eventually confirmed as official. The album was recorded at Grindstone Studios in Suffolk, England, with a tentative initial release date of 26 June. Over 21 and 22 March the band filmed scenes for a promo video for the song "Right Wing of the Garden Triptych". The shoot was in the hangar and fire station of former U.S. military base of Bentwaters, with additional narrative scenes (featuring actresses in a bondage setting) filmed on a farmstead near the Imperial War Museum Duxford. The video was directed by Sam Scott-Hunter.


title: Cradle of Filth

text: On 21 April 2015, the album's release date was updated to sometime in July, and the band revealed "Hammer of the Witches" cover artwork by the Latvian post-modernist artist Arthur Berzinsh. The album was officially released through Nuclear Blast on 10 July 2015. The subsequent world tour included the band's largest set of UK dates for eight years in late 2015, and a set of North American shows in early 2016.


title: Cradle of Filth

text: On 16 June 2017 the title of their twelfth studio album was revealed as "Cryptoriana – The Seductiveness of Decay" and it was given an official release date of 22 September 2017 through Nuclear Blast Records.


title: Cradle of Filth

text: On 10 February 2020, it was announced on the band's social media that keyboardist and vocalist Lindsay Schoolcraft had departed from the band, citing mental health reasons, as well as giving the band room to progress. In the post the band announced that a replacement had been found, but did not immediately disclose their identity. Anabelle Iratni was later announced as the new keyboard player for the band in May 2021.


title: Cradle of Filth

text: The band's thirteenth album, "Existence Is Futile", was released on 22 October 2021. A music video was released for the single "Crawling King Chaos" in advance of the album on 30 July 2021. On 4 May 2022, Dani Filth announced the departure of guitarist Richard Shaw and keyboardist Anabelle. Filth stated, "We have to respect that people have personal commitments and/or sometimes find the career choice of being in a band like Cradle of Filth a tad overwhelming". At the same time, Donny Burbage joined as the new guitarist with Zoe Marie Federoff as the new keyboard player.


title: Cradle of Filth

text: Vocalist Dani Filth mentioned in August 2022 that the band had been working on a collaboration with singer Ed Sheeran since the previous year. Filth explained that Sheeran had begun recording his vocals for the collaboration, but that Sheeran's touring schedule and the birth of his child caused delays. Sheeran's interest in a collaboration with Cradle of Filth stems from listening to Cradle, Slipknot and death metal during his childhood, and wanting to release his own heavy metal or extreme metal music.


title: Cradle of Filth

text: Though generally classified as an extreme metal band, Cradle of Filth's musical style has been described as symphonic metal, symphonic black metal, gothic metal, symphonic death metal, gothic black metal, dark metal, and symphonic gothic metal. Though they have since distanced themselves from the genre, their early material was considered black metal, but was also compared to death metal and thrash metal.


title: Cradle of Filth

text: Despite these classifications, Cradle of Filth's particular genre has provoked a great deal of discussion, and their status as a black metal band or otherwise has been in debate since near the time that the group rose to fame. The band have cited acts that were heavily influential to black metal such as Bathory, Celtic Frost and Mercyful Fate among their influences, but Dani Filth, in a 1998 interview for BBC Radio 5 for example, said "I use the term 'heavy metal', rather than 'black metal', because I think that's a bit of a fad now. Call it what you like: death metal, black metal, any kind of metal...". Gavin Baddeley's 2006 "Terrorizer" interview states that "few folk, the band included, call Cradle black metal these days." In a 2006 interview with "Terrorizer", then-guitarist Paul Allender said, "We were never a black metal band. The only thing that catered to that was the make-up. Even when "The Principle of Evil Made Flesh" came out—you look at Emperor and Burzum and all that stuff—we didn't sound anything like that. The way that I see it is that we were, and still are now, an extreme metal band."


title: Cradle of Filth

text: However, the band's evolving sound has allowed them to continue resisting definitive categorisation. They have collaborated on projects such as Christian Death's "Born Again Anti-Christian" album (on the track "Peek-a-Boo") and have even experimented outside of metal music with dance remixes – such as "Twisting Further Nails", "Pervert's Church" and "Forgive Me Father (I'm in a Trance)".


title: Cradle of Filth

text: Appearing on the BBC music quiz "Never Mind the Buzzcocks" on 9 April 2001, Filth jokingly described Cradle's sound as "heavy funk", and in an October 2006 interview stated, "we'd rather be known as solely 'Cradle of Filth', I think, than be hampered by stupid genre barriers."


title: Cradle of Filth

text: Cradle of Filth serves as an influence for a variety of bands, including Babymetal, Dimmu Borgir, Motionless In White, Ghost, The Black Dahlia Murder, Ice Nine Kills, Belphegor, Alestorm, Bleeding Through, and Carach Angren, as well as for Ed Sheeran.


title: Flag of Mississippi

text: The flag of Mississippi, also known as the Mississippi flag, consists of a white magnolia blossom surrounded by 21 white stars and the words 'In God We Trust' written below, all put over a blue Canadian pale with two gold borders on a red field. The topmost star is composed of a pattern of five diamonds, an Indigenous symbol; the other 20 stars are white, as Mississippi was the 20th state to join the Union. The flag was adopted on January 11, 2021.


title: Flag of Mississippi

text: Mississippi has had three official state flags in its history. The first flag, known as the "Magnolia Flag", was adopted in 1861 and consisted of a "Flag of white ground, a magnolia tree in the , a blue field in the upper left hand corner with a white star in the , ... with a red border and a red fringe at the extremity of the Flag". The Magnolia Flag was declared to be "null and void" by a state constitutional convention in 1865 and the state was left without an official flag until the second one was adopted in 1894.


title: Flag of Mississippi

text: The second flag, designed by Edward N. Scudder and adopted in 1894, consisted of a triband of three equal horizontal stripes of blue, white, and red, with a canton of the Confederate battle flag. The thirteen stars on the state flag officially represented "the number of the original states of the Union", although they are sometimes thought to be for the states that seceded from the Union plus Missouri and Kentucky, which also had both Confederate and Union governing bodies. From 1894 to 1956, and again from 2003 to 2020, this was the only state flag to incorporate the Confederate battle flag into its design. In response to the George Floyd protests in 2020, state legislators proposed new flag designs omitting the Confederate flag.


title: Flag of Mississippi

text: On June 27, 2020, Governor Tate Reeves stated that if the Mississippi Legislature passed a bill that weekend addressing the flag issue, he would sign it into law. Subsequently, on June 28, 2020, the Legislature passed a bill to repeal the sections of the Mississippi State Code which made provisions for a state flag, mandate the Mississippi Department of Archives and History develop a plan for the removal of the former flag from public buildings within 15 days of the bill's effective date, and establish a commission to design a replacement that would exclude the Confederate battle flag and include the U.S. national motto "In God We Trust". Reeves then signed it into law on June 30, 2020.


title: Flag of Mississippi

text: The third flag was designed by Rocky Vaughan, Sue Anna Joe, Kara Giles, Daniel Pugh, and Micah Whitson. It was chosen by the Commission to Redesign the Mississippi State Flag, which was established by the same June 2020 Mississippi House bill which retired the second flag. The commission received thousands of submissions, and narrowed them down to a single choice, which was submitted for public vote as a ballot measure on November 3, 2020. Voters approved the new design in a two-choice vote but the removal of the Confederate battle flag from the new proposed design was never approved by voters directly. It is one of three U.S. state flags to feature the words "In God We Trust" (the U.S. national motto), with the other two being those of Florida and Georgia.


title: Flag of Mississippi

text: Before 1861, Mississippi lacked a flag. When the State Convention at the Capitol in Jackson declared its secession from the United States ("the Union") on January 9, 1861, near the start of the American Civil War, spectators in the balcony handed a Bonnie Blue flag down to the state convention delegates on the convention floor, and one was raised over the state capitol building in Jackson as a sign of independence. Later that night, residents of Jackson paraded through the streets under the banner. Harry McCarthy, an Irish singer and playwright who observed the street parade, was inspired to write the patriotic song "The Bonnie Blue Flag."


title: Flag of Mississippi

text: The first flag was known as the "Magnolia flag." It was the official state flag from March 30, 1861, until August 22, 1865. On January 26, 1861, the delegates to the state convention approved the report of a special committee that had been appointed to design a coat of arms and "a suitable flag." The flag recommended by the committee was "A Flag of white ground, a magnolia tree in the center, a blue field in the upper left hand corner with a white star in the center, the Flag to be finished with a red border and a red fringe at the extremity of the Flag." Due to time constraints and the pressure to raise "means for the defense of the state," the delegates neglected to adopt the flag officially in January but did so when they reassembled in March 1861. The Magnolia Flag was not widely used during the war, as the various Confederate flags were displayed more frequently. Following the war's end, a state constitutional convention nullified many of the ordinances and resolutions passed by the State Convention of 1861. Among those nullified was the ordinance of March 1861 "to provide a Coat of Arms and Flag for the State of Mississippi."


title: Flag of Mississippi

text: On February 7, 1894, the Legislature replaced the Civil War era Magnolia Flag with a new one designed by Edward N. Scudder that incorporated the Confederate battle flag in its canton. This second state flag consisted of three equal horizontal triband of blue, white, and red, with the canton of the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia. The 13 stars on the state flag officially represented "the number of the original states of the Union"; though they are sometimes thought to have been for states that seceded from the Union, plus Missouri and Kentucky which had Union and Confederate governments.


title: Flag of Mississippi

text: In 1906, Mississippi adopted a revised legal code that repealed all general laws that were not reenacted by the legislature or brought forward in the new code. The legislature inadvertently omitted mention of the 1894 flag, leaving the state with no official state flag from 1906 to 2001. In 2000, the Supreme Court of Mississippi confirmed that the state legislature had in 1906 repealed the 1894 adoption of the state flag; the flag used since then and considered official had actually only been customary or traditional.


title: Flag of Mississippi

text: In January 2001, then-Governor Ronnie Musgrove appointed an independent commission which developed a new proposed flag design. On April 17, 2001, a legally binding state referendum to change the flag was put before Mississippi voters by the legislature on recommendation of this commission.


title: Flag of Mississippi

text: The referendum, which asked voters if the new design prepared by the independent commission should be adopted, was defeated in a vote of 64% (488,630 votes) to 36% (267,812), and the 1894 state flag was retained. The proposed flag would have replaced the Confederate rebel battle flag with a blue square canton with 20 white stars in a circular row. The outer ring of 13 stars would represent the original Thirteen Colonies, the middle ring of six stars would represent the six nations that have had sovereignty over Mississippi Territory (various Native American nations as a collective nation, French Empire, Spanish Empire, Great Britain, the United States, and the Confederacy) as well as the six states that precede Mississippi's admission (Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana, and Indiana), and the inner and slightly larger star would represent Mississippi itself. The 20 stars would also represent Mississippi's status as the 20th U.S. state and member of the United States of America.


title: Flag of Mississippi

text: When Georgia adopted a new state flag in 2003, the Mississippi flag remained the only U.S. state flag to include the Confederate battle flag's saltire. In 2001 a survey conducted by the North American Vexillological Association (NAVA) placed Mississippi's flag 22nd in design quality of the 72 Canadian provincial, U.S. state, and U.S. territorial flags ranked.


title: Flag of Mississippi

text: In the wake of the 2015 Charleston, South Carolina, church shooting, in which nine black parishioners of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church were killed by Confederacy admirer and white supremacist Dylann Roof, there were renewed calls for Southern states to cease using the Confederate battle flag in official capacities. This extended to increased criticism of Mississippi's state flag. All eight public universities in Mississippi, along with "several cities and counties", including Biloxi, later refused to fly the state flag until the emblem was removed. The flag was excluded from state-flag displays in New Jersey, Oregon, and Philadelphia that included the flags of the other 49 states.


title: Flag of Mississippi

text: Over 20 flag-related bills, some calling for another statewide referendum, were introduced in the legislature in 2015 and 2016, but none made it out of committee. A 2016 federal lawsuit alleging that the flag is tantamount to "state-sanctioned hate speech" was dismissed by both a district court and the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The US Supreme Court declined to hear the case.


title: Flag of Mississippi

text: An alternative was devised in 2014 by artist Laurin Stennis, granddaughter of former U.S. senator John C. Stennis. Her proposal was originally dubbed the "Declare Mississippi flag" but was popularly called the "Stennis flag" and later renamed the "Hospitality flag". In June 2020, Stennis stepped back from the effort to change the 1894 flag, citing potential harm associated with her last name, which she shares with her grandfather who was a segregationist for much of his career. In August 2020, the copyrighted design was withdrawn from being an option for a new flag because it did not include the legislature-mandated "In God We Trust" slogan.


title: Flag of Mississippi

text: The flag consists of a single blue star on a white field, an inversion of the white star on a blue field of the Bonnie Blue flag. It is encircled by 19 smaller stars representing each state in the Union when Mississippi joined, as well as symbolizing "unity and continuity" drawing inspiration from the artifacts of the indigenous peoples of the region. The central white field represents "faith and possibility", and is flanked on each side by vertical red bars, representing "the blood spilled by Mississippians, whether civilian or military, who have honorably given their lives in pursuit of liberty and justice for all". In an interview, Stennis said the red bars also stand for "Mississippians' 'passionate differences' on the flag issue".


title: Flag of Mississippi

text: Since its inception, numerous bills were brought before the legislature to have the Stennis flag declared the new state flag, but none of them passed. On April 17, 2019, Mississippi governor Phil Bryant signed a new specialty license plates bill. One of the new specialty plates included the Stennis flag along with the phrase "History + Hope + Hospitality". This was the first time that the Stennis flag's design received some form of state sanction by being used in an official capacity.


title: Flag of Mississippi

text: A flag was created by the Mississippi Economic Council to celebrate the state's bicentennial in 2017. This flag consisted of a blue, white and red tricolor with the state seal centered on the white stripe. The flag also had the words "Established 1817" and "Bicentennial 2017" written on the white stripe on either side of the seal. This flag, without the wording, has been used as an alternative state flag and has been suggested as a possible replacement for it.


title: Flag of Mississippi

text: In late June 2020, former Governor Phil Bryant suggested using the bicentennial flag as a future state flag. Following the retirement of the previous state flag on June 30, 2020, this banner was used in some instances as a "de facto" placeholder. African American Mississippians from 2017 to 2020 frequently used the bicentennial flag along with the 2001 proposed flag.


title: Flag of Mississippi

text: On June 9, 2020, lawmakers gathered votes and started drafting legislation to change the state flag. This was the first substantial action to change the state flag since the 2001 referendum. The proposed legislation would adopt Laurin Stennis's design as the new flag of Mississippi. With the support of Republican Speaker of the House, Philip Gunn, lawmakers began to court Republican state house members to vote for the resolution.


title: Flag of Mississippi

text: Gunn ensured that he would get the resolution passed through a House committee if verbal support from 30 Republicans was secured to go along with the 45 Democratic members of the House. An update on June 10 showed that lawmakers believed that they had secured at least 20 Republicans who were in favor of voting for the resolution to change the flag, while 20 more were on the fence. The lawmakers' goal was to secure at least 40 Republicans needed to suspend rules to allow a bill to be considered in the session. On June 11, Senate Democrats filed a resolution to change the state flag.


title: Flag of Mississippi

text: On September 10, 2015, Steve Earle released the single "Mississippi It's Time" with all proceeds going towards the civil rights organization, Southern Poverty Law Center. The song was produced by Earle and recorded with his longtime backup band, the Dukes, in the summer of 2015 in the aftermath of the massacre at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in June 2015. The song advocates for removal of the Confederate flag from state grounds and tackles historical themes of slavery, racism, patriotism, and progress since the Civil War.


title: Flag of Mississippi

text: On June 18, 2020, the commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, Greg Sankey, announced the SEC would consider banning championship events in Mississippi until the flag was changed. The SEC is the athletic conference for the two largest universities in Mississippi, Ole Miss and Mississippi State. The announcement by the conference was followed by support of changing the flag from Chancellor Glenn Boyce of The University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) and President Mark E. Keenum of Mississippi State University. The athletic directors of the universities, Keith Carter (Ole Miss) and John Cohen (Mississippi State), also supported changing the flag, along with various coaches from the universities.On June 19, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) banned all post-season play from occurring in Mississippi until the flag was changed. The NCAA had previously banned predetermined events such as football bowl games and men's basketball tournament games in 2001 from occurring in the state. The new rule would have also banned merit-based championship sites, such as baseball regionals, softball regionals, women's basketball tournament games and tennis tournament games. Ole Miss hosted both baseball and softball regionals in 2019. Mississippi State hosted a baseball regional, men's tennis tournament games and women's basketball tournament games in 2019.


title: Flag of Mississippi

text: Also on June 19, the leaders of the eight public universities in Mississippi (Alcorn State University, Delta State University, Jackson State University, Mississippi State University, Mississippi University for Women, Mississippi Valley State University, University of Mississippi and University of Southern Mississippi) issued a joint statement calling for a new state flag. On June 22, Conference USA banned all postseason play in Mississippi until the removal of the Confederate emblem from the state flag. Conference USA is home to the state's third largest university, Southern Miss, and has hosted its annual baseball tournament in Mississippi for eight of the past nine years. On June 23, presidents of the fifteen community colleges in Mississippi issued a joint statement showing their support for a new flag.


title: Flag of Mississippi

text: The Mississippi Baptist Convention condemned the former state flag on June 23, 2020. In a statement, Baptist leaders said: "The racial overtones of the flag's appearance make this discussion a moral issue. Since the principal teachings of Scripture are opposed to racism, a stand against such is a matter of biblical morality." Walmart announced that it would cease displaying the state flag at its 85 Mississippi store locations on June 23, 2020. The retailer normally displays the applicable state flag alongside the U.S. national flag at its locations in the U.S.


title: Flag of Mississippi

text: On June 24, 2020, Lieutenant Governor Delbert Hosemann announced his support for a new flag. Hosemann was joined by Attorney General Lynn Fitch, State Auditor Shad White, Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson and Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney. On June 27, 2020, the Mississippi Legislature passed a resolution, House Concurrent Resolution 79, that suspended rules in the legislative chambers in order to debate and vote on a bill to remove and replace the state flag. The motion passed the House on an 85–34 vote and the Senate on a 36–14 vote.


title: Flag of Mississippi

text: At that time, there was no consensus on the method of changing the flag, whether it be retiring the current flag or immediately adopting another. A proposal floated by several members of the Legislature was to create a new Mississippi flag. This flag, with a yet-to-be-determined design that did not include any Confederate images, would be used alongside the current flag. This plan was soundly rejected by Governor Tate Reeves who said it would not "satisfy either side of this debate" and compared it to the separate but equal doctrine.


title: Flag of Mississippi

text: On June 28, 2020, the Legislature passed a bill, House Bill 1796, that would relinquish the state flag, remove the state flag from public buildings within 15 days of the bill's effective date, and constitute a nine-member commission to design a new flag that would be put to voters in a referendum to be held in November 2020. The bill required that the Confederate battle flag not be included on the proposed design, and the motto "In God We Trust" be included, as Georgia did when it removed the Confederate emblem from its state flag in 2003. In the House, the bill was passed by 91 in favor and 23 against. In the Senate, the bill was passed with 37 in favor and 14 against.


title: Flag of Mississippi

text: Earlier that weekend, Governor Reeves had stated that he would sign any flag bill passed that weekend by the Legislature into law. Subsequently, after the Legislature passed the bill, a spokesperson for the governor indicated that he would sign, and Reeves did so on June 30, 2020. As the legislation repealed the sections of the Mississippi State Code which made provisions for a state flag, namely Section 3-3-16, Mississippi ceased once again to have an official state flag at this point.


title: Flag of Mississippi

text: (approved by Governor on June 30, 2020), a body known as the Commission to Redesign the Mississippi State Flag would be constituted to suggest a design for a new state flag no later than September 14, 2020. The bill instructed the Mississippi Department of Archives and History to develop a plan for the removal of the 1894 flag from public buildings across the state and provide administrative support for the commission. The act stipulated that any design proposed by the commission must include the words "In God We Trust" and must not contain the Confederate battle flag. The proposed design would then be subject to a referendum to be held concurrently with the general election on November 3, 2020.


title: Flag of Mississippi

text: The Mississippi Department of Archives and History invited the public to submit designs for a new state flag on July 13. In accordance with the rules imposed by House Bill 1796, designs would only be accepted if they contained the words "In God We Trust" and not include the Confederate battle flag. The commission also added that suggestions would need to be unique and adhere to principles of the North American Vexillological Association: that the design should use only two or three basic colors, be simple enough for a child to draw, and have meaningful symbolism.


title: Flag of Mississippi

text: More than 2000 submissions meeting the legislative criteria were received and displayed on the Mississippi Department of Archives and History website. Each of the 9 commission members picked 25 flags, narrowing the list down to 147. While a modified Hospitality flag did not proceed beyond the first round, a similar-looking "Mosquito flag" briefly did, apparently due to a commissioner's typographical error. At an August 14 meeting, the commission announced that they had selected nine finalists. These finalists, depicting various elements including a representation of the Mississippi River, magnolias, and stars composed of diamonds significant to the Choctaw nation, had either red, white, and blue or green and white color schemes. The commission announced that they would narrow these designs down to five finalists at its next meeting on August 18. Five finalists were published on August 18, and this was reduced to two flags on August 25.


title: Flag of Mississippi

text: The final two flags were the "Great River Flag" designed by Micah Whitson and "The New Magnolia" designed by Rocky Vaughan, Sue Anna Joe, Kara Giles and Dominique Pugh. On September 2, the commission voted 8–1 to put the New Magnolia flag on the November ballot. Slight modifications were made to the original design, including making the text bolder and the red and gold bars thicker. The flag is officially referred to as the "In God We Trust Flag". Rocky Vaughan is credited with designing the flag's overall layout, with design support provided by Sue Anna Joe, Kara Giles and Dominique Pugh (who created the magnolia illustration featured in the center). Micah Whitson was also given credit for the appearance of the Native American star. The flag was approved by 73% of the votes cast in a referendum on November 3, 2020. The flag was passed by the Mississippi State House of Representatives on January 5, 2021, and was passed by the State Senate on January 6, 2021. It officially became the state flag after being signed by the state's Governor on January 11, 2021.


title: Flag of Mississippi

text: Let Mississippi Vote is a group that is attempting another referendum on a choice of four flag designs: the Magnolia flag that was adopted in the November 2020 referendum, the flag that it replaced, the Stennis version, and the Bicentennial flag. Their stated aim is to give Mississippians a choice instead of voting on only one flag. The group reached their goal of 5000 volunteers and has sent wording for their referendum to the Mississippi Attorney General's Office for approval. They need 106,190 valid signatures from Mississippi residents for the initiative to be placed on a ballot no earlier than 2023.


title: Flag of Mississippi

text: The number of valid signatures was specified by a 1992 amendment to the Mississippi Constitution when the state had five congressional districts, and written as 12% of the total votes cast for governor in the election preceding the filing of the ballot initiative, with no more than 20% of those signatures coming from a single congressional district. However, as a result of redistricting after the 2000 U.S. Census, Mississippi was reduced to four congressional districts. In an unrelated case involving a medical marijuana initiative that had been certified for the ballot and then approved by Mississippi voters in 2020, the Mississippi Supreme Court overturned the initiative and said that the ballot requirements "cannot work in a world where Mississippi has fewer than five representatives in Congress". Although Let Mississippi Vote continues to collect signatures, the court decision has so far not yet been addressed by the legislature, for example by further amending the Mississippi Constitution.


title: Gary Valentine

text: Gary Joseph Knipfing (born November 22, 1961), better known by his stage name Gary Valentine, is an American actor and comedian. He is the older brother of actor Kevin James. He starred as Danny Heffernan in "The King of Queens" (1998–2007) as Kevin James' (Doug Heffernan's) cousin, as Kyle Gable in "Kevin Can Wait" (2016-2018), and has appeared in numerous "Happy Madison Productions".


title: Gary Valentine

text: Valentine was born Gary Joseph Knipfing in Mineola, New York, to Janet, who worked in a chiropractor's office, and Joseph Valentine Knipfing, Jr., who owned an insurance agency. His family is of German descent. Valentine has two siblings: Kevin George Knipfing, known as Kevin James, an actor and comedian, and Leslie Knipfing. Gary and his siblings were raised in the Catholic faith.


title: Gary Valentine

text: Valentine got his start in show business on the standup comedy stage. After an appearance at the Montreal Comedy Festival, he left his native New York for Los Angeles. There he quickly landed spots on various talk shows, including "The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn", "Late Night with Conan O'Brien", and "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno". He has been headlining comedy clubs and theaters for the past fifteen years.


title: Gary Valentine

text: He is best known for his role as "Danny Heffernan" on "The King of Queens", playing the cousin of principal character Doug Heffernan (performed by his real-life brother Kevin James) for nine seasons.


title: Gary Valentine

text: Valentine appeared on the television show "Men of a Certain Age", which was written and directed by Ray Romano and met with critical acclaim. Prior to his run on the series, he starred in his own half-hour special on Comedy Central and hosted "The X Show" on FX.


title: Gary Valentine

text: On the big screen, Valentine has appeared in "Stuck on You" and "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry". He also had a cameo in Jerry Seinfeld's documentary "Comedian".


title: Gary Valentine

text: More recently, he makes occasional appearances as a roundtable comedian on the E! Network late-night talk show "Chelsea Lately" and also takes part in the "Dusty Peacock" web series on Crackle.


title: Gary Valentine

text: Valentine performs comedy tours in clubs across the country. He's been a frequent guest comedian on shows such as "Comics Unleashed" and the E! show "Chelsea Lately".


title: Gary Valentine

text: He appeared in "Paul Blart Mall Cop", "", and in the comedy web series "Dusty Peacock" on Crackle. Valentine also appeared as George Bannister in the movies "The Dog Who Saved Christmas" (2009), "The Dog Who Saved Christmas Vacation" (2010) and "The Dog Who Saved Halloween" (2011). He also played Maury in the 2009 comedy "The Deported".