Opening series revives Flyers, Rangers rivalry
Dave Isaac
@davegisaac
In his third NHL season, a young defenseman looked at a playoff opponent's roster that resembled the dynasty Edmonton Oilers teams of the 1980s. before a playoff series.
Only the crest on the front said "Rangers," and Chris Therien wasn't too scared because he felt his Flyers were a strong team, too.
"There was a lot of big-time players, future Hall of Famers playing in that series," said the former defenseman who is now a Flyers radio analyst. "I always felt we thought we were gonna have a good series against them and we ended up having a relatively easy series against them."
The Rangers' roster was stacked, but the playoff series didn't have the ugliness you might expect. Luc Robitaille, Mark Messier, Adam Graves, Mike Richter and Brian Leetch were all on that team. Oh yeah, so was that Wayne Gretzky guy.
"He was still pretty elusive, hard to hit," Therien remembered. "Messier still had the dirty elbows. Brian Leetch could still skate. It was probably a little too much of a polite New York Rangers team at the time."
The Flyers beat the Rangers in five games in the 1997 Eastern Conference finals. That's the last time these two teams met in the postseason, a span of 17 years.
Today, that postseason rivalry will be renewed, although don't expect it to overtake the one the Flyers have with the Pittsburgh Penguins. There is a special place for that one special rival that eclipses all the others.
The last time the Flyers played the Rangers in the playoffs, there was another more heated rivalry going on.
"They weren't the rivals for us at the time," Therien said of that 1997 series. "It was the Devils until the Penguins kind of became that rival in 2007. Even Pittsburgh, we didn't have a bad rivalry with the Penguins. They were just kind of blasé games other than Mario Lemieux. You always had star power with (Jaromir) Jagr and Lemieux. It was always the Devils for us. They were the team that was our nemesis. We never really had that."
Not to worry, there will still be plenty of animosity between this year's Flyers and Rangers teams.
"I think there's a level of hatred of our players for their players, their fans for our fans, just being so close (geographically)," Scott Hartnell said. "With the history behind both franchises, it's gonna be a battle. There's nothing better than when you don't have to look hard for emotion to get into a series."
The Flyers have been riding an emotional high for quite some time now. If there was any way that wore off at the end of the season, it's sure to be picked up now that the playoffs are upon them once again.
"Every time you make the playoffs it feels good, just because you're giving yourself a chance at the ultimate prize," Braydon Coburn said. "That's why we all play."
Flyers-Rangers always seems to be a game everyone circles on their calendar, a noted rival for years, even before Therien's '97 Flyers took care of business in five games.
While a lot of things tend to change in the playoffs, coach Craig Berube's style will not. He places a high importance on not changing much just because the games are more important.
"You've got to make decisions in the playoffs that are best for the hockey team at that time," Berube said. "During the regular season you have a little leeway to make decisions that maybe you're making decisions about the future a little bit. In the playoffs, it's about right there, right now and the decisions that I'll make are about right there, right now and what's best for the hockey team."
Against a deep Rangers team that has scoring threats such as Mats Zucarrello, Derek Stepan and Brad Richards, the Flyers will have to be well prepared defensively.
Those aren't exactly household names like Gretzky, Messier and Leetch, but that doesn't mean they're any less dangerous in this playoff series with the Flyers.
"It's gonna be fast," captain Claude Giroux said. "They're really good offensively. They have a lot of good goal scorers and guys that can make plays. Their D jump up the rush a bit and goaltending is huge on both teams."
It's not as sexy a rivalry as New Jersey was back then or Pittsburgh is now, but it's still an entertaining one.
"There's a rivalry between the two sports cities because they're so closely located, but there's no villain in New York now," Therien said. "A rivalry with a hated group of guys has to have a villain. Obviously, Pittsburgh has a villain. The Devils had Martin Brodeur. They had Scott Stevens. They had Claude Lemieux. Those were villains in Jersey. Right now I don't think there's that guy at all.
"They don't have that Sidney Crosby that everybody can hate in Philadelphia. That's fine. That's the way it is. They're a solid team as a group."
They're a difficult team, too. The Flyers split the season series against the Rangers at two apiece, but have had trouble with them in recent years, especially at Madison Square Garden.
"They have had our number, obviously, but the playoffs is a new season," Hartnell said. "It's a new beginning for everyone. We have to have a big series from our big guys, first line through fourth line. If we go in there and steal Game 1, I think they'll be thinking twice about some things. We're just preparing the best we can to go out there and work hard."
That's the common thread with the Flyers' division rivalries that become playoff series. Once the postseason arrives, all the rules get thrown out and the entertainment value goes through the roof.
"It's an hour train ride," Jake Voracek said. "For fans, it's gonna be very exciting so they can travel as well. It's a rivalry as well. I don't think it's as big as Pittsburgh, but it's pretty big. Every time we play them, it's very emotional. I'm sure this series will be the same way."
Reach Dave Isaac at disaac@cpsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @davegisaac.