Philadelphia Flyers

Philadelphia Flyers, American professional ice hockey team based in Philadelphia that plays in the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). The Flyers have won two Stanley Cup championships (1974, 1975).

The Flyers were established when the NHL expanded from the so-called “Original Six” in 1967. The team saw some minor success initially, earning three postseason berths in its first five years in the NHL. In the 1972–73 season the Flyers began a streak of 18 consecutive playoff appearances. The Flyers teams of the early ’70s earned the nickname “The Broad Street Bullies,” a reference to the location of the team’s home arena on Philadelphia’s Broad Street and to their penchant for fighting and amassing record amounts of penalty minutes. Behind the play of goaltender Bernie Parent, three-time league Most Valuable Player Bobby Clarke, winger Bill Barber, and Dave (“the Hammer”) Schultz—a rough-and-tumble winger who became the most notable enforcer on the team—Philadelphia won two Stanley Cups during this period (1974 and 1975), and the team’s bruising style of play ushered in a new era in the NHL during which other teams increasingly turned to tough, less-skilled players to match the Flyer’s aggressiveness. In 1975–76 the Flyers advanced to their third consecutive Stanley Cup finals, where they were defeated by the Montreal Canadiens. Clarke and Barber were part of another Flyers team that played in the Cup finals in 1979–80, but they were denied a third title by the New York Islanders.

Forwards Tim Kerr and Brian Propp led the team to Stanley Cup finals berths in 1984–85 and 1986–87, but the Flyers were left empty-handed on each occasion. Despite the presence of star goaltender Ron Hextall, the team’s play fell off in the early 1990s, and the Flyers missed the playoffs each season between 1989–90 and 1993–94. In 1992 the team acquired centre Eric Lindros, who became one of the biggest stars in the NHL in his eight seasons in Philadelphia. In 1996–97 Lindros, along with winger John LeClair, propelled the Flyers to the seventh Stanley Cup finals in team history, which, like the previous four appearances, ended in defeat.

Discover how ordinary objects work, and expand your understanding of the familiar.

SIGN UP

" height="20" alt="HEW Logo">

Thank you for signing up!"

Back to homepage

By clicking "Sign Up", you consent to the Britannica Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Britannica Quiz

Great Moments in Sports Quiz

The team continued its strong play into the next decade, and the Flyers finished in either first or second place in their division in each season between 1994–95 and 2005–06. However, the Flyers advanced no further than the conference finals during the 2000s. During the 2009–10 playoffs the Flyers mounted a historic comeback, winning the final four games of the Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Boston Bruins and becoming just the third NHL team to win a best-of-seven postseason series after trailing three games to none. The Flyers’ strong play continued as they eliminated the Montreal Canadiens in the conference finals to advance to the Stanley Cup finals, where they lost to the Chicago Blackhawks in six games. The team followed its finals appearance with two straight seasons that ended in the conference semifinals. After a one-year postseason absence, Philadelphia returned to the playoffs in 2013–14 and was a moderately successful regular-season franchise in the succeeding years but failed to win a postseason series until 2019–20. That season, which was shortened due to the COVID-19 pandemic, saw the Flyers advance to the second round, where the team lost to the New York Islanders.