Former Flyers reflect on Vegas breaking Philly’s Stanley Cup record
Joe Watson was at home in Media, waiting to watch the Stanley Cup Final on TV, rooting for the Vegas Golden Knights to prove him right, that they were the best team still standing. Then the phone buzzed. “It was Zack Hill,” he said, of the recently retired Flyers’ press relations legend. “He said the Vegas was going to break our record. I was cheering for them. But at that point I was very indecisive about what I should do.” With that, the legendary former Flyers defenseman let out a laugh. “I cheered for them anyway.”
He cheered for the Knights, who pounded Florida in five games, then prepared to carry the Cup up and down the Vegas Strip, adding to the glitter. But it meant they had gone from non-existence to champions in six years, not seven, and that’s how long it took Watson to help the Flyers do the same thing in 1974.
The record for going from expansion to exhilaration was a little unofficial, for it took Edmonton five NHL seasons to win the Cup. The difference was that the Oilers already had a history in the majorleague WHA. Either way, it was a reason to remember and also to wonder.
How is it that in that sport legendary franchises can go decades without submitting their roster to the silversmith for engraving, but a team like the ’74 Flyers, or the ’84 Oilers, or the ’80 Islanders, who needed just eight years, can become champions so quickly?
“In my opinion, they are at an advantage, because they are picking a lot of good players in the expansion draft,” said Bill Barber, Watson’s teammate on the Flyers’ two Cup teams. “They are picking a lot of good players from 30 teams. Right? So when you look at it that way, you’re picking a ‘team.’ You don’t have the super-superstars, but you are picking a real solid team.”
Run a franchise long enough and there will be wasted contracts, dead money, locker room dissension, demoralized players and salary cap headaches. An expansion team doesn’t have the time for the front office to make such mistakes.
“Exactly,” Barber said. “And they start fresh. And the players are out to prove a point because they weren’t protected. So they are on a mission to say, ‘OK, we’ll see where this goes.’ And they are not looking at contracts that are too long or whatever. They have everything in place.”
Watson saw some irony in the Cup Final, in that Florida, not Vegas, played more like the expansion-turned-champion Flyers of 1974 and 1975. The memories the Vegas championship elicited, though, were not as fuzzy.
“Oh, my gosh, for sure,” said Jimmy Watson, the Glen Mills resident, Joe’s brother who was on both Flyers Cup teams. “I remember in the semifinals, we played the Rangers in seven games and knocked them off. I’ll never forget walking out of the Spectrum with Joe, and saying, ‘Joe, can you believe we’re playing the Bruins and Bobby Orr in the Stanley Cup Final?’ And as sure as I am talking right now that’s what I remember.”
To Barber, the Vegas championship was similar in a way to the Flyers’ Stanley Cup success in 1974 and 1975.
“It’s a different team, it’s Vegas, it’s not an Original Six team or whatever,” he said. “So from an overall standpoint, truthfully, it was really good for hockey.”
The Flyers almost won again in 1976, but Bernie Parent and Rick MacLeish were both injured and the Canadiens won three one-goal games then needed an empty-net goal to win Game 4, 5-3. Jimmy Watson insists the Flyers would have won in 1980, but were victimized by a questionable off-sides call in Game 6 on Long Island. But no matter how popular the Golden Knights may be in a town where the occasional celebrity may happen by, it’s unlikely they will ever become as popular as the recent-expansion Flyers were in 1972.
“Everybody wanted to see the Bullies,” Joe Watson said. “You’d go to L.A., and all these movie stars would come to the game. I had a chance to meet Lorne Greene for God’s sake. I remember watching Bonanza as a young boy growing up.”
Even a good TV western can’t run forever. Neither can the record for quickest sprint to a Stanley Cup.
“Records are made to be broken, unfortunately,” Joe Watson said. “It took them a while to catch us. We had the record for almost 50 years. But there was an article in the New York Times about it — and about the Broad Street Bullies — the other day. So I guess we are still making news.”
Even if the record vanished, the Bullies are still walking together forever, as Fred Shero predicted. And decades later, the Flyers are rebuilding again.
“It could get very interesting,” Jimmy Watson said, “down there in South Philly again.”
Who knows? In that sport, building something special might not take very long.
Sangster, who will be a cornerback in the game, said he’s going to try to seize the moment.
“I’d like to show myself off, put my school on the map and do what I need to do,” he said. “My time at Freedom meant everything. It gave me a clear vision of what hard work is all about and pushed me to be better. I am looking to make friends in this game and take everything with me up to Cal U.”
The Gold won last year’s game 24-21 after the Red won 42-24 in 2021.
Tickets for the game ($10) can be purchased online at lvasfc.com. Here’s a look at the rosters: #0, Austin Smyth, WR, Northern Lehigh #1, Victor Pagan, LB, Parkland
#2, AJ Jimenez, DE, Northern Lehigh
#3, Nick Frame, QB/WR, Northern Lehigh
#4, Xion Chapman, DE, Dieruff
#5, Sincere Miles, DB, Whitehall
#6, Nigel Linton, RB, Whitehall
#7, Noah Ozorio, WR, Dieruff
#8, DJ Kelley, DE, PM East
#9, Gio Silva, LB, Stroudsburg
#10, Cade Christopher, WR/QB, Northwestern Lehigh
#11 Jackson Lake, WR, Emmaus
#12, Elijan Fajardo, DB, Emmaus
#13, Shane Bulay, WR, ES South
#14, Nakhi Bullock, WR, Parkland
#15, Izaiah Ramos, DB, Northern Lehigh #16, Jaiden Bermudez, WR, Stroudsburg #17, Jyhmiek Roman, QB/WR, Executive #18, Dalton Dranke, WR, Palmerton
#19, Michael Watts, DB, ES North
#21, Tyler Rizzuto, WR, Southern Lehigh #22, Adrian Figueroa, DE, Allen
#23, Daniel Lucykanish, DB, Palmerton #24, Tylik Jarvis, RB, Emmaus
#25, Marcus Ennis, LB, Stroudsburg #26, Andre Reames, RB, Stroudsburg #33, Wyatt Younes, DB, Catasauqua #34, Ethan Karpowich, LB, Northern Lehigh
#50, Logan Headman, OL, Whitehall #52, Javier Sobrado, OL, Catasauqua #54, Michael Fluck, OL, Southern Lehigh #55, Jamal Watts, DL, ES South
#56, Jayden Krempasky, DT, Northern Lehigh
#58, Zack DeFalco, OL, Stroudsburg #62, Blaise McCarroll, OL, PM West
#63, Tyler Vandever, OL, Pleasant Valley #64, Mitchell Miller, OL, ACCHS
#66, Jonathan Hineline, DL, PM West #69, Malachi Walters, DE, PM West
#72, Mike Barrett, OL, Pleasant Valley #74, Matt Adamski, DT, Pleasant Valley #77, Kevin Danso, DT, Stroudsburg
#86, Matt Martinez, LB, Executive
#95, Gryffin Mitstifer, PK, Parkland