Looking back at the history of Flyers in international competitions

1 week ago  /  Broad Street Hockey  /  Read Time: 9 minutes 43 seconds

Since 1972, the Philadelphia Flyers or players from the team have been involved in well-known international competitions. The Super Series in the ’70s through to the ’90s, the 1987 Canada Cup and the 1987 Rendez-Vous competition, and the World Cup of Hockey tournaments all saw Flyers have roles, some more crucial than others. The following is a summary of those competitions. Note this doesn’t include the Olympics nor does it include the annual World Hockey Championships. Just the ones that you either seen at the time, saw and forgot about the next day, or had people tell you about ad nauseum because you weren’t around to witness them.



1972 Summit Series



The first major series between Canada and the U.S.S.R. was supposed to be a cakewalk for the Canadians. But after losing the opening tilt in Montreal 7-3, Canada won the second game but saw themselves down two games to one (with one tie) after the first four games on their home soil. The U.S.S.R. team won game five and had a distinct advantage, needing to win just one of the remaining three games to win the series and shock the hockey world. But Canada won the sixth game, notable for a slash Bobby Clarke delivered on Russian star Valeri Kharlamov in the second period which seemed to change the fortunes for both sides.









Canada won the sixth and seventh games and won the eighth on Paul Henderson’s late game heroics, giving Canada a 4-3-1 win in the series. Clarke finished third on Canada in points with six (two goals and four assists and had a three-point game in Game 5.



1976 Super Series (January 11, 1976)



The Soviet Red Army team lost to one team on this four-game trek during this eight-game tour which featured the Red Army playing four NHL teams (Rangers, Canadiens, Bruins, and Flyers) and the Soviet Wings playing four more NHL teams (Penguins, Sabres, Blackhawks, and Islanders). The Flyers lived up to their legendary nickname and hit everything that moved before a rabid crowd at The Spectrum. Ed Van Impe leveled a check on a Red Army player and no penalty was called, the Red Army team left the ice and headed to the locker rooms.









The delay lasted some time before the Red Army returned to finish the game but it didn’t get any better for them. The Flyers won the game 4-1 which featured Joe Watson scoring a shorthanded goal and Philaldelphia dominating with a ridiculous 49-13 shot advantage.



1976 Canada Cup



The Canadian roster for this tournament featured four Flyers on Team Canada: Clarke, Bill Barber, Jimmy Watson and Reggie Leach. But the roster also featured Phil Esposito, Bobby Hull and Bobby Orr to name a few others. The Flyers didn’t do much in terms of goals or points in this tournament for Team Canada. Leach scored once in an 11-2 laugher over Finland and Barber assisted on a goal by Clarke in a 3-1 win over the Soviet Union.



In the best-of-three final against Czechoslovakia, Canada won 6-0 in the opener. Clarke scored a go-ahead goal in game two but ended up being down a goal in the waning moments. It was there Barber scored a crucial game-tying goal late in the second game before Darryl Sittler scored the series-clinching overtime goal for Canada.



1977 Flyers vs Czechoslovakia



The Flyers manhandled this team led by Jiri Bubla and a Statsny. Philadelphia dominated their opponents, doubling them in terms of shots on goal (42-21) during a 6-1 victory. Orest Kindrachuk and Mel Bridgman each had a pair of goals while Reggie Leach and Bob Kelly also tallied.



The Stastny brothers (Peter, Anton and Marian) were the first Czechslovakian players to defect to Canada and play in the NHL. Anton was drafted by the Flyers in 1978 (198th overall). Unfortunately for Philadelphia he was deemed too young to be drafted and the selection was invalid. Anton and Peter later played a few seasons together with the Nordiques with Peter ending up being one of the more dominating forwards of the ’80s.



1979 Super Series



The Flyers didn’t face the Red Army on this jaunt but the Soviet Wings. There was no controversy and neither team left the bench. Instead it was a rather entertaining game. Converting on two of nine power players, the Soviet Wings led 4-2 late in the third when Bobby Clarke scored twice, the second with 16 seconds left of the game. Clarke looked like he batted the puck out of the air to tie things up.









The 1978-79 season shouldn’t be confused with the ensuing season where the Flyers went 35 games unbeaten from October until early January.



1981 Canada Cup



A rather forgettable tournament if you’re a Canadian and even a Flyers fan. Ken Linseman was a role player on the 1981 team and the only Flyer to make the roster (Barber was an invite but didn’t make the cut. Linseman had one assist in four games as Team Canada got steamrolled in the one-game final 8-1 by the Soviet Union.



1983 Super Series



The Soviet All-Stars were led by some players who would later end up playing with the Red Wings as “The Russian Five” in the mid ’90s. Igor Larionov and Slava Fetisov had a goal and two assists, respectively, as the Soviet team beat the Flyers 5-1. Pelle Lindbergh was in goal for Philadelphia opposite Vladislav Tretiak and Mark Howe scored the lone goal for the Flyers.



The game was also noteable as the Flyers roster would include four players who at some point went on either coach the team or end up in the front office: Bill Barber, John Paddock, Paul Holmgren and Bobby Clarke.



Rendez-vous ’87



Often overlooked compared to the Canada Cup that was a few months away, Rendez-vous ’87 was a two-game series in Quebec City in February 1987. The series featured a group of NHL all-stars led by Gretzky, Lemieux, Messier, Kurri and others against the best the U.S.S.R. had to offer. Mark Howe was selected to the team but, due to injury, was unable to participate. The one Flyer player who did was Dave Poulin.



Poulin was in the right place at the right time late in the first game when he deflected a puck from a Mario Lemieux shot with just over a minute left in the third to give the NHL team a 4-3 win.









The Flyers forward also had an assist on the NHL’s third goal scored by Kevin Dineen. In game two the U.S.S.R. won 5-3, scoring three times in the second and putting the game out of reach in the third. Depending on how you view it, the teams split the series at a game each but in terms of total goals, the U.S.S.R. edged the NHL eight goals to seven.



1987 Canada Cup



Most know how this series turned out. How Gretzky’s pass to Lemieux led to Mario scoring the game-winning shot late in the third and deciding game. However, a few Flyers on Team Canada helped turn the tide. But more on that a little later. Philadelphia had Rick Tocchet, Brian Propp, Doug Crossman and Ron Hextall on the roster as the team first two round-robin games were against Czechoslovakia and Finland. Tocchet scored a goal in each of the first two games while Brian Propp had an assist in each game also. In the semi-finals game against Czechoslovakia, Propp score the insurance goal late in the third as Canada won 5-3.



Back in 1987, Wayne Gretzky feeds Rick Tocchet for a goal during The Canada Cup#NHL #hockey #stanleycup #nhlplayoffs #80s pic.twitter.com/KGUe5z0Lp9— Historical Sports Goon (@goon_sports) June 13, 2023



When Canada played the U.S., Tocchet also made an impression, namely on an unsuspecting Phil Housley. Tocchet got a minor penalty as he nailed the American defenseman.



1987 Canada Cup. Canada vs USA. Rick Tocchet on Phil Housley. Yeesh. Tocchet did get two minutes. Two minutes for attempted murder. pic.twitter.com/CyUX96cIgP— The Hockey Samurai 侍 (@hockey_samurai) April 9, 2021



The best-of-three final against the Soviet Union began with two classic overtime tilts, Canada winning the first game 6-5 and the Soviet Union winning the second game by the same score. In the deciding game the Flyers’ contingent were crucial. The Soviet Union stormed out in the first to a quick 3-0 lead, making some people wonder if they were watching the 1981 Canada Cup debacle all over again.



The Flyers, er, Team Canada went to work, chipping away at the lead thanks to coach (and Flyers coach) Mike Keenan probably knowing they needed some dirty goals to get back in the game. Rick Tocchet scored a power play goal to stop the bleeding and get Canada a little closer nearly halfway through the first. Five minutes later it was Propp, with a secondary assist from Tocchet, to make it 3-2. In the second, Canada scored three times, with Doug Crossman getting an assist on Canada’s fourth goal and Propp getting an assist on Canada’s fifth goal with just under five minutes to go in the second.



Lemieux’s late-game heroics won Canada game three with many Flyers contributing during that tilt. The only player who didn’t participate in the tournament was Ron Hextall as Oilers goalie Grant Fuhr was the number one keeper from start to finish.



1990 Super Series



Not much to write about here folks, the Flyers were edged 5-4 by the Central Red Army in a game that saw Craig Berube and Jeff Chychrun score.



1991 Canada Cup



The 1991 Canada Cup wasn’t nearly as memorable as its predecessor (what could be). However, it did have a few Flyers participating: Team Sweden had defenseman Kjell Samuelsson while Team Canada included Rick Tochett and Quebec Nordiques draft pick Eric Lindros (who later was acquired by the Flyers in a franchise-altering trade). Although Tocchet had a goal and assist in eight games, it was Lindros who made a name for himself. In eight games Lindros had three goals and two assists.



The points paled compared to the bruising check Lindros delivered on the notoriously dirty, career-ending cheap shot artist known as Ulf Samuelsson. Lindros crunched Samuelsson into the corner and the Swedish blueliner felt every ounce of the hit, laboring back to the bench in a world of hurt.









Canada went on to win the tournament, beating the U.S. 4-1 and 4-2 in a best-of-three. Meanwhile Samuelsson scored a goal in six games for Sweden who were shutout 4-0 in the semis by Canada.



1991 Super Series



The Flyers lost 4-1 to Moscow Dynamo in a game that saw Rick Tocchet and Moscow Dynamo’s Sergei Bautin fight. Bautin ended up playing two seasons with Winnipeg and served as an enforcer of sorts with 96 penalty minutes in his first season with the Jets and 78 in 54 games in 1993-94.



Months later, while not part of the Super Series, the Flyers played a game against the U.S. National team, playing to a 1-1 uneventful draw.



1996 World Cup of Hockey



Philadelphia was well represented in this first World Cup of Hockey. Team Canada had Lindros, defenseman Eric Desjardins and Rod Brind’Amour. Meanwhile Team Sweden had Patrik Juhlin and Mikael Renberg (who was selected but couldn’t play due to injury). Finally the U.S. had John LeClair and Joel Otto. The Flyers’ home (CoreStates Center) was also one of the host North American venues as the North American pool featured Canada, United States, Slovakia, and Russia. The European pool had Sweden, Finland, Germany and the Czech Republic.



The best-of-three final may have been problematic for Flyers fans as Canada faced the U.S. in game one at CoreStates Center. Cheer for the franchise player or cheer for country? Canada won the opener in overtime 4-3, but lost both games in Montreal 5-2. Lindros had a decent tournament with three goals and three assists while Brind’Amour and Desjardins each contributed with a goal and two assists. Lindros also had a few big hits, one on Scott Young from the U.S.









The U.S. were led by Brett Hull but LeClair held his own with six goals and four asssist for 10 points. Joel Otto had three points (goal, two helpers) in seven games. As for Patrik Juhlin, much like his short time with the Flyers, he was a non-factor with zero points in four games.



2004 World Cup of Hockey



If you were to name all 10 Flyers who were part of the 2004 World Cup of Hockey you belong on Jeopardy, not reading the post! Yes, 10! Canada had Simon Gagne, Finland had Joni Pitkanen, Germany had Dennis Seidenberg and the U.S. had Robert Esche and Tony Amonte. The remainder? Well, Sweden had Marcus Ragnarsson and Kim Johnsson and Slovakia of all places had three: Michal Handzus, Branko Radivojevic, and Radovan Somik.



Like the 1996 version, the pools or divisions remained the same. But unlike the previous edition, the final was one game, winner-take-all. Canada edged Finland 3-2 before a sold-out crowd at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre. Gagne didn’t do a whole lot with a goal and assist in six games while Seidenberg went pointless in four games. Pitkanen was an extra and saw no action for Finland. Johnsson ended up with a goal and three assists while Ragnarsson went pointless in three games.



Slovakia saw Handzus not play, Somik with no points in two games and Radivojevic got a helper in four contests. For the Americans, Amonte ended up with a lone assist and Esche, the U.S. starter most of the tournament, ended up with a .909 save percentage and a goals-against average of 2.52.



2016 World Cup of Hockey



This tournament was noteable for having teams from Canada and the U.S. but also a Team North America consisting of younger talent. There was also a Team Europe with similar youthful players. Shayne Gostisbehere and Sean Couturier were part of Team North America while Team Europe featured Mark Streit and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare. Canada’s lone Flyer was Claude Giroux while Giroux’s longtime teammate and power play partner Jakub Voracek played for the Czech Republic alongside goaltender Michal Neuvirth.



The tournament was held completely at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre with Canada coming out on top, edging Team Europe 3-1 in the opener of the best-of-three final and 2-1 in the second game. Unfortunately for Giroux, he saw one game and had no points. Streit and Bellemare ended up with two points between them for Europe (Bellemare had a goal and assist). Couturier — on a team featuring Auston Matthews, Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon and the late Johnny Gaudreau — went pointless in three games. Gostisbehere tied Gaudreau for the team leader in points with four (all assists).



As for Voracek, his three games consisted of a goal and an assist. Neuvirth had a tournament he’d like to forget, posting a .880 save percentage and hideous 6.00 goals-against average in two games....

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