The Return of The Broad Street Bullies
October 29, 2007 by Tyler
Filed under Hockey Columns
In the 70’s it was Bobby Clarke, Dave “The Hammer” Shultz, and Ed Van Impe…the original Broad Street Bullies. Those were the tough, rugged, in your face hockey players that sent shivers down the opposing player’s spines.
In 2007, instead of tough and rugged, it’s more like cheap and dirty. The Broad Street Bullies are back and they are head hunting…literally!
Steve Downie, Jesse Boulerice, and now Randy Jones….already 40+ games in suspensions between Downie and Boulerice and just a matter of time before a few more are added on for the latest cheap shot Randy Jones laid on Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron this past weekend.
What’s going on in Philadelphia? This is the 3rd incident in less than two months where a Flyer has made news for injuring someone. First it was a cheap hit by Downie, next an awful crosscheck by Boulerice and now a shameful hit from behind by Jones.
At this rate the Flyers won’t have anyone to put in the lineup come March. What’s worse is that the on ice antics of three players is really taking away from the fact that the Flyers are a much better hockey team than last year. In fact, they are one of the top 5 teams in the league right now.
I’m all for rough and tumble hockey, but this is not the way to bring the Broad Street Bullies back to town. This type of hockey doesn’t intimidate other teams or send a message; all it does is give the NHL a black eye.
It gives sports writers who know nothing about the NHL more ammo to trash talk the league. Instead of showing highlight reel goals like the ones Rick Nash and Jonathan Toews scored last week, all we will see is Randy Jones crushing Bergeron from behind in the corner followed by replays of the Downie hit and Boulerice slash…over and over again.
Should Bergeron have protected himself going into the corner a bit better? Absolutely, but Randy Jones has to know better than to lay a check on a guy’s numbers. Hitting from behind happens way too much in the NHL. Just watch a game, your bound to see 2 or 3 questionable hits per period.
The bottom line is that this needs to be stopped or next time we will be writing about a player being paralyzed after being checked from behind near the boards.
Patrice Bergeron got lucky. But will the next player be so lucky?
Bob on Mon, 29th Oct 2007 8:36 am
Thanks,I was beginning to think I was the only one that saw his for what it was.Granted Jones isn’t the type of guy you expect this from.Someone needs to take a look at what is going on in Philly.40+games in suspensions and I guessing a few more for this hit.That needs to be addressed by the league.Is the Bobby Clarke mentality bleeding down to the players?
BT on Mon, 29th Oct 2007 11:17 am
The hit that Randy Jones laid on Bergeron was perfectly legal, non-aggressive, and normal in the NHL. You wimps who think otherwise should polish off your ballet shoes and change the channel. Way to go Randy.
The FlyerFly on Mon, 29th Oct 2007 9:09 pm
i dont understand why people think this is a revisitation of the Broad Street Bullies days. the only reason the reference is being made is because of the history of the Flyers in the 70’s. what is going on right now doesnt even remotely resemble what the Stanley Cup teams of those days looked like.
watch any number of NHL games on any given night and you will see the same situation replayed over and over again, just not with the same disatrous results. sometimes the problem is that someone is taking advantage of a defenseless player. but in these boarding calls, far more often it has to do with a player turning his back to a checker at the last second to protect the puck. it leaves far too little time for reaction for the checker, and people like Bergeron create their own doom as a result.
teach players to protect themselves first, and the puck second, and these incidents will dramatically reduce. this is an NHL problem. not a Flyers problem.
Biskit Art on Tue, 30th Oct 2007 8:07 am
Ya know I love you guys and your site. But I gotta say, this demonizing Philly in the media is way out of hand – it is ridiculous. Jones is a clean player and the injury on Bergeron (SP?) was an accident. Bolerice was waived by the organization after his dumb play – what more can they do about that????
Downie has been a head case since juniors – has nothing to do with the Flyers. Nost Philly fans would not have a problem seeing his dumb ass waived too…
Bruins fans are whiney bitches… in the late 60’s the blessed one, Bobby Orr and the rest of the Boston bench jumped Brian Connacher (who was a clean player) and beat him into a stain in one of the ugliest incidents ever on NHL ice – how soon they forget when they are the ones with an injured player.
That play occurs 5 time s aweek in the NHL – if the player gets up no one says boo… if you do not want to risk being hit like that, play baseball and be an unathletic, fat slob like Curt Schilling.
Tyler on Tue, 30th Oct 2007 8:41 am
Biskit,
I must say that was a great comment.
My favorite part was “Bruins fans are whiney bitches”
Pure gold!
Berbs on Tue, 30th Oct 2007 11:54 am
I agree that Jones has a clean record…but I still believe the NHL needs to clamp down on the hits from behind. Why is hitting from behind only acceptable in the NHL?
Bob on Tue, 30th Oct 2007 2:00 pm
Funny how the only people whining are the Flyer fans.Grow up.That hit doesn’t happen every night.Not not the degree that this hit was made.I didn’t see anywhere in the article above where Berbs said Jones was a dirty player.The problem with the hit,he lead with his forearm and elbow on the back of Bergeron’s head.He keeps his arms down and the hit is no where near as hard.And Biskit you say Downie has been a head case since Juniors well then why was he in a Flyers uniform?Who is responsible for bringing him to the Flyers? Must have been something about him to get him on the team.How about Jesse Boularice?Why was he on the team? Sure wasn’t for his scoring ability.
Chris on Tue, 30th Oct 2007 6:40 pm
Bob, I don’t think I am whining at all and to make my point about REAL whining check out this doofus:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iOvndf_GqI
I am not going up on YouTube crying about the Flyers being victimized like a crybaby when my team as a HUGE track record of slimy plays (yeah Terry O’Reilly was a real clean player) – at least I am making my points in a hockey forum.
As far as saying Jones was a goon, no, I agree Tyler B. did not label him as such. But I DO think he implied that there is a concerted effort by the Flyers as a whole to endorse this type of play (“Whats going on in Philadelphia?”) His points were well written and I am a fan of this site, big time – I just don’t really agree with the “pile on the Flyers” thing I see developing in the headlines – like Fly said – I think it is sensationalism.
As far as this type of play not occurring regularly – no offense dude, but are you on drugs???? If not, you certainly are not following the NHL… here is an almost carbon copy play that just happened on 10/20:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhtMzqYoqcg
Give me a break – Booth gets up and no one says boo. On top of that the announcer makes reference to yet ANOTHER similar hit that just occurred – Do your homework my brother… it happens at least 5 times a week in the league. Doesn’t make it right, but Jones should not be hung out to dry for something that is happening regularly.
Hey man, I am all for cleaning up the game – if you ask me, the biggest mistake is the instigator rule – it’s caused more dangerous plays than not. But let’s not demonize the Flyers just because of two knuckleheads and an unfortunate mistake by a good d-man.
Despite being a hothead, Downie has skills – I am not sticking up for the guy, but he has had a well known chip on his shoulder for a long time, and it is nothing being driven into his head by the Flyers – if he keeps up the same kind of nonsense that got him suspended, he will be packing too. The picked him up because he can play. Bolerice was there to fill the enforcer role left blank by Todd Fedoruk . He made a idiotic play, failed miserably and now Riley Cote has the spot – end of story – the Flyers did the right thing waiving him – what more could they do? The enforcer role is on every team, bud. it is going to get filled by someone.
Kconn on Mon, 19th Nov 2007 10:44 am
Attack and pilage, The Broad Street bullies are back. If you can’t handle that maybe some of these players should trade their sticks in for skirts.