Everyone knows I love me some Rod the Bod.
I like his coaching (especially when he gets mad at the refs or when he looks like he’d rather start suiting up than have an in-game interview).
But what I’ve grown to love is Brind’Amour the player—thank you, YouTube highlights for those bounties. Dude killed penalties, scored goals, and worked his ass off. Plu,s he upstaged Gary Bettman to grab the Stanley Cup when the Hurricanes won it in 2006. Oh yeah, and the reason he’s called Rod the Bod:
And when a highlight of him scoring two shorthanded goals graced my Instagram feed, I just had to dive into the context behind it. If you'd like to read this article while viewing the game, you can find the full game here. A brief content warning: at times, the recording starts shaking, so it may not be the most ideal video for those who are prone to motion sickness.
And without further ado, my viewing of Rod Brind’amour’s short-handed bonanza, also known as Game 5 in the first round of the 1997 Stanley Cup Playoffs between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Philadelphia Flyers.
Before the Game: Lemieux’s Last Chance at Playoff Glory versus The Legion of Doom
For much of their history, the Pittsburgh Penguins were the doormat of the NHL. All that changed when they drafted some guy named Mario Lemieux in the 1984 draft, no biggie there. Lemieux almost immediately became a superstar, but it took Pittsburgh until the 1990s to get help around Lemieux. When they did, they won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1991 and 1992.
The hardships for the Penguins did not stop, though; the Penguins dealt with losing their coach to a heart attack one month after winning it in 1991, and Lemieux took time off to land some right hooks into cancer in 1993 and recovered from injuries, including a nagging back injury, in 1994. While they ran into some Florida men who love flinging rats in the 1996 semifinals, they did come back to contend for a playoff spot in 1997. This playoff run did have a tinge of desperation to make it back to the summit; late in the 1996-1997 season, Lemieux announced what would later become his first retirement from playing. Therefore, the 1997 playoffs had a tinge of desperation, as every game they won would extend Lemieux’s career.
The Philadelphia Flyers won the Stanley Cup in 1974 and 1975, and as of 1997, they qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs for 14 of the previous 30 seasons. They also were a decade removed from taking Wayne Gretzky’s Oilers to a Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Finals. While they had recently gone through a playoff drought due to rebuilding, they did qualify for the playoffs in the previous season. Like the Penguins in 1996, the Flyers and their Legion of Doom (Eric Lindros, John LeClair, and Mikael Renberg) met their match in the Legion of Rats (the Florida Panthers). Regardless of the playoff setback, the future still looked bright. Garth Snow and Ron Hextall were a good goalie tandem, despite Hextall reaching the end of his career as an effective goaltender. They also had a jack of all trades with Rod Brind’Amour, who could kill penalties, score goals, and win face-offs, plus an old enemy turned teammate in former Edmonton defender Paul Coffey.
First Period: The Shorthanded Bonanza!
The Flyers got off to a quick lead with Eric Lindros’ goal just fourteen seconds into the game. Terry Murray’s decision to start with his top line paid off as they not only won the faceoff but got deep in the zone to score. Or at least it looked like it did; the Penguins challenged for goaltender interference, which in 1997 consisted of if an opposing player was in the crease when they scored said goal1. Fortunately for the Fly Boys, the goal stood as LeClair’s foot went nowhere near the goal crease.
But the Penguins are just too good to lie down and let the Flyers run over them. The Penguins stopped a series sweep on home ice in Game 4, and could easily do it again. They killed off a stupid holding penalty that Craig Johnson took, with a shoutout to Kenny Wregget for some good saves on shot attempts by Jani Niinimaa and Vaclav Prospil. No shoutout to the penalty killers who got absolutely dominated by a team that makes its living playing in the corners.
A few minutes later, they got a power play as the usually reliable Danius Zubrus took a holding penalty2. Fifteen seconds in, noted goal scorer (sarcasm) Kevin Hatcher took advantage of Garth Snow’s inability to find the rebound in his crease. Now, of course, the goal got reviewed in what Bill Clement3 called “1-800 In the Crease”, but it, like the Flyers’ opening goal, held. The goal broke a 0-17 slump the Penguins had with their power play in the Core State Center.
While the Penguins almost let the Flyers regain their lead on a bad bounce off the skate of Darius Kasparaitis, they got extended zone time. Jaromir Jagr did a spin-o-rama that did not go, and Kasparaitis extended the time by getting the perimeter in the Flyers’ end. The Penguins also got another penalty from Chris Tamer, cross-checked him into the ice, and yet again killed it thanks to defender Petr Nedved choosing to play competently on the penalty kill. Also did not hurt that Kenny Wregget made a great save on Chris Therien’s shot. Then the announcers’ jinx hit; Gary Thorne read the statistic that the Penguins had not shot the puck in nine minutes and 52 seconds, and a few minutes later Jagr passed to a wide-open Lemieux to give the Penguins the lead. Despite the Flyers’ dominance in play, the Penguins’ high-end talent gave them a lead.
And now unto the shorthanded bonanza! One gets shorthanded chances by taking a penalty, which Petr Svboda did by taking a slashing penalty. On the delayed call, Kevin Hatcher had another chance to extend the Penguins’ lead, but Garth Snow lay out to stop the puck from going in. Within five seconds of the Penguins’ power play, Brind’amour and Lindros started an odd-man rush that resulted in yet another Flyers shot on Wriggets. Lindros’ shot ended up breaking the glass, leading to a delay as the ice crew had to replace the panel.
Ten seconds later, a failed keep-in by Jason Woolley led to yet another odd-man rush. Only Rod Brind’amour sped into the net. He deked around Woolley so hard that he collided with his goaltender, which led to the puck deflecting off his goalie and into the Penguins’ net. Rod’s goal not only tied the game, but also gave the Flyers and because he did it shorthanded, the Flyers had 1:13 left in the Pittsburgh power play to take the lead.
And take the lead they did; as Lemieux missed a pass, Karl Dykhuis passed the puck to Rod Brind’amour took it and sped ahead. He deked around another Pittsburgh defender, this time Frederick Olausson, and did what I can describe as a shovel a lacrosse player could pull off into the back of Pittsburgh’s net. At this point, Kenny Wregget is like Lee Worley in the Nike commercial: I couldn’t stop him!
While I don’t blame Wregget for the first goal—what can you do when your defender collides with you?—he could have had the second goal. If he’d closed the right armpit, possibly even squeezed it, who would have known how the rest of the game had gone? Perhaps they would be playing a Game 6 in Pittsburgh. But alas, Wriggett could not help out his team on their power play, and Brind’Amour turned the Pittsburgh Penguins into pylons. The Flyers saw the two shorthanded goals the Penguins scored in Game 4 and said, “Two can play that game.”
Second Period: Stuart Skinner, Meet Kenny Wregget
Brind’amour’s two goals put him one away from a hat trick. The fans knew it, and so did the referees. After Vaclav Prospal boarded Kasparatis, the puck squeaked out for Brind’amour to tap it in for an easy goal. Unfortunately, the goal did not count because a penalty was called immediately before Brind’amour tipped it in. In one of many asinine decisions the referees have made and will make in hockey games, they nullified the goal as they called a penalty. What I say is this: can’t you let a guy score a playoff hat trick? As a guy who saw Sam Reinhart’s hat trick in the Stanley Cup Finals, I implore you to notice how amazing they are. They’re great for ratings, damnit! Also, Prospal did nothing wrong! Kasparatis ran into him; it’s his fault! Alrigh,t that’s enough Flyers bias from me, let’s move on to the Flyers killing off this penalty.
Unfortunately, the Flyers’ penalty killers let the Penguins get space in the middle, and they took advantage. On a coast-to-coast assist by Jaromir Jagr, Ronny Francis scored a goal to even up the game, breaking a 10-game goalless drought.
After Brind’amour’s second shorthanded goal in period one, John Leclair had an opportunity for an odd-man rush. While he did not add to the Flyers’ lead on that try, the next time he got a chance—on a pass by Jani Niinimaa, a rookie who ended up finishing fourth in Calder Trophy voting no less—he did not miss. The Flyers regained the lead. And just as the Penguins had some good chances, including an odd-man rush by Jaromir Jagr, Trent Klatt rushed in behind all defenders (including Mario Lemieux, who got knocked down by Chris Therien) and scored. Shoutout to Eric Desjardins for helping Klatt with the assist. To distort a quote from South Park, number 22 did kill Kenny. You can only make so many saves like you’re diving out of a building before you get burned. He did lock in to deny Brind’Amour a chance on the Flyers’ power play towards the end of the period, but the Flyers got a lead. One more period and the Fly Boys can move on to round two.
At this point, you’re wondering why I compared Stuart Skinner to Kevin Wregget. Both Skinner and Wregget play with desperation in the net; Wregget kept his team in the game with a great deal of saves where he had to dive on the puck, and Skinner plays with a similar style as well. However, both goaltenders are average at best. Wregget has a career save percentage of .885 (which is just below average), and while Skinner has a decent save percentage of .906, I’ve stated elsewhere that he vacillates between outstanding and putrid performances.
Third Period: Clamp Down
The Flyers had a strategy for limiting Lemieux' and Jagr’s chances to score: trap defense, also known as a neutral zone trap. Its purpose is to stop a team from going through the neutral zone and forcing turnovers for odd-man rush chances. While every team had this strategy (as the 90s were the era of trap defense), the Flyers used it effectively in the third period to hang on to their lead. It also helped that Chris Therien did a great job of neutralizing Jaromir Jagr’s presence, despite his three assists.
The third period did not start well for the Flyers, as Lindros took a foolish hooking penalty less than a minute into the third period. They were able to kill it off thanks to yet another shorthanded chance by Brind’amour and a key interception by Eric Desjardins on the penalty kill.
Then the refs made another dumbass call putting the Flyers at another man disadvantage. Lindros tried to bat the puck into the air instead of running into a defender—if you were a ref, what would you call it?—You would not call it goaltender interference, but the refs did! I’m surprised a “Ref, you suck” chant didn’t roll around the Core States Center. Regardless, the Flyers killed off the penalty thanks to more help from Desjardins. Well, that and Nedved getting a penalty for cross-checking, which ended the Penguins’ power play. While I am focused on Desjardins and the stalwart Flyers defense, Snow did make the necessary saves to keep the Penguins off the board when they did get chances. He also made a great glove save when Nedved got the penalty, but it got lost in the shuffle of “holiday greetings.”
The only goal came from the Flyers when the Penguins pulled Wregget near the end of the third period while on a power play. At this point, Brind'amour realized that getting robbed by the refs and the opposing goalie for a hat trick meant that it would not happen. But he did know that Prospil was the only forward without a goal, so he and Lindros made sure to pass it to him for the empty net. The ENG (empty net goal) iced the game as the Flyers won and advanced to the second round, where they met two other superstars at the end of their careers with the Rangers—Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier.—
Ultimately, the Flyers made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final, where they had the displeasure of running into a Detroit Red Wings dynasty that swept them in four games. Rod Brind’amour went on to lead all players in the 1997 Stanley Cup Playoffs in goals (13), tied with Mario Lemieux (13). While he scored one less goal in the 2006 Stanley Cup run with 12 goals, he did lead his team in goals. The closest Hurricane in goals was Eric Staal with just 9 goals. Many of Brind’Amour’s 12 goals came in clutch situations, either tying or giving the Canes the lead, as a good leader should (2005-06 Carolina Hurricanes, hockey-reference.com)
I hope you enjoyed this history-focused Ice-Capades. In this offseason, I’ve been trying to read some more books about the history of hockey, including a 2001 book compiling all the teams’ histories up until that point. I’m also working through Jay Greenberg’s The Flyers at 50, and I might very well do a book review on it. If you have a hockey book recommendation, feel free to let me know in the comments. I’ve also followed The Hockey Library on Facebook, so I can get more hockey book recommendations as well.
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