On Friday night, while most were condemning the Philadelphia Flyers for starting a brawling during a 7-0 loss to Washington, there were at least two onlookers sticking up for the embattled team’s actions.
“This is good. This is life here.” said former Flyers defenseman Chris Therien, now the radio color analyst, during the broadcast on 97.5 The Fanatic.
“Where the hell has this been most of the night?” added play-by-play man Tim Saunders after Flyers goalie Ray Emery skated down the ice to “dummy” Capitals netminder Braden Holtby, as Therien put it.
To listen to the call, click here.
Following the game, Therien took to Twitter to defend himself against a group of critics that even included celebrity hockey fan Pat Sajak.
“I never said it was the right thing to do but it’s a hockey thing to do,” Therien wrote. “You’re down huge in your own building. You try your damdest to instill a spark in your team. That’s all Ray did. Whether you liked it or not, he was doing what he thought was right for his team then and moving forward. If you don’t get it, then go watch Ice Capades. That’s it.”
It still wasn’t the most popular opinion. But three days, and a 1-0 win over New Jersey, later and -- hey, would you look at that? -- Flyers players are saying the brawl did, indeed, give them a spark.
“You can definitely build from that. It’s team bonding,” forward Vinny Lecavalier said, per Philly.com. “You see your teammates going at it and they played a great game that next game and did other things to play as a team. Hopefully, it will snowball and we’ll start a streak here and get going.”
“People are all over Razor for doing that,” said forward Scott Hartnell. “But look what he did. He played solid for us and got us a shutout (versus the Devils). We were excited. Even though the crowd booed us the whole game, it felt like a win after that little scrum. We love it, fans love it here in Philly. It’s part of our heritage. We definitely fed off it. We gotta keep doing it. We can’t win one and lose two every time. It’s got to continue.”
The Flyers are in Carolina Tuesday before returning home for a rematch with New Jersey on Thursday. Whether the positive momentum “will snowball” remains to be seen; it’s hard to believe all the team needed was a violence-fueled shot of energy to turn things around.
But as veteran d-man Hal Gill put it, “You take whatever you can get.”
Related: Bettman on Emery fight: ‘I don’t think anybody liked it, liked what it looked like’