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It is Now Officially 50 Years Since the Flyers Last Won the Stanley Cup
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Today is May 27th, 2025, the 50th anniversary of the Flyers defeating the Buffalo Sabres in game six to lift the Stanley Cup for the second season in a row:
It was a 2-2 series coming back to Philadelphia, and the Flyers whipped ’em 5-1 to take the series lead back to Buffalo. In game six, Bernie Parent stood on his head, saving all 32 shots while Bob “The Hound” Kelly and Bill Clement scored in the third period, which was all they required in a 2-0 shutout win. Bill Barber led the way with six points in the series, while Bobby Clark chipped in two goals and three assists, then the trio of Reggie Leach, Kelly, and Rick MacLeish logged four points each. Terry Crisp had four assists while Gary Dornhoefer and Dave Schultz racked up 27 combined penalty minutes and Parent turned away 164 shots, good for a .937 save percentage while playing every single minute.
In the 50 years since, the Flyers are 0-6 in the Stanley Cup Finals. Twice they lost to Wayne Gretzky’s Oilers, fell to the Islanders in 1980, and had their three-peat bid ruined by the Canadiens in 1976. They got smoked by a great Red Wings team in the mid-90s, then a Cinderella run 15 years ago came up short at the hands of the Blackhawks.
They’ve also lost three conference finals since 1990 and now have not made it past the second round since 2010. They’re currently on a five-year postseason drought during this extended rebuild, a drought matched only by the five-year fecklessness of 1989 to 1994.
As it stands, the Flyers have the fourth-longest drought between Stanley Cups, 49 seasons technically because of the 2004-2005 lockout. The Canucks and Sabres have never won it all, going back 54 seasons to their 1970 debuts, and the Maple Leafs have not lifted the Cup since 1967, when The Beatles were big and most of the African countries had yet to gain independence.
But hey, Danny Briere and Keith Jones are in charge. Rick Tocchet is in the house. The Flyers have a clean cap and a lot of draft picks. There’s only one direction in which to go here.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com