1967-68 Year in Review

Finish: 1st in West Division; lost quarter-finals 4-3 

Record: 31-32-11 

Captain: Lou Angotti 

Coach: Keith Allen 

 

The Flyers finished 1st in their division in their inaugural season. (It helped that all 6 expansion teams were put in the same division, while the Original Six were in the other division. This enabled a more competitive season for the upstarts, but it guaranteed that the 2 best teams in the league would not meet in the Stanley Cup finals.) 

 

The St. Louis Blues finished 3rd in the division, beat the Flyers in the quarter-finals, and beat the 4th-place Minnesota North Stars in the semi-finals. They were then crushed by the Montreal Canadiens in 4 games in the finals. 

 

After the Blues made it to the finals for 3 consecutive seasons, the league finally wised up and moved the Chicago Black Hawks to the West Division with the expansion teams, allowing the possibility of two Original Six teams meeting in the finals (which they did). It wasn't until the complete realignment in 1974-75 that the Original Six teams were more evenly distributed between the divisions. 

 

Anyhoo, the Flyers finished with a 31-32-11 record, with both 22-year-old goalies (Bernie Parent and Doug Favell) splitting the games evenly. 

 

As expected, the expansion teams were a mix of inexperienced rookies and older players on the downside of their careers. 

- Forbes Kennedy played 9 previous seasons, back to 1956-57. 

- 39-year-old Larry Zeidel had played 92 games, but spent the last 13 seasons in the minors. 

- Garry Peters had played 80 games over the past 3 seasons. 

- Leon Rochefort had played 64 games over the past 6 seasons. 

- Bernie Parent had played 57 games over the past 2 seasons. 

- Joe Watson had played 46 games in the 1964-65 season, but very little since then. 

- The rest were either rookies, or had only played a handful of games in prior seasons. 

 

Leon Rochefort led the team in goals, while team captain Lou Angotti led in assists and points. 

Forbes Kennedy, Ed Van Impe, and Gary Dornhoefer each had between 130 and 138 penalty minutes, 40% more than the next guy. 

(Custom Doug Favell card made by fellow blogger Johngy)