Reliving Flyers & Senators NHL Record-Breaking Brawl
March 5, 2004 was a night that hockey fans will never forget. The Philadelphia Flyers and the Ottawa Senators battled in the infamous brawl that led to an NHL record 419 penalty minutes (PIM).
The fisticuffs represented the idea of “an eye for an eye” in a past era of the NHL that probably won’t return. Some might glorify the fights as a thrilling memory that represents a hard-nosed sport. Others might drop their jaws when they realize the chaos that took place at the (then) Wachovia Center in South Philadelphia.
Flyers-Senators Brawl
Ottawa winger Martin Havlat threw a hit on Mark Recchi that Ken Hitchock and the Flyers took exception to during a prequel matchup on Feb. 26, 2004. Recchi spoke at the Flyers Alumni Game in 2024 about the league’s ironic decision for supplemental discipline.
“I remember Havlat got suspended. They suspended him (for) three games, and we played them the fourth. Colin Campbell did a good job there.” -Mark Recchi
The Flyers didn’t chase down Havlat right away, however. The game only included 20 PIM with under two minutes remaining in regulation. Then, all hell broke loose.
Heavyweight fighters Donald Brashear and Rob Ray were the first to drop the gloves with 1:45 remaining and the Flyers ahead 5-2. It wasn’t enough that the two enforcers had squared up. A line brawl developed, and it wasn’t just 5-on-5.
Patrick Lalime traveled the length of the ice from the Ottawa crease for a rare goalie fight against Robert Esche. The final two minutes included five groups of penalties. Havlat sat in the box serving an instigator penalty, which didn’t help the Flyers cool off.
Mattias Timander boldly took on 6-foot-9 mountain Zdeno Chara in the next wave. Notorious enforcer Chris Neil crushed Radovan Somik. The brutal mismatches sparked the anger of Ken Hitchcock and later Bobby Clarke against Ottawa head coach Jacques Martin. Martin later told The Athletic that he never had intentions to match up fighters at any point that night or in his coaching career.
The pandemonium continued. The officials quickly filled up the infamous “riot sheet” to keep track of the penalties they handed out. Fighting majors, 10-minute misconducts, and game misconducts flew around faster than detentions after a schoolyard scuffle. 419 might’ve seemed impossible to begin the game, but the benches barely had reserves by the time the final horn sounded.
Recchi, John LeClair, Patrick Sharp, and Jason Spezza finished the night with a combined 104 PIM. The respective four players combined to play 72 total NHL seasons. None of them ever reached the century mark in PIM in a single season.
Mark Recchi
When Recchi relived his glory days at a press conference one day before he entered the Flyers Hall of Fame, he chuckled about the brawl against the Senators.
“Fighting is fighting, but the way we handled it as a team (versus) the way Ottawa handled it, I think it hurt Ottawa. They kind of went one direction. We went the other because of the way we handled it and the way everybody was involved. Everybody, every top skill guy to role guys, everybody was involved. They didn’t do that, and I think it kind of divided their dressing room a little bit. And it brought us a little closer.” -Mark Recchi
The Senators had eliminated the Flyers from the playoffs in each of the previous two seasons. However, they lost in the opening round of the 2004 Stanley Cup Playoffs to the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Flyers caught fire and advanced to the Eastern Conference Final. It was one of their best runs of the 21st century.
Debate all you want about how momentum from fighting can or can’t affect a hockey game. The Flyers certainly hit their stride after a late-season melee, whether it was coincidental or not.
Mark Recchi sharing the story of the infamous Flyers-Senators brawl in 2004 that set the NHL record with 419 penalty minutes pic.twitter.com/D7rtSEWlqI
— Colin Newby (@ToNewbyginnings) January 26, 2024
Fighting in the NHL
The era of designated enforcers and line brawls is almost entirely gone. The league returned from the 2004-05 lockout season with new rules that added increased discipline for instigating fights within the final five minutes of regulation.
The record for 419 penalty minutes is safe even in a sport that glorifies intensity and fury more almost as much as skill. Dropping the gloves might never disappear from the game entirely though. If you need proof, consider the video intro at Flyers home games for the 2023-24 season. The organization proudly showcases Donald Brashear grabbing Rob Ray as a memorable moment in franchise history.
Philadelphia fans will similarly glorify the unexpected pregame brawl against the Montreal Canadiens in 1987 and the bloodbath against the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2012. For better or worse, don’t expect it to go away.
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The All-Time Roster of Underrated Philadelphia Flyers
Mike Knuble
Peter Forsberg and Simon Gagne were the stars at the top of the lineup coming out of the 2004-05 lockout. However, there are three players on an NHL line.
Mike Knuble spent four seasons with the Flyers from 2005-06 through 2008-09, and he returned for a cup of coffee in 2013. He provided the perfect complement to a crafty playmaker like Forsberg and a finesse star like Gagne. He scored a career-high 34 goals in his first season in Philadelphia and followed it up with 24, 29, and 27 goals in the next three seasons, respectively.
Knuble knew his role as a garbage goal-scorer, and he played it damn well. He added 14 points in 24 playoff games with the Flyers, including an overtime game-winning goal against the Washington Capitals in 2008.
Kimmo Timonen
The NHL still associates the Broad Street Bullies mentality with the Flyers. Players like Chris Pronger feed into the identity of the fan base. The 6-foot-6 defenseman resonated with the fans perfectly as a fearless, powerful defenseman who became the workhorse on the Philadelphia blue line during the run to the 2010 Stanley Cup Final.
Kimmo Timonen didn’t have the same reputation. The Finnish puck mover was more of a classy guy off the ice who didn’t bring as much grit as Pronger, but he actually had a longer run as the top blueliner in Philadelphia.
The Flyers acquired Timonen as part of a series of trades with the Nashville Predators that pulled them out of the disaster of the 2006-07 season. He averaged over 20 minutes of ice time in each of his seven playoff series wins with the Flyers. Only Mark Howe and Eric Desjardins scored more points among defensemen in franchise history.
Dan McGillis
Hockey in the late 1990s and early 2000s required more physical defensemen while modern roster construction prioritizes puck movers on the blue line. The Flyers acquired 6-foot-3, 220-pounder Dan McGillis in 1998 during a window of Stanley Cup contention.
McGillis played 380 regular-season and playoff games in orange and black. He was the physical presence a contending team needed, but you won’t see his name in the franchise record books too often.
Stay-at-home defensemen are harder to glorify than offensive catalysts. McGillis recorded a career-high 49 points in 2000-01, and it’s no coincidence that it was the only one of his nine NHL seasons when he received Norris Trophy votes.
Steve Mason
Anyone who follows the Flyers knows the notorious reputation of the “Goalie Graveyard” in Philadelphia. The revolving door of goaltenders reached its peak with the Ilya Bryzgalov nightmare that ended in 2013, right around the time the Flyers really started to lose popularity in the Philadelphia sports landscape.
Coincidentally, the Flyers acquired Steve Mason in 2013. He spent four seasons as the top option between the pipes for forgettable Flyers teams that never won a playoff series.
Mason wasn’t some Vezina Trophy winner who would reverse the “Goalie Graveyard” narrative. He was never going to demand the attention of casual hockey fans in Philadelphia who were only interested in a contending team, but he was the type of solid goaltender for a good period of time that the Flyers haven’t usually had.
Daymond Langkow
It’s tough to identify any reason why Daymond Langkow is underrated. Like Joffrey Lupul and Sami Kapanen, he doesn’t seem to come up in conversations about the Flyers too often. The NHL journeyman notched at least 50 points in each of his two full regular seasons in Philadelphia.
He helped the Flyers advance to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final in 2000 with 10 points in 16 games during the playoff run.
The Daymond Langkow trade tree had remarkable ripple effects on the franchise. The return package acquired from the Phoenix Coyotes in 2001 indirectly led to the acquisitions of Jeff Carter, Jakub Voracek, Sean Couturier, Cam Atkinson, Jason Smith, Joffrey Lupul, and Chris Pronger.
