Flyers Staring At Obvious Enemy of the Rebuild
A natural rivalry quickly took shape after the NHL Expansion wave of 1967 doubled the league’s size to 12 teams.
The New York Rangers became the first Original Six franchise to lose a playoff series to an expansion franchise in 1974, and the hated Philadelphia Flyers went on to win their first Stanley Cup.
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Two anchor cities of major professional sports in North America and two historically successful NHL franchises located less than 100 miles from each other have very little juice in their rivalry during the 21st century, however.
As the rebuilding Flyers move past the years of heated matchups against the Pittsburgh Penguins, circumstances have begun to point in the direction of a rekindled rivalry with the Rangers.
Flyers-Rangers Rivalry Lost Its Juice
A dramatic shootout victory over the Rangers on the final day of the 2009-10 season catapulted a legendary Flyers playoff run. However, the folklore of the 2010 Flyers doesn’t include the Rangers as a key nemesis.
The Rangers defeated the Flyers in the opening round of the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The seven-game series wasn’t one of the most memorable, and the Blue Shirts boasted a superior roster that led a run to the Stanley Cup Final.
An entire generation of Flyers fans has very little to remember otherwise against a historic rival franchise. They weren’t alive to see Dave Schultz pummel Dale Rolfe to grab the momentum in Game 7 of the 1974 NHL semifinal series.
They didn’t experience seven playoff matchups in nine years against the hated rivals from 1979-1987, and they didn’t feel the euphoria of forcing the Rangers to pass the torch to Eric Lindros and the Legion of Doom in the 1997 Eastern Conference Final.
Who’s the Archrival of the Flyers?
Which NHL team is the archrival of the Flyers? Most fans would answer the Penguins. However, that was far from true before the cancelled lockout season of 2004-05.
The emergence of Sidney Crosby as an NHL superstar and the divisional matchup against a team across the state paved the way for Pittsburgh as the new target of Philadelphia’s venom.
The rivalry developed because of circumstances, similar to the New Jersey Devils emerging as the chief nemesis of the Eric Lindros era.
The ferociousness of Scott Stevens and the domination of Martin Brodeur ignited another feud with a team in geographic proximity while the Rangers slipped out of yearly playoff contention.
The Buffalo Sabres and Ottawa Senators were actually bigger rivals than Pittsburgh during the Flyers’ window of Stanley Cup contention in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The intensity of most rivalries, especially at the professional level, forms naturally. Flyers fans hadn’t ever felt the right blend of animosity toward Pittsburgh before Crosby broke into the NHL. The perfect villain quickly stirred up some of the most heated NHL battles of the salary cap era, however.
As Crosby’s career finally winds down, Flyers fans haven’t felt the right blend of animosity toward the Rangers in decades. Will circumstances change that?
Rebuilding Flyers Can Reignite Rangers Rivalry
A respectable season in 2023-24 and the emergence of Matvei Michkov as a long-term building block has inspired refreshing optimism in Philadelphia.
The New Era of Orange has a chance to succeed, and if The Cutter Gauthier Game is any indication, Flyers fans still harness the same passion that’s made the Wells Fargo Center (or whatever it was called) a deafening playoff atmosphere in the past.
While Gauthier showed the venom still exists, the Anaheim Ducks won’t compete with the Flyers enough to become a heated archrival.
A rivalry is much more likely to develop with the Rangers, a Metropolitan Division opponent in geographic proximity with plenty of history against the Flyers and prominent NHL status.
Rangers fans have embarrassed the Flyers organization in recent seasons by taking over the Wells Fargo Center to watch a Stanley Cup contender face an inferior opponent on a different timeline of contention.
Despite a tumultuous season in New York in 2024-25, the prime-aged talent that’s helped the Rangers to two Eastern Conference Finals in three seasons should help them climb back towards the top of the standings quickly.
Nothing gets under the skin of Philadelphia sports fans quite like a New York team as the subject of league-wide media praise playing in “The World’s Most Famous Arena” and benefitting from a glorified Original Six brand. Look no further than 97.5 The Fanatic to hear frustration about it.
Expect the Rangers in Stanley Cup contention as the Flyers rebuild their organization with hopes to compete with one of the Metropolitan Division powerhouses.
Expect passionate home and visiting fans to add some heat to Flyers-Rangers games and a rivalry that’s been dormant for too long.
