1997–98 Philadelphia Flyers season

NHLTeamSeason
Season=1997–98
Team=Philadelphia Flyers
Conference=Eastern
ConferenceRank=3rd
Division=Atlantic
DivisionRank=2nd
Record=42–29–11
HomeRecord=24–11–6
RoadRecord=18–18–5
GoalsFor=242
GoalsAgainst=193
GeneralManager=Bob Clarke
Coach=Wayne Cashman (Oct-Mar)
Roger Neilson
Captain=Eric Lindros
AltCaptain=Rod Brind'Amour
Eric Desjardins
Arena=CoreStates Center
Attendance=19,519 [FlyersHistory.net, [http://www.flyershistory.net/cgi-bin/attend.cgi All Time Team Attendance] ]
GoalsLeader=John LeClair (51)
AssistsLeader=Eric Lindros (42)
PointsLeader=John LeClair (89)
PIMLeader=Dan Kordic (210)
PlusMinusLeader=John LeClair (+30)
WinsLeader=Ron Hextall (21)
GAALeader=Ron Hextall (2.17)The 1997–98 Philadelphia Flyers season was the Philadelphia Flyers 31st season in the National Hockey League (NHL).

The man picked to replace Terry Murray, Wayne Cashman, was deemed ill-suited for the job as the Flyers played inconsistently throughout the 1997–98 season and so Roger Neilson was hired in March to take over the head coaching duties. John LeClair was able to score at least 50 goals for the third consecutive year (netting 51), the first time for an American-born player, and Sean Burke was acquired at the trade deadline to shore up the ever-worsening goaltending situation. In a season in which the Flyers — despite a hard fall to Detroit the previous year — were heavily favored to repeat as Eastern champs and return to the Finals, they never came close, as they were dominated in the first round by Buffalo in five games.

Regular season

With the acquisition of Chris Gratton from Tampa as a Group II free agent (for Mikael Renberg and Karl Dykhuis) over the Summer, the Flyers were expected to make another Stanley Cup run. A 7–3–1 start came crashing down as the Devils posted a 5–0 road win on October 27. Although the club finished the calendar year with an 8–0 strafing of Vancouver on New Year's Eve and began 1998 with a 7–2 road win over Ottawa, there were signs of trouble for Wayne Cashman's team - notably bad shutout home losses to San Jose in November and Boston in early December.

In a move which shocked many in Philadelphia and around the NHL, Cashman was reassigned as assistant coach and Roger Neilson elevated to head coach following a 4–3 overtime victory against Pittsburgh on March 8.

The decision didn't seem to pay off, and after a 5–4 overtime win over the New York Rangers on March 22, the team limped to a 6–8–0 finish, including back-to-back 2–1 losses to the Blueshirts and Bruins to end the year.

On April 13, in a nationally-televised 2–1 loss in Buffalo, LeClair scored his 50th goal of the season, joining Tim Kerr as the only Flyers to score 50-or-more goals in three straight seasons.

eason standings

Game log

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Playoffs

Game log

Player stats

katers

"Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalties in minutes"

Transactions

The Flyers were involved in the following transactions before/during the 1997–98 season.

Trades

Farm teams

The Flyers were affiliated with the Philadelphia Phantoms of the AHL. [FlyersHistory.net, [http://www.flyershistory.net/cgi-bin/ml-season.cgi?1997-98 AHL Season Overview: 1997–98] ]

ee also

*1997–98 NHL season

References

*General: [http://www.flyershistory.net/cgi-bin/season.cgi?1997-98 1997–98 Flyers season] on FlyersHistory.net
*Regular season game log: [http://www.flyershistory.net/cgi-bin/games.cgi?1997-98 Philadelphia Flyers regular season game log] on FlyersHistory.net
*Playoffs game log: [http://www.flyershistory.net/cgi-bin/poffs.cgi Philadelphia Flyers playoffs game log] on FlyersHistory.net