The documentary “Broad Street Bullies” (10 p.m., HBO) recalls the championship seasons and bad reputation of the Philadelphia Flyers, who won back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 1974 and 1975.
How notorious were the pre-bicentennial Flyers? The bad boys of hockey were so synonymous with bullying and foul play that they earned a guest spot on “The Simpsons” nearly 20 years later. In a “Treehouse of Horror IV” (1993) parody of “The Devil and Daniel Webster,” Homer pleads before a jury of the damned, including Benedict Arnold, Lizzie Borden, John Wilkes Booth, Richard Nixon and the 1976 Philadelphia Flyers.
As “Bullies” recalls, the expansion Flyers were composed of players cast off from other teams, rough-and-tumble Canadians who earned a reputation for intimidating their opponents with fistfights and low blows. While hockey had always been fraught with fisticuffs, the Flyers took the brawling tradition to new extremes, earning them record time in the penalty box.
“Broad Street” pays particular attention to the intense bond between the Flyers and their city. At the time, the Phillies, Eagles and 76ers were mediocre at best, and the sour 1970s economy had ravaged the blue-collar city. While few Philadelphians had grown up with hockey, residents of all races loved their Flyers, and the players responded in kind, hanging out in local bars, attending charity events, and even cutting a record that became a hit on local jukeboxes. When the Flyers won the Stanley Cup, they were greeted by a crowd 2 million strong, the largest throng in the city’s storied history.
Rich in period footage, “Bullies” is heavy on nostalgia but does a weaker job of putting the Flyers’ legacy in the context of hockey’s evolution as a nationally televised sport. In the long run, did their penchant for brutality popularize the sport or lead to its marginalization?
Curiously, it fails to mention another local folk hero of the mid-1970s. I would be curious to know how much, or how little, Flyers-mania would inspire another battling Philadelphian, albeit one made up for Hollywood, a certain Rocky Balboa, whose statue still stands in the City of Brotherly Love.