Celebrating Former Bruin Mark Recchi Prior to the Flyers game

After playing for the Flyers for 10 of his 22 NHL seasons, Mark Recchi completed his career with the Bruins. On January 27, the 2011 Stanley Cup champion from Boston was inducted into the Flyers Hall of Fame. He played 25 games for the Black and Gold in the 2011 postseason, with five goals and nine assists, including three goals and four assists in the Stanley Cup Final series against the Vancouver Canucks.

There will be more going on in the Flyers’ last game before the All-Star break than just the Orange and Black taking on the Boston Bruins. It will be a celebration of a renowned franchise in Philadelphia sports history honoring a landmark anniversary, as well as the induction of a deserving player into the team’s Hall of Fame alongside the immortals.

First, Mark Recchi will be inducted into the Flyers Hall of Fame on Saturday afternoon before the team’s first game against the Bruins. In addition, Saturday’s opponent is appropriate given the 50th anniversary of the Philadelphia Flyers, who won the first of the Orange and Black’s back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1973–74.

Both will be honored on Friday night at the Wells Fargo Center during an alumni game. Recchi will participate in the match the night before his induction. Again participating in an alumni game, 80-year-old Joe Watson will skate for the Flyers, the 1974 Stanley Cup winners. Most of Watson’s colleagues from that Cup team, along with other legends like Bobby Clarke, Bernie Parent, Bill Barber, and others, will be present for the festivities.

It serves as a reminder once more of how the Flyers’ past forms its basis. Bringing together many Flyers of the past, the Flyers have publicly embarked on a rebuilding project in which they aim to reconstruct every part of the organization, including the culture.

It was already on display when the Flyers honored founder Ed Snider’s birthday earlier in January. It was a reminder of what Snider contributed to Philadelphia that afternoon. Friday’s alumni games are a great way to remember how long the franchise has been around.

Recchi spent two different stints with the Flyers: from 1992 to 1995 and from 1999 to 2004. Ten of his 22 seasons as a player, and many additional stints along the road, were spent in Philadelphia by the 2017 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee. In 2011, he made his last tour in Boston, where he won his third and last Stanley Cup.

Recchi takes his position among the list of names in the rafters, so if the weekend is about any one person, it’s about him. However, the weekend also revolves around a team that keeps up with their head coach’s well-known remarks. “Win today and we walk together forever,” was written on the chalkboard by the late Hall of Fame head coach Fred Shero prior to the team’s 1974 Stanley Cup victory. That group is still doing that.

At these games, the Flyers Alumni never fail to entertain the crowd. This is a meeting between two Flyers alumni teams on numerous occasions. There’s going to be a new opponent this time. Alumni from the Bruins will also be present to compete, setting up a rematch of the 1974

Since 2011, I have contributed to Sports Talk Philly. Editor and principal writer for Philadelphia Flyers coverage at the moment. co-host of the podcast YWT. In South Jersey, I work as a Flyers insider on 97.3 ESPN-FM. 2014 saw my graduation from Cabrini University.