PHILADELPHIA — The white banner hangs on the north side of Wells Fargo Center, clearly visible from a majority of the parking spaces in the immediate vicinity of the Philadelphia Flyers’ home arena.
“A Flyer Forever,” it reads, printed below Ed Snider’s signature and the superimposition of his likeness over the Flyers’ logo.
Snider, a Washington native and Maryland graduate, founded the Flyers in 1966 and owned them until he died on April 11 of bladder cancer at age 83.
On Monday, the Flyers will host their first playoff game since Snider’s death, welcoming the Washington Capitals for Game 3 of the teams’ first-round series.
It’s an affair that is expected to be emotionally charged. Snider’s initials have been painted in the trapezoids behind each net and players will wear commemorative patches, recognizing a man who had formed strong relationships with many of his players. Memorials cropped up in the parking lots in the hours before the game, and the team is planning to organize other pregame tributes.
“Embrace it,” Flyers coach Dave Hakstol said Monday morning. “There’s going to be a lot of energy in the building. There’s going to be some emotion in the building, obviously, with the pregame ceremony for Mr. Snider, but you have to embrace those emotions and that energy and harness it and have a great start to this hockey game.”
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Snider, once a part-owner of the Philadelphia Eagles, applied for a conditional franchise once the NHL announced its intention to expand beyond the initial six teams, and the Flyers began play at the start of the 1967-68 season. In a poll sponsored by the Philadelphia Daily News in 1999, Snider was recognized as one of the top sports figures in the city’s history.
“It’s not all the time that the owner is so hands on and has such a good relationship with the majority of the players like Mr. Snider did,” said top-line right wing Wayne Simmonds, who joined the team via trade in 2012. “That was pretty special to me.”
The Flyers lost the first two games of the series in Washington and will hope to avoid their first 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven series for the first time since 2011, when they were swept in the first round by the Boston Bruins.
Players have professed a desire to set the tone from the start, though that may not be enough. In Game 2 on Saturday, they had 19 shots on goal in the first period — the same total they had in all of Game 1 — but still lost, 4-1.
Though the situation needs no reminder, Capitals coach Barry Trotz said nonetheless that it will be raised before it starts.
“You just tell them that you know the other team’s going to be ramped up,” Trotz said. “They’re going to be emotional. You’ve just got to stay in the moment and be ready for an all-out effort by the Flyers tonight.”
• Zac Boyer can be reached at zboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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