For Flyers, Spectrum had lots of life and action

The Spectrum started to come down Tuesday afternoon, stirring memories from the Flyers' players and coaches who played in the venerable building.

Defenseman Chris Pronger said the Spectrum had an "aura" to it, and teammate Sean O'Donnell said there are many graying and balding former players - those who didn't wear the Flyers' crest - who probably celebrated the news that a wrecking ball was tearing down the arena.

"It's a special building; it's not just a regular building," O'Donnell, the Flyers' 39-year-old defenseman, said after Tuesday's practice in Voorhees. "It's the Broad Street Bullies. It's a synonymous nickname. It's a place where not a lot of people wanted to play."

O'Donnell smiled.

"There are probably a lot of players from back in the '70s that are exorcising some of the demons, finally getting that building knocked down."

Growing up in Ottawa as a youngster, "I remember my dad talking about it and the teams they had," O'Donnell said. "They've always had tough teams. They were good and tough, and [you heard about the] Spectrum and the Broad Street Bullies and Dave Schultz and all those guys. There are probably a lot of guys in their late 50s and 60s who are smiling and saying, 'Goodbye! I hated that place and never liked going there!' "

Flyers assistant Craig "Chief" Berube played his first NHL season there in 1986-87.

"It seemed like the fans were right on top of you," said Berube, who spent his first five NHL seasons with the Flyers. "It was loud and they were banging on the glass. I thought it was a real tough place for other teams to come in and play. It was like going into Boston Garden - a smaller rink. Compact. Lots of life and action. It seemed like a real blue-collar crowd in there."

As a rookie with Hartford in 1993-94, Pronger remembers "the aura of the Spectrum and the Flyers and their style and their fans. Obviously, there are a lot of fond memories for a lot of fans here and a lot of former players. I'm sure it'll be tough to take for some guys" to see it knocked down.

Several Flyers, including goalie Brian Boucher, played with the AHL's Phantoms at the Spectrum.

"It was pretty unbelievable to play in the minor leagues here," Boucher said. "We were selling out against the Hersey Bears. It was 17,000-plus. There's nowhere else you see that. For me, I never got to play as a Flyer there, but it certainly was cool to have played there and to know you were part of history."

Added Boucher: "When you come to Philadelphia, you learn pretty quickly the history of the team, and when you played in that building, you got a sense of what it was like to be on the Flyers back in the days when they were winning Cups. We had some tough teams; we didn't get pushed around too much, and if teams came in and scored a few goals, we were willing to throw the fists around."

Flyers coach Peter Laviolette coached some AHL games for Providence at the Spectrum but conceded he didn't have much history there.

"I guess I probably tie it more to the Rocky thing than anything else," he said with a small grin. "But it was a great building and a lot of neat things went on there."