Philadelphia Expansion

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The National Hockey League has decided to expand to a seventh city for the 1946-47 season. There have been several false starts over the past several years, but this time looks to be successful.

The "Original Six" of Boston, New York, Toronto, Montreal, Chicago and Detroit will be joined by a seventh city, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The Philadelphia team will be called the Flyers. For the first couple of months of the 1946-47 season the team will play out of the 4,000 seat Philadelphia Arena while a new arena is built near JFK Stadium (where the Army-Navy game is played every year). This arena will eventually seat over 20,000, but will start at 9,000 seats.

There was no expansion draft for this team, all of the Philadelphia players have been signed through the free agent ranks.

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The Flyers will play a 60 game schedule in the 1946-47 season, from October to mid February. This is a very early end to the season, but with more expansion and more games scheduled in further seasons, this should be the only season with a 60 game schedule.

Previously during the war the NHL played a 55 game schedule.

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The Philadelphia Flyers are preparing for their first campaign in the National Hockey League, with their first preseason game on September 20 against the Boston Bruins at Boston Garden.

All 30 home games of the Flyers plus road games in New York will be broadcast on WDAS, 1400 AM locally.

The Flyers first signee was goalie Johnny Bower, who has been one of the highest-rated prospects in hockey over these last couple of years. Defenseman Doug Harvey, another major prospect, has also signed with the Flyers.

The team will emphasize youth over experience. Allan Van and Carl Liscombe are the only players on the team over 30 years old.

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The 46-47 Flyers preseason was a time for improvement as a team. No wins occurred in 7 preseason games, as Philadelphia was outscored 36-5 in the games.

But the goal this year is to field a competitive team for the 47-48 season and beyond. Season tickets have not sold that well, with 1,385 in the 4,000 seat Philadelphia Arena. But the hope is that people will come out on a nightly basis to watch this group of guys and to see some possible rivalries develop.

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The Philadelphia Flyers opened up the 1946-47 season with 3 home games out of 4, starting with the Montreal Canadiens at Philadelphia Arena on October 8.

In the 4,000 seat arena, 3,019 people attended as the Canadiens and Flyers restarted NHL hockey in Philadelphia. There was a lot of pomp and circumstance as Montreal's writers complained about how cramped the Philadelphia Arena was.

The Flyers opened with a bang, with Bucky Buchanan scoring the first goal of the team's history at 6:57 of the first period. They could get nothing else, losing 4-1 to the Canadiens.

10/8: MTL 4 PHI 1; Goals- PHI- Buchanan (1); MTL- Leger (1), Blake (1), Fillion (2), Fillion (3, PP, EN); A- 3,019

10/9: NYR 4 PHI 3; Goals- NYR: Laprade (1), Trudell (2), Cooper (1), Leswick (1); PHI: Riley (1), Van (1), Michaluk (1, PP); A- 3,093

10/11: NYR 4 PHI 0; Goals- Heller (1), Cooper (2, PP), Trudell (3), Colville (1), A- 15,818

10/12: MTL 1 PHI 1; Goals- Richard (5); PHI: Kane (1), A- 3,036

The Flyers shocked the hockey world taking a point off of the Canadiens in a 1-1 draw in their fourth game in history.

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The Flyers continued their run through the National Hockey League with a game at Madison Square Garden against the Rangers, where they nearly pulled out a big win, but ended up losing 1-0 on a 2nd period Neil Colville goal.

10/14: NYR 1 PHI 0; Goals- Colville (2); A- 15,112

10/15: TOR 8 PHI 3; Goals- TOR: Meeker, Goldham, Stewart (3), Meeker (2), Watson (3), Bodnar, Bodnar (2), Stewart (4); PHI: McFadden, Levandoski, Riley (2), A- 3,037

10/17: CHI 4 PHI 1; Goals- CHI: Doug Bentley, Max Bentley (2), Wares (3), Max Bentley (3); PHI: Opsahl; A- 3,038

10/21: BOS 4, PHI 1; Goals- BOS- Crawford, Pratt (2), Schmidt (4), Dumart (2, EN); PHI- Goldup (1); A- 12,609

[Sctvman]

The Flyers have had a tough time putting the puck in the net recently, going through their first goround as an NHL team.

10/22: CHI 8, PHI 0: Goals- Metz, Horeck (2), Quilty (3, PP), Max Bentley (4, 5, 6), Doug Bentley (2, SH), Horeck (3); A- 15,430

10/28: DET 7, PHI 1: Goals- DET: R. Conacher (4), Abel (2), Baldwin (3), J. Conacher (4, SH), J. Conacher (5, PP), Bruneteau (3), Sid Abel (3); PHI: McFadden (2); A- 3,212

10/29: MTL 4, PHI 1: Goals- MTL: Peters (4), Eddolls, Richard (10, SH), Lach (ES); PHI: Kullman; A- 15,086

10/31: MTL 4, PHI 3: Goals- MTL: Reay (5), Blake (7), Armstrong (3), Richard (11, PP); PHI: McFadden (3, SH), Levandoski (2, PP), Booton (1); A- 3,241

11/5: DET 8, PHI 1: Goals- DET: Sid Abel (4, 5, 6), Brown (9), Gauthier (6, SH), R. Conacher (7), Bruneteau (5), Couture (1); PHI: Levandoski (3), A- 3,169

11/6: CHI 6, PHI 3: Goals- CHI: M. Bentley (9), Hamill (1), Jackson (3), Mariucci (3), Mosienko (5), Reise (1); PHI: Goldup (2), Harvey (2, PP), Riley (3), A- 15,445

The Philadelphia Flyers have started off at 0-14-1, with just one point over the first quarter of the season.

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The Philadelphia Flyers nearly pulled off their first win in NHL play during this cycle, but fell a little bit short. They are playing much better though than they were earlier in the season.

11/8: TOR 7, PHI 6; Goals- TOR: Stewart (11), Watson (8), Kennedy (10, SH), Stanowski (3), Apps (9 PP, 10), Dickens (1, PP); PHI- Mara (1), Branigan (1), Riley (4), Check (1), Liscombe (1, PP), Booton (2); A- 2,761

11/9: DET 8, PHI 0: Goals- Conacher (8, 9), Abel (7), Gauthier (7, SH), Taylor (9, 10), Gauthier (8), Conacher (10); A- 12,507

11/11: TOR 8, PHI 3; Goals- TOR: Apps (11, PP), Meeker (7, PP), Apps (12, PP), Kennedy (11, SH), Stewart (12), Ezinicki (7), Kennedy (12), Bodnar (13), PHI: Liscombe (2), Laforce (3), McFadden (4, PP); A- 14,550

11/12: MTL 4, PHI 0; Goals- Blake (13), Reay (9), Chamberlain (1), Eddolls (2); A- 16,008

11/14: DET 4, PHI 2; Goals- DET: Quackenbush (2), Couture (2, PP), Couture (3), Brown (11, EN); PHI: Syd Howe (1), Liscombe (3, PP); A- 2,907

11/15: CHI 2, PHI 1; Goals- CHI: Max Bentley (13, 14); PHI: Michaluk (2), A- 2,929

[Sctvman]

The Philadelphia Flyers have played much better over the past few weeks, and eventually their play was rewarded.

11/19: TOR 4, PHI 1; Goals- TOR: Stanowski (6), Stewart (14), Boesch (2), Barilko (2), PHI: Levandoski (4); A- 14,550

11/21: NYR 2, PHI 2; Goals- PHI: Syd Howe (2), Mara (2); NYR: Trudell (6), Read (2); A- 2,867

11/22: TOR 7, PHI 1; Goals- TOR: Stewart (15), Bodnar (15), Watson (12), Kennedy (14), Kennedy (15), Apps (15, 16); PHI: Kane (2); A- 14,496

11/25: PHI 3, BOS 2 (OT); Goals- PHI: Syd Howe (3), Opsahl (2), Syd Howe (4, OT); BOS- Martin (1), Clapper (8); A- 11,538

In the Flyers 25th game of the season, the Philadelphia Flyers win their first ever game, on the road no less at Boston Garden, in overtime. Philadelphia was 0-22-2 before this game.

11/26: BOS 5, PHI 0; Goals- BOS: Martin (2), Schmidt (5, PP), Pratt (4, PP/5, ES), Clapper (9); A- 11,726

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After getting their first win of the season on November 25 against the Bruins at Boston Garden, the Flyers struggled through the rest of the games on their roadtrip.

11/28: TOR 4, PHI 2; Goals- TOR: Apps (18, 19), Bodnar (17, SH), Ezinicki (10); PHI- Check (2), Kullman (2), A- 3,095

11/29: MON 11, PHI 3; Goals- MON: Maurice Richard 3 (23 PP, 24, 25), Chamberlain (3-5), Fillion (7, 8), Blake (22), Hiller (1), Peters (6); PHI: Liscombe (4), Syd Howe (5), Cupolo (1); A- 16,364

12/2: CHI 6, PHI 1; Goals- PHI: Syd Howe (6), CHI- Metz (5, 6), Horeck (6), Max Bentley (20, PP), Doug Bentley (11), Wares (9), A- 16,260

12/3: DET 6, PHI 2; Goals- PHI: Syd Howe (7), Dussault (1), DET: Brown (15, 16), Bruneteau (8), Abel (10, 11), Taylor (12), A- 11,373