1999–2000 Philadelphia Flyers season
The 1999–2000 Philadelphia Flyers season was the Philadelphia Flyers' 33rd season in the National Hockey League (NHL). One of the most tumultuous seasons in franchise history, the Flyers reached the Eastern Conference Finals, losing in seven games to the New Jersey Devils, blowing a 3-1 series lead in the process. Off-season After going unclaimed in the 1999 NHL Expansion Draft, longtime goaltender Ron Hextall was waived by the Flyers on July 1 for the purpose of buying out the final season of his contract. Hextall cleared waivers and announced his retirement on September 6, 1999. Longtime broadcaster Gene Hart, who was awarded the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award in 1997, died from a variety of illnesses on July 14. A little over a week later on July 23, defenseman Dmitri Tertyshny, coming off his rookie season, was fatally injured in a boating accident. Tertyshny was on a boating trip to Okanagan Lake in British Columbia with two players from the Flyers' minor-league affiliate Philadelphia Phantoms, Francis Belanger and Mikhail Chernov, when a freak accident caused him to suffer fatal injuries. The boat hit a wave and caused him to fall forward overboard. The boat ran over him and its propeller slashed his neck and his jugular vein. Regular season Head coach Roger Neilson was diagnosed with bone cancer, forcing him to step aside in February 2000 to undergo treatment, so assistant coach Craig Ramsay took over as interim coach for the rest of the season; Neilson later recovered but was informed that he would not be returning. In January, longtime Flyer and fan favorite Rod Brind'Amour was shipped to the Carolina Hurricanes for Keith Primeau, with the intention of acquiring a big center to complement Eric Lindros. Meanwhile, the strife between Flyers management (particularly GM Bob Clarke) and Lindros, continued to worsen. Less than a month after Ramsay took over, Lindros suffered his second concussion of the season. He played several games after the initial hit and afterwards criticized the team's training staff for failing to initially diagnose the concussion after it happened. It was after this that the Flyers' organization decided to strip Lindros of the captaincy on March 27 and name defenseman Eric Desjardins the team's captain. With Lindros out indefinitely, the Flyers rallied to overcome the distractions and a 15-point deficit in the standings to win the Atlantic Division and the No. 1 seed in the East on the last day of the regular season. Season standings Playoffs They easily defeated their first round opponent, the Buffalo Sabres, in five games. Primeau's goal in the fifth overtime of Game 4 against the team's second-round opponent, the Pittsburgh Penguins, turned that series in the Flyers' favor as they won in six games, coming back from a 2–0 series deficit. After dropping Game 1 to New Jersey in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Flyers peeled off three straight wins to take a 3–1 series lead. But New Jersey refused to give up. After New Jersey won Game 5, Lindros returned