Bill Meltzer.. little history on the Broad StreetBullies..
5) Today in Flyers History: On Aug 1,1970, the Flyers sold Claude Laforge's contract to the Denver Spurs of the now-defunct Western Hockey League.
The pint-sized Laforge stood just 5-foot-8 and weighed only 160 pounds but was a courageous and shifty forward who had established himself as a reliable AHL player. In his best AHL campaign, Laforge averaged more than a point-per-game (50 points in 49 games) for the 1960-61 Hershey Bears before he got his first brief NHL look with the Detroit Red Wings.
Laforge started the 1967-68 season with the Aces, for whom he'd scored 16 goals in 60 games the previous season and then posted six points in five games in the Calder Cup playoffs. However, the finesse forward spent most of the season in the NHL with the Flyers. During the 1967-68 regular season, Laforge dressed in 63 games, chipping in nine goals and 25 points.
During the Flyers' seven-game war of a series with the St. Louis Blues in the 1968 Stanley Cup Quarterfinals - a series the Blues ultimately won - Laforge unwittingly became part of franchise folklore. In Game 5 of the series, a brawl erupted at 9:03 of the third period. St. Louis roughneck Noel Picard blind-sided and viciously assaulted Laforge, who happened to be the closest bystander. Laforge, crashing face-first to the ice, was left unconscious in a pool of blood. He was concussed and suffered a broken nose.
Flyers owner Ed Snider privately vowed that he'd never again see a Philadelphia team manhandled in that manner. In the years to come, the Flyers assembled the team that became known as the "Broad Street Bullies." Laforge did not play again in the series. He finished with three points (one goal, two assists) in five games. The next year, Laforge played two additional games for the Flyers - his final appearances of a 193-game NHL career - and returned to the Quebec Aces. For Quebec, he posted 21 goals and 52 points in 57 games.