As is customary, the Flyers will give away free T-shirts to the fans attending Sunday’s Game 6 clash with the Capitals, though this time, rather than a standard-issue free shirt with the team logo and name plastered on the front, Philadelphia decided to have some fun at the expense of both itself and its fans.
Sunday’s giveaway will commemorate the already-infamous bracelet incident that occurred during Game 3. Philadelphia’s PA announcer Lou Nolan, whose pleas to fans to stop tossing the bracelets were shared across blogs and social media, graces the front of the shirt along with the words, “Stay Classy, Philly!” The team shared the front of the shirt via Twitter Saturday afternoon.
[An NHL team embarrassed itself in Philadelphia. (It wasn’t the Capitals.)]
The incident started after a multi-player fight between the two teams broke out, which was the result of a nasty hit on Washington’s Dmitry Orlov by Philadelphia’s Pierre-Edouard Bellemare that sent Orlov into the boards head-first. Bellemare was eventually suspended one game by the NHL. Orlov was struck by one of the wristbands while being attended to on the bench.
The bracelets, the same ones that would find their way to the ice and result in a delay and a two-minute penalty against Philadelphia, were used in Game 3’s pregame ceremony, which was held in remembrance of late owner Ed Snider. The wristbands glowed in the dark and made for a wonderful scene ahead of the Capitals’s 6-1 victory. The Flyers also gifted fans free shirts with Snider’s silhouette in the team logo ahead of the game.
Game 6’s shirts will sport a different Flyers icon, with a semi-smiling Nolan on the front next to the words, “Stay Classy, Philly!”, a nod to the signature sign-off of Ron Burgundy, Will Ferrell’s quotable lead character in the 2004 hit, “Anchorman.”
Although the words, “Stay classy, Philly,” were never actually spoken over the speakers in Philadelphia the night of the wristband incident, Nolan certainly captured the statement’s sentiment. As fans continued to litter the ice with the free bracelets despite his pleas, Nolan went from trying to appeal to the morality of the disruptive fans to hopelessly chastising them when a penalty was finally assessed to the crowd.
“This is Philly, this is not somewhere else in the NHL,” he said. “Have some class.”
According to the Post, Nolan went on to call the fans’s actions “classless,” as he attempted to inform them that their actions would cost the Flyers if it continued.
“Okay, those fans that were classless enough to throw these … next one that’s out there is going to cause us a minor penalty,” he said in mounting panic.
As the raining of wristbands continued, the Flyers were hit with a penalty, leading Nolan to finally metaphorically (and probably literally) throw up his hands upon announcing the two-minute penalty.
“Okay, those of you that have been throwing them, you’ve done it now!” poor Nolan finally said in agony. “Two-minute bench minor. Way to go.”
Flyers fans can at least take solace in knowing they are not the only fans to interfere with their teams’s chances — Florida Panthers fans pulled the same move March 31, only they used rubber rats.
This item has been updated.
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