Flyers Honor Bernie Parent With Coolest ‘Player of the Game’ Award In Hockey
The Flyers player of the game award pays tribute to the best goalie in franchise history
As NHL teams continue to notch their maiden wins of the 2025-26 season, their Player of the Game awards are being unveiled. This year, the Philadelphia Flyers have a very cool one that pays tribute to one of the greatest to ever hop between the pipes, Bernie Parent.
Parent backstopped the Orange and Black to back-to-back Stanley Cups in the mid-1970s and is widely regarded as the best netminder the franchise has ever had.
Sadly, the Hall of Famer passed away over the offseason at the age of 80.
The Flyers will wear shoulder patches honoring Parent this season, and his retired No. 1 was painted behind each net at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Monday night.
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But the coolest tribute came after the Flyers took their first win of the season — a big one — against the two-time reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers.
In the locker room, captain Sean Couturier — who scored the game-winner off of an unbelievable feed from Trevor Zegras — revealed that this year, the team's player of the game will get a Bernie Parent mask.
And who better to get it first than Flyers goalie Dan Vladar, who stopped 24 of 26 shots in the Flyers' 5-2 win.
Seeing an old-school mask like that back on a Flyers goalie is pretty damn cool.
While it took three games to snag that first win, the Flyers have looked pretty solid as they navigate what has to be one of the toughest first four games any team in the league has to deal with.
They played Florida twice, and sandwiched in between that was a game against the Carolina Hurricanes, which the Flyers lost in overtime after a goal from Bobby Brink was waved off due to a questionable-at-best goaltender interference call.
Then, after those games against the two teams that have played in the Eastern Conference final the last two seasons, the Broad Street Bullies get a date with the Winnipeg Jets, fresh off a Presidents' Trophy win.
So, while there has been some disappointment, the Flyers were very much in the two games they lost this season.
Considering this is still a team in the midst of a rebuild, the Rick Tocchet era in Philly is off to a solid — if not storming — start.