The man who took down Soviet Central Red Army star Valeri Kharlamov, nearly causing an international incident in the process, has died.
The Flyers announced the passing of Ed Van Impe, 84, on Thursday.
The rock-solid, “stand-up” defenseman from Saskatoon, Sask. was the second team captain in Flyers history. He was taken in the 1967 expansion draft off the Chicago Black Hawks roster, and went on two Stanley Cups with the “Broad Street Bullies” in 1974 and ’75.
“My dad sent his love to his friends and teammates,” Van Impe’s son, Greg, wrote in an email posted to the club’s website. “We walk together forever!”
It was Van Impe who on Jan. 11, 1976 crashed into Kharlamov with an open ice hit during an exhibition game that was part of “Super Series ’76” between the Red Army and another club from the Soviet Union, and NHL teams.
Kharlamov lay motionless on the ice for a short time while the play went unpenalized. Red Army coach Konstantin Loktev pulled his team off the ice in protest. But as the legend goes, when Flyers owner Ed Snider told Soviet officials that they wouldn’t be getting paid if they didn’t get the team back on the ice, the Soviet players were told to go back out there after a 15-minute delay. The Flyers went on to win the game 4-1.
Van Impe, a three-time All-Star, would play parts of nine seasons with the Flyers before being traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins, not long after that clash against the Soviets at the Spectrum. He played in only 22 games for the Penguins before retiring in 1977.
Van Impe went on to become a Flyers team broadcaster and was inducted into the Flyers Hall of Fame in 1993.
Source: Berkshire mont
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