My wife for Christmas sheepishly passed me this and said “I hope it’s the right one”.

I originally bought this game from a pawn shop when I was in middle school. I loved the idea of life hockey but growing up in country Victoria, Australia the closest I had come to ice was in my freezer.

I still remember starting this game up, not having a clue who to play as other than the Mighty Ducks, and seeing this absolute stud on the front cover and opening screen.

Since then I’ve tried to follow the team as best as I could. About 13 years ago I decided to try my hand at playing ice hockey. Bought a Dan Carcillo knock off jersey (before having a Reebok Lindros jersey custom made). Have played hockey ever since and (for better or worse) watched our team as close as possibly (including seeing the boys play live in the season opener against Boston at TD Gardens on my honeymoon).

Somewhere along the line I lost my copy but never forgot the game. I fucking love this team. I love this sport. And although I’m far removed from the city, jumping into the game-day threads and having a yarn with mates during play is an absolute hoot.

Hope everyone had an amazing festive holiday period. Here’s to our future success! 🖤🧡

10 comments

  2. I’ve been collecting Philly athlete sports game covers, I didn’t know this existed.

    Add it to the list.

    I have the NBA 2K series with Iverson covers

    Embiid on NBA Live and Simmons on 2K19 from Australia

    Nfl 2K5 with TO, and Madden 06 with Donovan.

    Ryan Howard and Bryce Harper MLB the show covers

    And of course G on NHL 10

  3. Awesome. This game was my gateway to the Flyers too. I’m from the UK, so didn’t get chance to watch games until years later, but I’d read about the team and keep up with scores online.

    I played NHL 98 for a bit first. At that point I knew nothing about hockey. I’d play as the Red Wings purely because they were the best rated team in the game, and it was useful as an intro to the sport and the mechanics of the game, but NHL 99 was when the – admittedly tenuous – attachment to the Flyers was forged. Eric Lindros was a big part of that, as was the uniforms, colour scheme, and logo. The love grew from there. To this day, I still think this team has the best uniform, colours and logo in the game, obviously with a truckload of bias.

    I’ve been to see the team play 7 times across 2 visits to Philly, all home games. We have won 6 of those. Most recent was the 3-0 defeat to Boston in November. Up until that point, the Flyers were on a 100% win streak when I was in the building, so for me personally it was a crushing defeat. I was also at the games Vs Minnesota and St Louis the week prior. The Minnesota game was probably the most fun I’ve ever had at a sports game. A 7-5 goal fest, all while getting silly stringed in Gritty’s Chaos Corner.

  7. Hell yeah! Glad you are one of us. Lindros is still my all time favorite flyer. My son who is 20 bought tickets for him and I to the Flyers Alumni game last year. Of course Lindros revved it up and scored a goal. My son chose that moment to tell me that why he took me to the game so I could see Lindros score one more goal in the Flyers uniform. I started crying right there in the stands.

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