Iron Men

Sporting News, The, Dec 28, 1998

When the Canadiens' Mark Recchi's consecutive-games streak, the eighth-longest in league history, ended December 12 at 570 because of, of all things, a case of pneumonia, the Flyers became "Team Iron Man." Not only did Philadelphia forward Rod Brind'Amour move into first place among current consecutive-games streaks with 430, but teammate John LeClair moved up to No.

3 on the list after Chris Gratton, who until recently had been a Flyer. Doug Jarvis holds the league record of 964 consecutive games for the Canadiens, Capitals and Whalers in the 1980s, but Brind'Amour, who recorded a league-high 2,177 shifts last season (120 more than any other player), could reach the top 10 on the iron-man list late next season. Alex Delvecchio stands 10th at 548. The current top 10 iron men (through games of December 14):

Player               Team            Games

Rod Brind'Amour      Flyers              430
Chris Gratton        Lightning           286
John LeClair         Flyers              280
Teppo Numminen       coyotes             237
Alexei Yashin        Senators            234
Mats Sundin          Maple Leafs         199
Wayne Gretzky        Rangers             192
Bill Houlder         Sharks              176
Ken Baumgartner      Bruins              150
Pat Verbeek          Stars               148