swflyers25
9-09-05, 1:28 PM
By ED MORAN
morane@phillynews.com
THE NEIGHBORHOOD has changed.
Above the stall that John LeClair called home seemingly forever hangs the name Mike Knuble. Two stalls down, under the plate that read Mark Recchi, sits Turner Stevenson.
Jon Sim resides where Jeremy Roenick held court every day during the past three hockey seasons. Mike Richards has Tony Amonte's old locker. Antero Niittymaki has taken over for Sean Burke. Derian Hatcher has moved in where Marcus Ragnarsson moved out, and the new neighbor who has everybody intrigued, Peter Forsberg, has the stall that Danny Markov occupied.
There are other new names: Jeff Carter, R.J. Umberger, Mike Rathje and Chris Therien - the most recent expatriate returned. All are mixed in with those who were Flyers before the lockout closed the NHL for an entire season and forced nearly every team to undergo a makeover.
For the past 2 weeks the new neighbors have been moving in, one at a time, shaking hands and getting to know each other in preparation for the start of training camp Monday morning in Voorhees, N.J.
What was once a usually loud and jovial locker room is today a reserved block of people waiting to see what personality will emerge.
"There's a lot of new guys, and it's important getting the team together and getting to know each other and the new rules and the ice surface," said Forsberg, who arrived this week.
"It's good for us to get playing as soon as we possibly can to get to know each other. It's going to be important. A lot of teams are going to be experiencing this, a lot of teams have new faces. A lot of guys moved around the league this year.
"We have to get to know each other and get the feel for each other to know what we're doing on the ice. I was in Denver [with the Avalanche] for a long time and I played with the same guys for a long time. It's going to be new; we have a new lineup. But we have good guys, too, and it's going to be easy, I think, to get it going."
But what will the personality be like?
"I don't know, actually, what the room will be like. I guess we'll have to wait and see when the season starts," said veteran defenseman Kim Johnsson, who returned from Sweden last week to rejoin the team.
"Of course, we lost a couple of great guys, but at the same time we got some good guys, too. We'll have to wait and see how this thing is going to unfold."
How indeed?
For that is the question of Flyers training camp 2005.
When the players report for physicals Monday morning, the official start of training camp, the biggest task facing coach Ken Hitchcock and his staff is not going to be who makes the team, but how it comes together.
If he had to, Hitchcock could write the names of his starting 20 right now. It is not likely to change over the course of the 3-week camp.
Sure, there will be some long looks at prospects not yet tagged to start the season with the Flyers, forwards like Umberger, Ben Eager and Stefan Ruzicka, and defensemen Randy Jones and Freddy Meyer. But that only will be to see who can be plugged in when injuries occur.
As far as a traditional training camp, this one is going to be short and sweet. The Flyers will play their first preseason game against Atlanta on Sept. 17, and the team that goes to London, Ontario, for that exhibition will be the one that takes the ice opening night, give or take a player or two.
When they return from Ontario, the real task of training camp will begin - taking these new faces and personalities and making them happy neighbors. In other words, taking 11 or 12 new players, mixing them with the 12 who were here when the last season ended and making them a team.
There will be lots of meetings and team-building, including a day of learning how to row eight-oared boats on the Schuylkill and a trip to West Point to practice.
It's all about chemistry, chemistry, chemistry.
"We have to start with the assumption that there is no chemistry right away," Hitchcock said. "We have to think in terms of every player is just getting to know each other. We can't afford to wait till the end of training camp to do that.''
Of course, there will be some of the familiar aspects of camp: scrimmages, minor league players included; systems being taught; and lines and defensive pairings tested.
Veteran defensemen will be paired with rookies, and Joni Pitkanen will be moved from the left to the right side.
Among the forwards, top prospects Carter and Richards and other young players like Sharp and Radivojevic will be mixed in with the veterans to see what clicks.
As for the goaltending, for the first time in his NHL career, Robert Esche will begin the year as the starter. He will be pressured by Niittymaki, who had an outstanding season with the Phantoms, winning playoff MVP honors as the team won the Calder Cup.
Esche knows his competition with Niittymaki will bring pressure, but no more than will come with having one of the best rosters in the Eastern Conference, if not the league.
"Everybody knows we're expected to win and we need to make sure we live up to that once training camp happens," Esche said.
But chemistry and leadership first.
Recchi and LeClair were assistant captains and members of Hitchcock's leadership group. They will have to be replaced, and guys like Simon Gagne, once a kid who, in the words of his coach, "has been able to fly under the radar," will be expected to mature into a top player and a team leader on and off the ice.
"[The locker room] feels different, for sure," Gagne said. "We've been with those guys for a long time and we're used to seeing the same faces every morning, and it's tough to not see those guys. But the new faces we have are going to be a great mix. Right now I like what I see.
"For sure this has to be a big season for myself and for the Flyers, too. I'm not in my first year anymore. I've been in the playoffs a couple of times and right now with the new guys we have, I have to take the next step. I want to be one of the top players on the team, that's my goal this year, I want to be a different player than I was 2 years ago."
That's the kind of talk Hitchcock wants to hear. But he also knows the real job of bringing the locker room together will fall in large part to his captain, Keith Primeau.
"It's important that we get those guys up to speed as quick as possible as far as systems and what [Hitchcock] demands of the players, and the quicker we can do that the quicker we move forward,'' Primeau said.
"And that's going to be the responsibility of the guys that were in the locker room, to get those guys on page and on board as quick as possible. It's changed my role.
"I've got to make sure everybody, everyone, feels comfortable with what's being asked as far as assignment and roles, and everybody feels comfortable with the guys they are going to be surrounded by for the next 10 months."
Game for charity
Because of an overwhelming demand for tickets to the Flyers' hurricane relief charity game scheduled for Sunday evening, tickets are going to go on sale a day early.
The game, at the Skate Zone in Voorhees, N.J., will begin at 7 p.m. Tickets will go on sale at 9 a.m. tomorrow at the Skate Zone. The general-admission tickets are $10.
The game will be played with players from both the Flyers and Phantoms. Following the game, signed sticks will be auctioned off. All proceeds from the event will be donated to the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Daily News (http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/sports/12598003.htm)
morane@phillynews.com
THE NEIGHBORHOOD has changed.
Above the stall that John LeClair called home seemingly forever hangs the name Mike Knuble. Two stalls down, under the plate that read Mark Recchi, sits Turner Stevenson.
Jon Sim resides where Jeremy Roenick held court every day during the past three hockey seasons. Mike Richards has Tony Amonte's old locker. Antero Niittymaki has taken over for Sean Burke. Derian Hatcher has moved in where Marcus Ragnarsson moved out, and the new neighbor who has everybody intrigued, Peter Forsberg, has the stall that Danny Markov occupied.
There are other new names: Jeff Carter, R.J. Umberger, Mike Rathje and Chris Therien - the most recent expatriate returned. All are mixed in with those who were Flyers before the lockout closed the NHL for an entire season and forced nearly every team to undergo a makeover.
For the past 2 weeks the new neighbors have been moving in, one at a time, shaking hands and getting to know each other in preparation for the start of training camp Monday morning in Voorhees, N.J.
What was once a usually loud and jovial locker room is today a reserved block of people waiting to see what personality will emerge.
"There's a lot of new guys, and it's important getting the team together and getting to know each other and the new rules and the ice surface," said Forsberg, who arrived this week.
"It's good for us to get playing as soon as we possibly can to get to know each other. It's going to be important. A lot of teams are going to be experiencing this, a lot of teams have new faces. A lot of guys moved around the league this year.
"We have to get to know each other and get the feel for each other to know what we're doing on the ice. I was in Denver [with the Avalanche] for a long time and I played with the same guys for a long time. It's going to be new; we have a new lineup. But we have good guys, too, and it's going to be easy, I think, to get it going."
But what will the personality be like?
"I don't know, actually, what the room will be like. I guess we'll have to wait and see when the season starts," said veteran defenseman Kim Johnsson, who returned from Sweden last week to rejoin the team.
"Of course, we lost a couple of great guys, but at the same time we got some good guys, too. We'll have to wait and see how this thing is going to unfold."
How indeed?
For that is the question of Flyers training camp 2005.
When the players report for physicals Monday morning, the official start of training camp, the biggest task facing coach Ken Hitchcock and his staff is not going to be who makes the team, but how it comes together.
If he had to, Hitchcock could write the names of his starting 20 right now. It is not likely to change over the course of the 3-week camp.
Sure, there will be some long looks at prospects not yet tagged to start the season with the Flyers, forwards like Umberger, Ben Eager and Stefan Ruzicka, and defensemen Randy Jones and Freddy Meyer. But that only will be to see who can be plugged in when injuries occur.
As far as a traditional training camp, this one is going to be short and sweet. The Flyers will play their first preseason game against Atlanta on Sept. 17, and the team that goes to London, Ontario, for that exhibition will be the one that takes the ice opening night, give or take a player or two.
When they return from Ontario, the real task of training camp will begin - taking these new faces and personalities and making them happy neighbors. In other words, taking 11 or 12 new players, mixing them with the 12 who were here when the last season ended and making them a team.
There will be lots of meetings and team-building, including a day of learning how to row eight-oared boats on the Schuylkill and a trip to West Point to practice.
It's all about chemistry, chemistry, chemistry.
"We have to start with the assumption that there is no chemistry right away," Hitchcock said. "We have to think in terms of every player is just getting to know each other. We can't afford to wait till the end of training camp to do that.''
Of course, there will be some of the familiar aspects of camp: scrimmages, minor league players included; systems being taught; and lines and defensive pairings tested.
Veteran defensemen will be paired with rookies, and Joni Pitkanen will be moved from the left to the right side.
Among the forwards, top prospects Carter and Richards and other young players like Sharp and Radivojevic will be mixed in with the veterans to see what clicks.
As for the goaltending, for the first time in his NHL career, Robert Esche will begin the year as the starter. He will be pressured by Niittymaki, who had an outstanding season with the Phantoms, winning playoff MVP honors as the team won the Calder Cup.
Esche knows his competition with Niittymaki will bring pressure, but no more than will come with having one of the best rosters in the Eastern Conference, if not the league.
"Everybody knows we're expected to win and we need to make sure we live up to that once training camp happens," Esche said.
But chemistry and leadership first.
Recchi and LeClair were assistant captains and members of Hitchcock's leadership group. They will have to be replaced, and guys like Simon Gagne, once a kid who, in the words of his coach, "has been able to fly under the radar," will be expected to mature into a top player and a team leader on and off the ice.
"[The locker room] feels different, for sure," Gagne said. "We've been with those guys for a long time and we're used to seeing the same faces every morning, and it's tough to not see those guys. But the new faces we have are going to be a great mix. Right now I like what I see.
"For sure this has to be a big season for myself and for the Flyers, too. I'm not in my first year anymore. I've been in the playoffs a couple of times and right now with the new guys we have, I have to take the next step. I want to be one of the top players on the team, that's my goal this year, I want to be a different player than I was 2 years ago."
That's the kind of talk Hitchcock wants to hear. But he also knows the real job of bringing the locker room together will fall in large part to his captain, Keith Primeau.
"It's important that we get those guys up to speed as quick as possible as far as systems and what [Hitchcock] demands of the players, and the quicker we can do that the quicker we move forward,'' Primeau said.
"And that's going to be the responsibility of the guys that were in the locker room, to get those guys on page and on board as quick as possible. It's changed my role.
"I've got to make sure everybody, everyone, feels comfortable with what's being asked as far as assignment and roles, and everybody feels comfortable with the guys they are going to be surrounded by for the next 10 months."
Game for charity
Because of an overwhelming demand for tickets to the Flyers' hurricane relief charity game scheduled for Sunday evening, tickets are going to go on sale a day early.
The game, at the Skate Zone in Voorhees, N.J., will begin at 7 p.m. Tickets will go on sale at 9 a.m. tomorrow at the Skate Zone. The general-admission tickets are $10.
The game will be played with players from both the Flyers and Phantoms. Following the game, signed sticks will be auctioned off. All proceeds from the event will be donated to the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Daily News (http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/sports/12598003.htm)