Ft. LAUDERDALEErik Gustafsson had just completed one of the biggest nights a Flyer rookie had put together in more than a decade.
Someone wanted to know whether a plus-6 outing might keep him around a while longer.
The young defenseman just grinned and laughed.
I don't know. You can talk to the coaches about that. I mean, I guess I hope so, he said.
It did and it didnt.
A couple days later, Gustafsson wasnt at practice, and then didnt join his Flyer teammates down here. He is nursing a wrist injury.
Gustafsson was supposed to join his teammates in Florida but he has not.
NHL
The 22-year-old, stocky defenseman seems very comfortable on the blue line. He played five games with Matt Carle while Chris Pronger was rehabbing from his right eye injury.
A young Kimmo, Carle said, smiling.
Gustafsson admitted he was nervous at first.
You come up here and you play with these big guys you've been watching on TV all of your life, he said. I think it's normal to get nervous, so, the more you get to be around here and the more you play out there.
The more comfortable you get and I think, especially for the type of player I am, one who wants to make good passes, I think I need to be comfortable out there to make those passes and hold on to the puck for an extra second.
It helps to be here, even for the playoffs last year when I didn't play, it helped me to get more comfortable around the guys.
Watch on the bench between shifts, youll notice assistant coach Kevin McCarthy, who handles the defense, talking to Gustafsson.
One thing I learned early in my coaching career, if someone gives you advice, the key to coaching is to catch them doing something right, McCarthy said.
I always try to remember that. When Gus does something right, point that out to him. Positive reinforcement is the best way to teach.
A number of people in the Flyers organization, including head coach Peter Laviolette, look at Gustafsson like a younger Kimmo Timonen in training.
Both are identical, 5-feet-10, broad-shouldered players who know how to use agility and leverage to battle bigger forwards. And most importantly, they are fluid skaters.
One of the guys I try to have the same game is Kimmo, Gustafsson admitted. I watch his game. Were the same size. I watch to see how he solves different situations out there.
If I can get my game to what he is doing over the length of his career, I think I will be better off. Especially how he plays defense against bigger forwards. That is a key for me if I want to be regular NHL player.
Kimmo has been playing for how long 13 years? Even though he is a very small guy, he gives me confidence that I can do it as well. I try to work hard and learn as much as I can from him.
Much of it, McCarthy said, is body positioning and angles for smaller defensemen. Yet what allows a player to take full advantage of that is whether he has the skating ability to make adjustments against the larger opponent and the know-how on the ice.
When you are the size of Gus or Kimmo, you need that one quality they sets you apart from others, McCarthy said. For Gus, it is his skating. I also believe Guys has some really good hockey sense.
He reads plays quickly. He anticipates where the puck is going to go before it does. That coupled with skating really helps him.
Derian Hatcher, who works on the developmental side with rookies and prospects in the minors, has been tutoring Gustafsson for two years with the Phantoms.
Hatcher says hes pleased with the fact that Gustafsson has learned how to compensate for his size and seems to quickly pick up on things. He said you dont have to tell him things twice. He gets it the first time.
Hes really progressed down there, Hatcher said. He can skate. Hes small, but so is Kimmo. The one thing he has to work on is being stronger in his own end.
To that extent, the Flyers cut video disks after every game that show in detail all of Gustafssons shifts on the ice. He and McCarthy break them down the morning after a game.
It helps me a lot, Gustafsson said.
It remains to be seen whether Laviolette will reinsert Gustafsson and change up another pair now that Pronger is back.
You can make a case that Gustafsson, despite what he gives up in overall size, is a better player right now than Andreas Lilja, whose confidence with the puck is lacking.
Since he has come up here, his head is always up, he is a good skater, plays hard and hes done a good job, said Laviolette, who almost never tips his hand about lineup changes. Hes good at both ends of the ice which is really important.
Even if Gustafsson doesnt play and ends up as the seventh man in the days ahead, he says he will sit and learn.
Preparation is a very, very big deal, he said. You got to prepare yourself for everything from practice to meetings to watching clips.
Everything. All the small details. You got to really focus and prepare yourself to be ready when the time arrives.
E-mail Tim Panaccio at tpanotch@comcast.net