Flyers Season Preview: Is Pronger the Missing Link?

Thursday, October 1, 2009

By Tim Panaccio
CSNPhilly.com

The drive from Newport Beach to Anaheim takes about 45 minutes to an hour most mornings.

When he was with the Ducks, Chris Pronger would weave through posh neighborhoods and onto the Santa Ana Freeway with two passengers: Scott and Rob Niedermayer.

“There wasn’t a whole lot of hockey talk, to be honest with you,” Pronger said.

“Sometimes, he wouldn’t say a single word the whole trip,” Scott Niedermayer recalled.

Pronger is a deep thinker. But make no mistake about it – when he talks, players listen. He’s won a Stanley Cup. In a league without Scott Stevens, he’s the most feared defenseman on the ice.

Ask Brian Burke, the Ducks' former general manager, and he’ll tell you that Pronger was the missing link for Anaheim in 2007.

A reason for that – Pronger wasn’t afraid to set things right before they went too far wrong.

There have been several missing links for the Flyers in their quest to win that ever-elusive third Cup. One was in goal. The other was a punishing defenseman, one who strikes fear into the hearts of wingers coming across the blue line.

If the Flyers are going to unseat reigning Cup champion, Pittsburgh, as “Beast of the East” this season, they will need Pronger’s on-ice demeanor and off-ice attitude.

You see, the Flyers of recent past – even under Ken Hitchcock – took losing far too casually. They failed to see the impact of today’s mistakes on tomorrow’s expectations.

Pronger doesn’t.

“That’s one of the biggest things good teams do,” he said. “They don’t lose two games in a row. Detroit, back in the day when Colorado was solid, Dallas, teams out West you had to play against. You never lost two in a row. You rebounded from a loss, whatever mistakes you made, you got better from it."

“This team needs to learn that. You make mistakes and you lose hockey games. Yeah that sucks, you don’t want to do that again. But what was the downfall in that game? If you are continually making the same mistake, you got to stop it."

“Are you taking penalties 200 feet from your net? Are you making mistakes throwing the puck across ice, whatever the case may be, you got to learn from them and figure a way to stop it and get going the other way,” said Pronger.

Attitude adjustment is what Pronger brings to his game – and to the Flyers.

“If he sees something wrong, he will address it,” said general manager Paul Holmgren. “It won’t be too late. It will be right now. He won’t wait.”

And Pronger is not the only one.

Goalie Ray Emery has never won a Cup, but he brings a mind frame to his position that hasn’t been present in Philadelphia since Ron Hextall retired: intimidation in net.

Emery is the kind of guy who not only stokes the opposition, but has also been known in Ottawa to stoke his own teammates, as well.

“He’s a competitive goaltender and that’s what you need,” said team captain Mike Richards. “You need a guy that hates losing. He’s going to want to win. He’s very competitive out there.”

Emery was stellar in the Flyers’ preseason. He seems in fine form as the real games begin Friday in Carolina. He knows about the criticisms of Flyers goaltending – and the long-held belief that the organization has a blind eye when it comes to the position.

“I’ve kind of heard about it,” Emery said of the Flyers’ sorry goaltending saga. “I do know that since Hextall, they haven’t had a guy who has really grabbed the ball here. Is that motivation? Kind of. I just want to win. And right now."

“It’s no secret what they need. They don’t need spectacular goaltending. They don’t need a Tim Thomas to make crazy saves. They need a solid goaltender.”

Some might say the Flyers need Emery’s attitude adjustment in goal.

If he stays out of trouble off the ice – and keeps the puck out of the net – the Flyers will be validated for taking a risk by signing him, which was a risk no other team would take.

“He’s still a young man, so I think his best years are ahead of him,” said coach John Stevens of the 27-year-old Emery. “He’s anxious to get going and get a new start with his new team and I think Ray’s going to be a really good fit here.”

The Pronger-Emery duo gives the Flyers a real “bite” as the last line of defense. It’s reminiscent of the Hextall-Brad McCrimmon days.

Tactically, Pronger’s presence means less hard minutes for Kimmo Timonen. Suddenly, the Flyers have two No. 1 d-men sharing ice time.

“When he is on the ice, everyone is confident,” Timonen said.

Pronger and Emery are part of the half-dozen new faces on the roster who weren’t here when the Penguins ousted the Flyers for the second-year in a row last spring.

Gifted centerman Danny Briere, who missed most of last season with groin/abdominal problems, looks like the player he was in his heyday in Buffalo. He seems reborn.

Briere took a gander around the dressing room in September and smiled.

“What’s not to like?” he asked. “That is why I am so excited about coming back and the acquisitions we made this summer. Picking up guys like [Ian] Laperriere gives us a different look up front."

“The addition of [Dan] Carcillo late last year. [Darroll] Powe, who is emerging. Our role players are going to be tough to play against. Look at our defense now, with Pronger. There’s a lot of be excited about. And Ray Emery. We all want to see how he does.”

On paper, John Stevens’ roster is stronger than Roger Neilson’s was in 1999-2000. That Eric Lindros-led club was picked by many hockey pundits to win the Cup. They came close, but lost to New Jersey in seven games with Craig Ramsay filling in for Neilson, who was stricken with cancer.

“You don’t win on paper,” Briere said. “You win on the ice. It’s all about how we come together as a team. Sometimes, you see great teams and it doesn’t work out. Last couple years, we had good teams."

“Now we’re adding ingredients we think will keep us rising. Last year wasn’t very good because of the playoffs. But it was another year of experience for a lot of guys. The players we added. The little mix of everything.”

If the Flyers are going to upend Pittsburgh – and make no mistake, they need to prove they can beat the Penguins before they can entertain thoughts about the Cup – they need to change some habits.

Foremost is team discipline.

Stevens has coddled his players for more than two years. That has to end. They’ve taken advantage of his leniency.

His reward for mistrust? They were the most penalized group in hockey last season.
   
“We’ve addressed it through training camp with our players,” Stevens said, repeating his mantra of “damage between whistles” does more than altercations after whistles. “I’d like to see us eliminate defending penalties we take. Others have to go away. Needless ones. Retaliatory ones. After-the-whistles ones. Penalties after turning over the puck.”

The Flyers’ make-up, however, suggests they will be penalized. Physical teams earn penalties – theres nothing wrong with that. But to win, the Flyers need to have a “smart” hockey mindset; not a “goon” mindset. 

All through camp, the Flyers defense – the area Holmgren sees as being the most-improved overall – seemed ahead of the offense. Much of that was because Stevens had so many forwards vying for a few spots, he needed to give younger guys more playing time and shuffle lines to sort out who could play with whom.

Because of that, the talent of rookie James van Riemsdyk and older European Mika Pyorala, emerged. They appear to have some goals in their magical sticks.

JVR and Pyorala garnered so much attention in camp that people forgot about Claude Giroux, who emerged last spring as a player with Bobby Clarke-like instincts and skill.

Though Giroux had a so-so camp, he will be heavily counted upon to assist Richards, Jeff Carter, Briere and Simon Gagne in the goal-scoring department. The Flyers lost 50 goals when Mike Knuble signed in Washington and Joffrey Lupul was traded to Anaheim as part of the Pronger deal.

Giroux is capable of getting a chunk of it back. With JVR and Pyorala helping out, it shouldn’t be too taxing.

What is Giroux capable of overall?
 
“That’s a very good question,” said Giroux. “I can’t say. I’m just trying to have a better season than a year ago and become a better hockey player.”

Gagne seems recovered from a right groin pull suffered in August. If he and Briere are fully healthy, the Flyers possess as good a group up front as there is in hockey.

With Pronger on the back end, firing canons on the power play, and perhaps JVR’s tall presence at the net, goals should be scored aplenty. Enough so that people will forget what was lost over the summer.

Carter had 46 goals last season. Is 50 in sight?

“It’d be good, but I need to start with one,” said Carter. “I’m not too worried about it.”

There will be stretches of good and stretches of bad for the team this season. There always are. But Pronger warned of taking that to extremes.

“You can’t have the high-highs and low-lows,” said Pronger. “You have to learn how to stay even-keel. If you win five in a row, great. But you have to win six. You win six, you got to win seven.

“You have to continue to push yourself. You lose one, you don’t lose two. You stop the bleeding quickly and get back on track. You don’t let that confidence wane in your team or get driven down. That’s something the real good teams in the league learn real quick.”

And if the Flyers don’t know it, Pronger will teach it to them.

E-mail Tim Panaccio at tpanotch@comcast.net