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Odds and ends through a Philadelphia lens, 2/3/08 |
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Random notes and musings on this Super Bowl Sunday:
* On last night's Flyers broadcast, Comcast ran clips during stoppages of play with Flyers players making their Super Bowl predictions. Some of the clips were pretty amusing, especially one in which Riley Cote asked which teams were playing.
*How many of you will be watching today's Rangers-Habs tilt? The outcome of the game could paint two very different slants on the Atlantic Division race. If the Rangers win, they'll be within three points of the Flyers for first place. Lose in regulation and the Rangers not only see their progress of the past week stalled, the games in hand the other divisional teams have will seem to loom larger. After today, the Flyers will have four games in hand over the Blueshirts.
* With Joffrey Lupul potentially being cleared tomorrow for full-contact practice, there has been a lot of speculation about which line he will play on when he returns. I suspect that Steve Downie (who's play has dropped off a bit, and who was moved to the fourth line and then benched for nearly the entire third period of the Flyers-Kings game) will be moved down for Lupul to return to the Mike Richards line.
* Simon Gagne has been struggling of late. He hasn't shown the speed and ability to create his own scoring chances that he showed in the first half of 2005-06 and the second half of last season.
He and Daniel Briere clicked instantly at the start of the season, but have shown little consistent chemistry since Gagne got back into the lineup. If Peter Forsberg returns to Philadelphia, I would be in favor of the Flyers either reuniting the Gagne-Forsberg-Knuble line or moving Briere to right wing (while having him take right circle faceoffs). At the same time, the thought of Forsberg creating scoring chances for Jeff Carter is an enticing proposition, too.
* I do not expect the Flyers to be the team to sign Fabian Brunnström, regardless of Paul Holmgren's scouting trip to Sweden. From everything you hear, the Red Wings, Canucks and Maple Leafs are the teams that have been the most interested.
Brunnström is a skilled player with the puck and a great story, coming out of Division I hockey (two steps down from the Elite league) to make an instant impact for Färjestad. But the amount of hype Brunnström has suddenly received is a bit excessive. He's not a slam dunk to be an NHL regular, much less a star like Daniel Alfredsson.
Although I wouldn't compare the two stylistically, Brunnström could just as easily end up being like Färjestad teammate Pelle Prestberg. A decade ago, Prestberg came out of nowhere at age 22-- he was a Division I star for Munkfors-- to become a scoring force for Färjestad. He helped them win a championship and was promptly drafted by Anaheim (back under the CBA rules in which even overage Euro players had be drafted to be NHL-eligible). But Prestberg has never made it to the NHL.
Brunnström is a more well-rounded player than Prestberg. Even so, his Elitserien success is no guarantee he'll be able to translate it to the NHL.
Reportedly, there are scouts for several NHL teams who feel that there's a less hyped free agent in Sweden with similar or superior offensive upside to Brunnström: 22-year-old right wing Linus Videll of Södertälje SK.
A former draft pick of the Colorado Avalance, Videll has NHL size (6-foot-3, 215 pounds) and can put the puck in the net. He's a better finisher but not as complete as Brunnström has looked. On an SSK team that rarely scores but gives up the fewest goals in the league, he's second on the team with 13 goals (Brunnström, who has eight goals for FBK, is more a playmaker). He still has work to do defensively and needs to improve his skating, which is his biggest weakness.
Another 22-year-old SSK player named Linus-- left wing Linus Klasén-- has also attracted NHL interest. I believe that he played a year in the USHL a few years ago, but elected to go back to Sweden rather than play NCAA hockey. This is his first year in Elitserien, but he has arguably been SSK's best forward over the course of the season. Unlike Videll, Klasen gives away a lot of size. He's about Daniel Briere's size. But he's very shifty and clever.
Klasén has been added to Sweden's roster for the LG Hockey Games in Stockholm.
*****
With Ron Hextall's impending induction into the Flyers Hall of Fame, now is a good time to share my two favorite recollections of Hexy, apart from the 1987 Stanley Cup playoffs.
* The first story is about Hextall competitiveness and will to win, even on nights when he wasn't in peak form.
During Hextall's second stint with the Flyers, Philly had an early season meeting with the Ottawa Senators during the 1995-96 season.
On this night, Hextall had perhaps the worst warmup I've ever seen an NHL goalie have. He couldn't stop a thing and, even from the second level of the Spectrum, you could see Hextall was starting to get aggravated.
When Kjell Samuelsson wound up from about 50 feet away and beat Hextall over the glove with a slapshot, Hextall took an angry circle behind his net, clanged his stick across the posts (as he often did before faceoffs) and got back in the net.
He was promptly deked and beaten by Shawn Antoski on a 2-on-1 drill. The thought of the low-scoring "Anton" beating him must have really bothered Hextall, because he promptly charged off the ice, slammed his stick and bolted up the tunnel as backup Dominic Roussel moved in to finish up the warmup.
When the game started, the Flyers came out a little bit sloppy and the long-forgotten (except by Jokerit Helsinki fans) Antti Tormänen scored for the Sens on their first shot.
But that was it. Hextall pretty much slammed the door from there, erasing several defensive mistakes and then, after the Flyers got going offensively, preserved the lead on a night where he didn't come with his A-game and neither did the team in front of him.
He won the game on guile and desire.
* The second story is a little more personal. The first game I ever covered in an NHL pressbox was Game Two of the Flyers-Penguins playoff series in 2000. The second was Game Five of that year's Conference Finals against the Devils. With a win in that game, the Flyers would have earned a spot in the Stanley Cup Finals (of course, we all know how it turned out).
I got down to the arena about 90 minutes before the game. When I stepped off the elevator, I saw Ron Hextall, who was in his first year of retirement and was working with the Flyers' organization.
I was quite nervous about speaking to him, but said hello and even managed to ask if it was harder for him be up in the pressbox or down on the ice playing in a game with that kind of significance to the Flyers.
He didn't hesitate. "Up here," he said. "When you're down there, you're part of the team and you have control of the situation. Up here, you just watch."
But Ron Hextall is incapable of being a mere spectator. He's made the adjustment to the front office very well. I would not be surprised, in fact, if he eventually becomes an NHL general manager and proves similarly adept to Paul Holmgren.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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