From time to time over the upcoming season, I will devote a section of non-game day blogs to bringing attention to some of the more worthwhile fan-driven blogs and "unofficial" hockey sites on the net. Some in the media old-guard consider such sites taboo to acknowledge. But as someone who is a product of the first generation of such sites, I believe they are a great way for people to make their voices heard and for aspiring hockey writers to get a start.

For those of you who have yet to check out the Broadstreethockey.com site, I would highly recommend it. There are a lot of interesting blogs and fan discussions on that site, and it's virtually a daily stop for me.

One of the more interesting ideas on the site this summer was an Aug. 14 fan post in which the contributor gave his Flyers all-decade team for the 2000s. There are endless all-time team lists on the Web but not as many that are decade-specific. I like the idea because it opens up a whole array of potential debates beyond the neverending topics such as where to rank Eric Lindros on the all-time franchise team.

Over the next few days, I will blatantly pilfer the idea with my all decade Flyers team of 1999-2000 to 2009-2010. I will go position by position, starting with center. Subsequently, I will work backwards with my all-1990s, 1980s, 1970s and early expansion (1967-1969) teams on a one-per-blog basis.

Here goes with my All-Decade Flyers of 1999-2000 to 2009-10:

CENTER

First team: Mike Richards

Richards has been the centerpiece of the Flyers' resurgence after the disastrous 2006-07 season. He has had his fair share of trials and tribulations along the way, but it's hard to vote against the player who has been the club's tone-setter when things have gone well. The bottom line is that the club would not have made it to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2007-08 or the Stanley Cup Final in 2009-10 without Richards stepping up his game. With Richards, it’s not just about goals and assists but about two-way effort, take-no-prisoners physical play and grit.

However, Richards did not fare well in either series loss to Pittsburgh or the Stanley Cup Finals loss to Chicago. He also took a step backward in consistency this past regular season. As the 2010s begin, there is still room for Richards to continue to grow in his role as captain if he’s going to have a legacy similar to those of Bobby Clarke or Dave Poulin. But he’s off to a fine start.


Second team: Jeremy Roenick

Roenick had three eventful years in orange and black. He was no longer a point-per-game caliber player by the time he got to Philly but he often seemed to rise to the occasion in big games, including his series-clinching OT goal in Game 6 of the Flyers’ Eastern Conference Semifinals series with Toronto in 2004. During most of his Flyers’ tenure, Roenick was a focal point for the club on and off the ice. Regardless of his stats, Roenick was still considered an NHL superstar by many, and he relished the role. Perhaps his most valuable role was as someone who took media pressure off the other players.

Roenick often served as a foil for Ken Hitchcock. I will never forget when the Flyers shut out Pittsburgh in the front end of a home-and-home set in March 2003. After the game, Hitchcock focused on how sloppily his team had played. When the media filed into the Flyers locker room, Roenick had already sized up what the coach was up to, and already had a sound bite-friendly quote ready for when the questions came about Hitchcock griping about the team's play after a shutout victory.

"If he couldn't bitch, he wouldn't be Hitch," said Roenick. "We won 3-0 tonight and I thought we were in control all the way. But, look, we’ve got to go play those guys again in their building in two days, and Hitch doesn't want us to get too complacent.”


Honorable mention: Peter Forsberg, Keith Primeau, Jeff Carter, Danny Briere, Michal Handzus, Alexei Zhamnov, Eric Lindros.

Peter Forsberg was rarely healthy during his season-plus in Philadelphia, but when he was able to play, he showed that he was still capable of being one of the best players in the world. He was leading the NHL in scoring at the time he suffered a groin injury (after scoring two goals and being awarded an assist) in a matinee against Boston the day after Thanksgiving 2005. He ended up being in and out of the lineup for the rest of the season, playing just 60 games but racking up 75 points.

In the playoffs, Foppa single-handedly won two games for the Flyers against Buffalo, and staged one of the most memorable shifts in franchise history when he controlled the puck all over the offensive zone, skating around all five Buffalo players at will before finding an open Eric Desjardins, who hammered a shot home.



Watching that shift, it is crazy to think back in retrospect that Forsberg already knew he was going to need reconstructive surgery on his feet. Originally, he was supposed to have both feet done – first the right (the worse of the two) and then the left – and would miss most of the first half of the 2006-07 season. Instead, he decided to only have the first surgery and pushed himself like a madman to be in the lineup on opening night.

People forget that nowadays. Instead they remember how disastrously the season turned out and how Forsberg, appointed captain before the season, was unable to stay in the lineup due to his constant problems with keeping his foot in his skate. They remember the drama over Forsberg refusing to sign a contract extension because he was uncertain if his foot would enable him to play (and it never has for more than a few games at a time ever since). Finally, they remember the trade to the Nashville Predators that brought to Philly Scottie Upshall, Ryan Parent (then seen as the key to the trade) and a first-round pick later returned to Nashville in exchange for Kimmo Timonen and Scot Hartnell.


During his five plus seasons as a Flyer, Keith Primeau proved how one great playoff run can forever cement a player’s legacy and turn around negative perceptions about his ability to come through in the clutch. Prior to the 2004 playoffs, Primeau had a reputation in Detroit, Hartford/Carolina and Philadelphia as a player who disappeared in the biggest games of the season.

He entered the 2004 postseason with just 9 goals, 32 assists and 41 points in 110 playoff games. But Primeau was a man possessed in the 2004 playoffs, single-handedly carrying the club at times and scoring one clutch goal after another en route to 9 goals and 16 points in the Flyers’ 18-game run to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals. In so doing, he erased the perception of being an underachiever.

Prior to his playoff magic in 2004, Primeau was often compared unfavorably by Flyers’ fans to the player for whom he was traded during the 1999-2000 season; long-time fan favorite Rod Brind’Amour. Primeau was originally brought in as a “Twin Towers” second-line complement to Eric Lindros and then was called on to replace Lindros in conjunction with Roenick. Primeau had one big offensive regular season with the Flyers (2000-2001, when he scored a career-high 34 goals and tied his career-best 73 points). But he tallied just 2 goals and 14 points in his first 27 playoff games as a Flyer and drew the ire of fans who blamed him, as team captain, for his role in the firing of publicly popular head coach Bill Barber.

Primeau’s declining offensive totals after 2000-01 gradually led him to be recast in more of a third-line checking role by the 2003-04 season, and he excelled in those responsibilities. Always a strong penalty killer and faceoff man (he won better than 53% of draws for his Flyers’ career), Primeau’s size and physical play made him tough to play against. The big offensive playoff run in 2004 came as a surprise to most, as he had only scored 7 goals and 22 points while being limited to 54 regular season games of mostly third-line duty. In the end, sadly, ongoing problems with concussions forced his retirement at age 34 after he went down again early in the 2005-06 post-lockout campaign.

Contrary to the “Primeau-donna” image he was tagged with in previous NHL stops, Primeau always comported himself impeccably as a member of the Flyers, both with fans and the media. He was a captain who spoke his mind without publicly embarrassing other players and advocated for his teammates to coaches and management even when it meant heat would come down on him (such as in the Barber situation). To this day, he earns standing ovations whenever he’s introduced to the crowd at a home Flyers game.


If Jeff Carter’s 2009-10 season had measured up to his 2008-09 season or, alternatively, if he had a better career playoff track record so far, I would likely have ranked him right under Richards and dropped Roenick to honorable mention. Even in voting for Roenick, I admit it’s mighty tough not to put Carter on the second team when his 46-goal campaign in 2008-09 made him the only Flyers center this decade to have a 40-goal season (the last was Eric Lindros in 1998-99). It’s all a matter of personal opinion, anyway. I just feel that, apart from 2008-09, Carter has been too streaky both offensively and defensively to be an all-decade selection.

Danny Briere’s 30-point playoff run this past spring has done for his reputation in Philadelphia what Primeau’s 2004 run did: It has made the fans fully embrace him after years of doubt and criticism. In Briere’s case, the criticisms stemmed mostly from his defensive shortcomings and perceived soft play, as well as injury woes and spotty regular season production the last two seasons. Briere spent much of last season on the wing but his playoff production mostly came at center, raising credence to the belief that he’s at his most productive in the middle. Off the ice, he’s one of hockey’s true good guys, which makes him easy to root for.

Michal Handzus gave the Flyers two 20-plus goal seasons while providing strong two-way play and solid work on faceoffs and penalty kills. He lacked speed but he had soft hands and above-average finishing ability on breakaways. He played through a shoulder separation in his third and final season as a Flyer, and his performance suffered.

Alexei Zhamnov’s stay in Philadelphia was brief, but he was a driving force down the stretch of the 2003-04 regular season and the first two rounds of the playoffs before his chronic back issues resurfaced as the postseason progressed. He ended up producing 18 points in 20 regular season games and 14 points in 18 playoff games. The Flyers’ correctly surmised that this was probably his last big run as an NHL player and, with a labor stoppage impending, declined to resign him as a free agent because his salary demands were too high. He wound up signing with Boston after the lockout and was indeed finished as a productive NHLer, scoring all of one goal and 10 points in 24 games.

One of the most indelible images in Flyers history is of Eric Lindros laid out on the ice after a huge open ice hit by New Jersey’s Scott Stevens in the first period of Game 7 of the 2000 Eastern Conference Finals . It was Lindros’ last game as a Flyer, and he sat out the entire 2000-01 season amidst endless trade rumors before he was finally dealt to the New York Rangers. Despite his concussion issues and battles with management that led him to being stripped of the captaincy during the 1999-2000 season, he still managed to produce 27 goals and 59 points in 55 regular season games and score the Flyers’ lone goal in Game 6 of the Conference Finals against New Jersey (he actually scored two goals, but one came a fraction of a second after the clock hit 0.00 in the second period). That tumultuous season was Lindros’ worst as a Flyer, but still enough for an honorable mention.

Coming next: Left wingers

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It's a shame that the Flyers could not find a role for Arron Asham next season because the veteran, who was on a cap-friendly two-season contract here in Philly, signed a modest one-year, $700,000 deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Asham's forechecking presence, pound-for-pound toughness and occasional goal-scoring pop will serve the Penguins well. He was a playoff warrior the Flyers this past spring and will not be an easy guy to play against whenever the Flyers meet up with the archrival Penguins this season.

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My sincere condolences go out to the Dineen family for the passing of matriach, Pat, earlier this week after a long illness. The wife of former Flyers coach, Bill, and mother of ex-Flyers player, Kevin, was 75 at the time of her death. Sons Gord, Shawn and Peter also had pro hockey careers.

A couple years ago, I authored an article on the Flyers' official Web site looking back at Bill and Kevin Dineen's time together as head coach and player.

Even before Bill Dineen said a word to anyone about accepting an offer from general manager Russ Farwell to coach the Flyers, Pat figured out what was going on when Bill went down to the basement of their home and retrieved his skates.

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This week on Versus.com, I take a look at three active veteran players who have "future coach" written all over them if that's where their ambitions take them after their playing days: Pittsburgh Penguins forward Craig Adams, ex-Flyer Mike Knuble (who could also be an outstanding TV commentator) and current Flyers defenseman Sean O'Donnell.

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