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Meltzer's Musings: 1/1/12 |
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Happy New Year one and all! Yesterday's Winter Classic Alumni Game at Citizens Bank Park was truly a once-in-a-lifetime event. Bernie Parent said it best when he called it one huge family reunion rather than a sporting event. That's really what it was.
The participants in the game had a blast, and to go down to the Flyers locker room afterwards and see so many familiar, happy faces from different generations of team history was something I will never, ever forget. Likewise, seeing the ballpark stands filled to capacity with a sea of orange-clad spectators was equally amazing.
Along with Eklund and Capt EO, I left the pressbox to sit in the stands (Ek had purchased three upper-level seats) for the player introductions and first two periods of the game before going back to the pressbox for the third period. It just felt appropriate to go back to our common roots as three people who grew up as devoted Flyers fans.
There is no cheering in the pressbox. But there was no way that I was going to be able to hold back from standing up and clapping when Bernie Parent, Bobby Clarke (my first sports idol), Bill Barber, Mark Howe (my all-time favorite player), Dave Poulin, Brian Propp, the Watson brothers, Eric Lindros and so many other players I had grown up rooting for took to the ice together.
The outcome of the game, of course, was inconsequential. That said, it sure was nice that the Flyers Alumni skated off with a 3-1 win. Even though the pace of the game -- as one would expect -- was several strides slower than when the men on both sides of the game were professional athletes at the game's highest level, their skills with the puck were still very much intact.
As Howe described it, the first period (especially the first few minutes) was all about having fun and putting on a little show. The second stanza and especially the third period were about trying to actually win the game without anyone getting hurt.
I don't know if I can identify a single favorite moment from yesterday. I just wanted to take it all in and savor every minute of it. But here are just a few of the things that I will never forget about yesterday's event, in the chronological order in which they happened:
* Getting down to the arena about four hours ahead of game time and meeting up to talk hockey with a couple regular HockeyBuzz readers in the Wells Fargo Center parking lot before picking up my press credential. I love to do that, because without your support, none of this would be possible.
* Walking around the ballpark to look over the Winter Classic facilities from a variety of vantage points. The higher-up ones, especially the ones with a clear view of the city skyline in the distance, were my favorite for soaking up both the enormity of the event and its Philadelphia flavor.
* Catching up with old friends in the pressbox, some of whom I've known now for a dozen years, others of whom I met more recently. Having been in Texas since mid-November, it had been about six weeks since I last saw even the people I talk to regularly in the Flyers pressbox. Others I hadn't seen in quite some time. It was also nice to make a few new acquaintances.
* Walking up with Ek and EO to sit in the stands in the 12th row of section 412. Every hockey season, I try to take in at least one game from the crowd rather than from the pressbox, and yesterday was the perfect chance to do it (although it was not my original plan, because the tickets were a pleasant surprise).
* The player introductions collectively gave me goosebumps. I wish Wayne Gretzky had been there on the Rangers side but, quite frankly, this wasn't the Rangers' day. It was the Flyers Alumni's day to shine because the event was in our city and not a neutral site. That said, the participation of Mark Messier, Brian Leetch, Adam Graves and Mike Gartner (among others) and the off-ice presence of Mike Richter, Rod Gilbert and Eddie Giacomin added tremendously to the spectacle. If the event had been in the New York area and The Great One had not attended, his absence would have been much more conspicuous.
* The reception that Bernie Parent received nearly moved me to tears. It made me think of my own childhood, when Bernie was a near deity in my household and my neighborhood in Northeast Philly. Afterwards, it also made me think of how much I wished Pelle Lindbergh were alive to soak in the "Ber-nie! Ber-nie! Ber-nie!" chants and later take over for Bernie in the net after Parent started the game.
* I am of mixed feelings about retiring jersey numbers but to see Flyers numbers 1, 7 and 16 being worn again -- by the players associated with them -- was cool. It reminded me to ask Mark Howe after the game about his impending jersey retirement ceremony. Howe is someone who strongly prefers to speak from the heart rather than making prepared statements and he just made an extensive (and moving) speech at his Hockey Hall of Fame induction ceremony. So I asked him afterwards if he was going to write a second speech to deliver during the jersey retirement ceremony.
He said, "You have to for something of that magnitude. To have my number [2] up there with people like Bob Clarke and Bernie Parent and Bill Barber and Barry Ashbee is a huge honor, and to have it happen on the same day the Flyers play the Red Wings makes it even more special for me and my family. I want to make sure there are things I don't forget to mention. I'm definitely someone who likes to speak straight from the heart but I want to make sure everything is worded just the way I want to say it."
* I have always considered Robert Earle Clarke to be two distinct people in his professional life: Bobby Clarke the hockey player and Bob Clarke the executive. Very honestly, the first role was the one he always seemed happier in. His love for being a member of a hockey team -- especially a winning one -- is so deep and genuine.
The smiles come naturally rather being forced. The off-ice demeanor is so much more relaxed and comfortable when he was dressed in hockey attire close by to his comrades rather than when he was wearing a suit and tie, reluctantly discussing trades, injuries or especially contract negotiations. I think Clarke made himself into an above-average GM in the pre-cap era but he was never as good (or, seemingly, as happy) as he was as the Flyers captain.
Yesterday, we saw Bobby Clarke. Yes, I know, he never liked to be called Bobby even as a player, but tolerated it just as the late Rich Asburn -- who, like Clarke, was also nicknamed Whitey among his teammates and close friends -- disliked being called Richie. But to Flyers fans who grew up watching him play, he'll always be Bobby or Clarkie.
I was surprised to see Clarke get so emotional after the Alumni Game yesterday. He always wore his heart on his sleeve on the ice and shot from the hip when directly asked for his opinions, but there was always a thin wall of stoicism and mental toughness where he never wanted to show a hint of vulnerability. Clarke has always been very modest and even shy when it comes to accepting praise for his accomplishments but is also someone with tremendous personal pride. Yesterday, he allowed himself to be vulnerable in public both on and off the ice.
One thing any of Clarke's former teammates or close friends will tell you is that his focus was always on the team, whether it was in a playing or GM capacity. The easiest way to incur Clarke' wrath was to suggest that he (or someone else) had done something that did NOT serve the best interests of the team that employed him.
From Clarke's old-school hockey standpoint, this was the root cause where and why he butted heads with the Lindros clan, who had a different perspective on what was best for the team. Both of them ultimately wanted the same things -- for the Flyers to win a Stanley Cup with Eric Lindros playing a key role -- but their views on how to accomplish those goals proved to be incompatible. Now that Lindros is no longer playing and Clarke is no longer the Flyers' GM, there really is no reason that the two men cannot coexist in embracing their respective key roles in team history.
Yesterday's game was a huge, public step in reconciling the Flyers family; which is something that Clarke and Lindros each wanted that in their own way but it took something like the Alumni Game to find the common ground to do it. They'll never be buddies, and they don't have to be so long as the mutual respect is there.
Getting back to Clarke's emotional interviews after the game last night, I think it stemmed from his pragmatism. He knows that he may never again play in a hockey event of any lasting significance. He's 62 years old and no longer physically up to training and playing (to win) even in Alumni Games. The outpouring of love and respect from the massive crowd yesterday was probably Clarke's final one in the public realm.
Clarke has always described himself as basically a simple person. I have always viewed him from afar as a rather complex one.
I once saw the dichotomy myself in one of my few one-on-one interactions with Clarke. I rode up on the elevator with him before a November 2001 game against Edmonton. I said hello. I told him that I hoped he didn't mind me telling him that I grew up thinking of him as the perfect team-oriented hockey player; that he was always held up as the model of how to play with heart and courage even more than skill. He looked me in the eyes, smiled and thanked me. I know it's stuff he's heard a million times but I also know that he never takes it lightly or for granted.
Then I made a mistake. I switched subjects and asked Clarke if he thought recently called up rookie Ruslan Fedotenko had done enough to stay with the big club when some injured veteran players returned. Clarke got a pained expression on his face and was silent for a long, uncomfortable moment.
"I don't know," he finally said, his voice ice cold. "We'll see. It 's only been a few games."
It was a very innocuous -- and legit question to ask a GM. But it was also poorly timed.I always regretted not simply to sticking one topic or the other, but not trying to jump into both areas with him. Before he spoke, Clarke's eyes hardened a bit as though he was sizing if I'd tried to flatter him and then to get him to divulge information about his upcoming roster plans, and that was not my intent at all. I was being sincere as someone who grew up loving the Flyers and then jumped back into a journalist realm. He didn't know me well enough to stand in a freight elevator and step into both worlds with me.
It was a lesson learned. Ever since then, whenever I've dealt with someone such as Paul Holmgren or Dave Poulin, I stick only to one line of discussion -- either the present day teams they are associated with or questions related to their playing days in Philly. I don't try to cross over into both worlds unless it's a biographical article I'm writing.
At any rate, seeing Clarke step onto the ice yesterday wearing the captain's C and then alternating between smiling broadly and getting choked up in the locker room was something I will always cherish. The man was, is and will always be the embodiment of the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team, even as he passed the torch off to others.
* Orest Kindrachuk's entrance -- wearing a long dark wig and fake mustache to evoke the way he looked as a young man in the 1970s -- provided the biggest laugh of the player entrances. Great stuff, especially because Kindrachuk today is now bald and his face clean shaven. The other player whose extremely bald pate always comes as a surprise is Brad Marsh. I still visualize him playing in the 1980s with that big thick mop of dark hair atop his helmetless head.
* The only two words I can think of to describe Eric Lindros' entrance are "cathartic" and "electrifying". He is now back in the family and it was wonderful to see him receive the longest and loudest standing ovation of the day.
* Seeing Parent playing in goal in his original mask and old-time equipment was incredible. It was a very classy gesture by Ron Duguay to gently flip the puck into the pads of the goaltending legend when he had an early game breakaway.
* At age 38, Lindros can still do things with the puck on his stick that very few people -- including current NHLers -- can do. Lindros' setup of John LeClair, off a rush initially created by Mark Recchi was a thing of beauty. For a few seconds, it truly looked like a time warp to the days of the Crazy Eights and especially the Legion of Doom lines. The sheer joy on the faces of Lindros, LeClair and Eric Desjardins in celebrating the goal could not be bought for all the money in the world.
* Shjon Podein and Dave Poulin's instincts to be defensively responsible hockey players could not be turned off simply through the passage of time. If they were just a few years closer in age so that their Flyers careers would have overlapped -- Poulin was finishing up his NHL career with the Capitals when Podein was breaking in with the Oilers and Flyers -- they'd have made for tremendous linemates.
* Podein scored a few pretty goals in his career; although he was mostly a third-liner in his NHL career, he had a bit of offensive ability. But most of his goals were of the dirty-but-good variety and that's exactly what the goal that made it 2-0 was. It wasn't nearly as artistic as the Lindros-to-LeClair hookup but it counted just the same. After the game, it was great that Podein was able to share in the atmosphere with his son.
* One of the most historically overlooked -- but offensively potent -- lines in Flyers history was the Rat Patrol line with Kenny "The Rat" Linseman centering Brian Propp and Paul Holmgren. They had a chemistry together that was a little bit like the current-day line of Claude Giroux centering Jaromir Jagr and Scott Hartnell or Peter Forsberg with Simon Gagne and Mike Knuble. Although they didn't get on the scoreboard yesterday, it was pretty neat to see Propper playing with Linseman again on a Pat Quinn-coached team.
* Since Homer didn't play in the game, there could hardly have been a more appropriate third member of the revised Rat Patrol than Jeremy Roenick. I can only imagine the havoc that JR, Linseman and Propper would have created on the ice -- both offensively and in terms of getting under opponents' skin -- if they had been of age to play for the Flyers at the same time.
* How smooth is Howie? Not only did Mark Howe score a penalty shot goal with his trademark wrist shot, but he made several other plays during the game that showed why he is a Hall of Famer. There was one sequence in the first period where he pinched up on the play and there was a turnover. The Rangers Alumni seemingly had an out-numbered rush. Suddenly, Howe arrived at the defensive blueline and stole the puck away. That, folks, was classic Mark Howe, and he is now a 56-year-old man with a bad back who has barely been on skates in the last decade.
Another awesome sequence with Howe happened in the second period. There was a puck bouncing along the wall near the corner with Adam Graves coming in to forecheck. Howe got to the puck first, calmly got it to lie flat and then made a dart of an outlet pass to Roenick for a clean breakout. Even at the slowed-down pace of the Alumni Game that was an extremely impressive display that I doubt many folks noticed or appreciated but was quite a difficult play and Howe made it look easy.
* I have always considered Howe and Brian Leetch (and Nicklas Lidstrom) to be comparable players, and Leetch's goal for the Rangers Alumni also looked like many he'd scored against the Flyers and a host of other clubs during his career.
* Speaking of players reverting to old habits, I enjoyed seeing Marsh not only block a shot but sacrifice his body to do it. Never thought I'd see a player in that sort of setting actually lay out to block a shot but that was just one of the countless touches that made yesterday so special for everyone.
* Both Mark Laforest and Neil Little did a fine job in net after Bernie took his curtain calls. The Rangers players were intent on scoring once the other guys got into the net, and New York actually dominated the shots on goal, especially early on in the game. I had never met Laforest before and he was a delight to talk to in the locker room after the game.
* Yesterday's postgame locker room was the one time where it was OK to be both a fan and a reporter simultaneously. I was simply grateful to be there and looking around and seeing all of these great players -- and quality people -- in the same room was almost overwhelming.
* When I do interviews, I prefer not to use a tape recorder (which got me in trouble once recently, so I've started to bring one along) and simply would rather listen carefully to the responses, writing down a few questions ahead of time and then jotting down a few key words from the answers to make sure the context of a quote is correct.
Yesterday, however, I was so excited that I didn't even bring pen and paper down with me. I just talked off-the-cuff with a few players -- Poulin, Propp, Howe, Joe Watson and LaForest.
I also got to shake Marsh's hand (we've corresponded by email and spoken by phone-- mostly about Pelle Lindbergh and in conjunction with Marsh's Heroes of the Past article I wrote some years ago but I had never met him face-to-face). Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to start a conversation, because ex-Flyer Todd Fedoruk was in the locker room and he approached Marsh at the same time. I figured it was better to let the two players from different decades but with similar big hearts share in a conversation and simply talk to Marsh another time.
* It was only as I was packing up to leave the building that I realized I needed to devote time to trying to find out more about the current Flyers' preparations for tomorrow's game and also to try to watch the Stars-Bruins game and catch up on the World Junior Championships. So that's how I spent my New Year's Eve day and night; and it was a blast.
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