MELTZER'S MUSINGS: JULY 11, 2015
1) During the course of the Flyers' Development Camp, the attendees have been put through some drills that take them out of their comfort zone. On Friday, the defensemen had to place a puck under the blade of one of their skates and then try to skate forwards and backwards without the puck slipping out.
In general, the defensemen with the lower centers of gravity fared better at keeping their balance and completing the task. For instance, Jesper Pettersson seemed to have little difficulty. The taller defensemen generally had a tougher time.
Cornell senior defenseman Reece Willcox, a 2012 fifth-round pick who stands 6-foot-4, had an especially rough time with the exercise. To his credit, though, he stuck with it and completed it.
2) The highlight of Friday's sessions was the speed burst exercise from the goal line to the top of the circle. During the forward sessions, the times were yelled out. Flyers 2014 second-round pick Nicolas Aube-Kubel (1.69) appeared to have the fastest audible time, followed by Phantoms rookie winger Danick Martel (1.77). Others who fared well included second-year pro Taylor Leier and 2015 first-round pick Travis Konecny (1.85).
The defensemen's times were not hollered out, but the Flyers top prospects such as Travis Sanheim, Ivan Provorov, Samuel Morin (huge strides) and even Shayne Gostisbehere coming off ACL surgery seemed to do fine. It also seemed that smallish Mark Friedman and big-framed Christian Marti did well.
3) Although no one is mentioning Marti's name, he has been one of the more impressive-looking athletes under the conditions of the July camp. Perhaps it should not be surprising that he has a little more polish and maturity, because he has a couple years of pro hockey experience under his belt, is a little older (22 years old) and a big and strong physical specimen at 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds.
4) Leier dealt with a lot of physical problems in the second half of his rookie season with the Phantoms, playing through injuries to both shoulders and a wrist. Although the player refused to lean on injury as an excuse, his dropoff in effectiveness in the latter part of the season was at least partially due to the physical issues. The player said that he now feels 100 percent and has also added a bit of muscle to his 5-foot-11 frame since the end of the AHL season.
Leier said that he learned a lot from the Phantoms cadre of veteran leaders last season, mentioning Andrew Gordon, Jay Rosehill and Darroll Powe as older players who took him under their wing as a rookie.
"Gordo and I became good friends," said Leier, referring to Gordon. "That's kind of funny because he's like 10 years older than I am."
Leier also talked about how he thinks 2013 third-round pick Tyrell Goulbourne is going to surprise people at the pro level because, apart from being tough ("no one wants to fight Ghoul"), the player offers speed and is a responsible player without the puck as well as a tenacious forechecker and hitter.
Although they played for rival teams in the Western Hockey League (Leier with the Portland Winterhawks and Goulbourne with the Kelowna Rockets), the two players have a longstanding friendship going back to when both played for Canada's national ball hockey team. Goulbourne continues to skate on his own during the goaltender session early in the morning, as the 21-year-old winger continues to rehab from calf-muscle surgery.
5) Longtime Flyers fan favorite Danny Briere paid a visit upstairs at the Skate Zone on Thursday. University of Denver head coach, former Flyers/Phantoms forward Jim Montgomery (the player who coined the "Legion of Doom" nickname for Eric Lindros' line with John LeClair and Mikael Renberg) was onhand for the World Selects Invitational. So is former two-stint Flyers defenseman Kerry Huffman, who is now an NHL player agent.
6) For a look at how Flyers' rookie head coach Dave Hakstol is preparing for his first NHL training camp after 11 years of coaching at the collegiate level, click here.
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TODAY IN FLYERS HISTORY FROM FlyersAlumni.org
TODAY IN FLYERS HISTORY: JULY 11
1985: The Flyers sign Tim Tookey, who would become a longtime AHL standout in the organization and a periodic NHL recall.
1992: The Flyers sign Glenn Mulvenna as a free agent.
FLYERS ALUMNI BIRTHDAYS: BARBER, BERGEN
The top goal-scorer in Flyers franchise history, Bill Barber, was born in Callander, Ontario on July 11, 1952.
A model of consistency during his NHL career, Barber was a player who could be penciled in for 30 to 40 goals every season while modeling a commitment to two-way play and a willingness to play through pain. Knee problems ended his career at age 32, but Barber still stands at the franchise's all-time leading goal scorer with 420 regular-season tallies. He also had 53 goals in 129 playoff games.
As the Flyers' head coach in 2000-01, Barber won the Jack Adams Award as the NHL's coach of the year. Except for a few years spent as a pro scout for the Tampa Bay Lightning, Barber has spent 40-plus years in the employ of the Flyers' organization.
For an in-depth look at Barber's career, click here.
After posting 20 goals and 39 points in the AHL during the first half of the 1984-season, he was called up to the big club. In 14 games with the Flyers, he scored 11 goals and added 5 helpers for 16 points. In the playoffs, he dressed in 17 games and added 13 points (4 goals, 9 assists).
Bergen did not get along with hard-nosed Flyers coach Mike Keenan, who wanted him to be more of a two-way player and get more involved in physical play. Bergen, who was also a talented golfer, he announced in the summer of 1985 that he would rather quit hockey and pursue a golf career instead of playing one more day for Keenan.
In the late fall of 1985, the Flyers finally worked out a trade, sending Bergen to the Minnesota North Stars. He agreed to play for the North Stars but suffered a serious abdominal muscle tear that forced him out of action before he ever played an NHL game. He was sent to the AHL for conditioning, but re-injured himself after just 27 games. Bergen then retired from hockey for good.
