Blogs > In The Room with Anthony SanFilippo

Daily Times beat writer Anthony J. SanFilippo takes you inside the locker rooms of the Philadelphia Flyers and the rest of the NHL.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

EMERY TO GET SOME OCCASSIONAL TIME OFF

Ray Emery has started 15 of the first 16 games for the Flyers, but he could start to see his starting frequency tempered a bit.
After a quirky schedule that made the Flyers take 43 days to play their first 16 games, They now will play eight times in the next 13 days and then following a four day break they will jam a dozen games into 20 December days before Christmas.
So Brian Boucher, who has been collecting dust on the end of the bench, will get the call more frequently.
“Ray has played really well and the schedule has allowed him to get the rest he’s needed,” Stevens said. “But now we’re going to start to travel a lot and we’re going to need (Boucher) to win us hockey games. Just like he did last year in San Jose when (Evgeni) Nabokov needed rest or was a little injured, Boosh came in and played great and we’re going to need that starting with this road trip.”

Saturday, November 14, 2009

FROM SCHULTZ TO HIS ARMY

Dave Schultz will become the 20th member of the Flyers organization to be inducted into the Flyers’ Hall of Fame during an on-ice ceremony prior to the team’s contest vs. the New Jersey Devils at the Wachovia Center on Monday, November 16.

Here's a Q and A with him from earlier tonight:

Q: How does it make you feel?
“It makes me feel unbelievable. I don’t think I can grasp it all yet. I mean I have to a certain extent, that I will forever be in the Flyers organization. That’s what it means right? So it is very special.”

Q: Looking back, do you think you had an impact not only in Philadelphia, but also on the sport?

“I think the Philadelphia Flyers had an impact on the sport, because we were the first expansion team to win a Cup, and we won it twice-almost won it three times-and I was just a small part of that. A lot of my teammates started all these brawls which I didn’t agree with. I thought one-on-one would be fine, but we got a lot of attention. We were a tough team and there were a bunch of us. I mean “The Hound”, Bob Kelly, he was my man, and [Dupont]. We all played tough so we were a good hockey club, and that’s the key. We were never intimidated, and I and a few of my teammates made sure of that. We won tons of games and won a couple championships, so we made an impact. Any team that wins two years in a row the championship, the Stanley Cup, they make an impact on the game.”



Q: When we asked Chris Pronger if he wanted to play back in that era he said no because they didn’t make that much money back then. What was the most you ever made in a season, and does it bother you to see these guys signing thirty and forty million dollar contracts?

“We made nothing compared to these guys. We played to play the game, and I’m not saying that these guys don’t, but they are set for life after a very short career. I made half a million dollars in my whole career, and the government took half. There is no comparison, and I can’t even think about it.”



Q: Does it bother you?

“If I let it bother me then that’s a negative. It’s just the way it was. The only thing that I wish is that our pensions were of people that pick up trash.”



Q: Some say that Game Seven of the Rangers series was a turning point for that whole dynasty you had, that fight in Game Seven. Did you feel like that fight was a turning point in the whole playoff run that year?

“No. They talk about it because we won that game, we won Game Seven here. The New York Rangers have a great hockey club, a great, great hockey club. They beat Boston, and if you are playing the first period of a seventh game in the semi-finals, I should really check who was on the ice, because no one wanted to get third man in against me.”



Q: That’s what I’m saying you set the tone for that game, and that game was a deciding game?

“We won what 4-3, so we didn’t set the tone. We both won our home games. They had a great team, so I don’t think that’s fair, but I’ll take it.”



Q: Can you think of some of the big goals in history that you were a part of, like the overtime game in Atlanta. The Bobby Clarke overtime goal, that you were in. Do you take pride in stuff like that as well?

“In Atlanta not so much. We were up three games to none, and we were going to win that series. Boston, that was a biggie. We had to win a game in Boston; we hadn’t won in many years. We almost won the first game. A fan from Boston behind our bench yelled, like I hadn’t seen the ice for ten minutes in the third period, and ten minutes into overtime .A fan yelled ‘Put Schultz out there so we can score’. And Freddie [Shero], the genius that he was, he said ‘[Bob] Clarke, [Bill] Flett, Schultz, and I went in the corner. [Terry] O’Reilly I don’t know, did he back off, I took the puck from him. Flett he came with [Bob] Clarke. If we had won that game, who knows, but we had to win a game in Boston, and I don’t know if we could have won Game Seven.”



Q: You mentioned O’Reilly. Was he the toughest that you ever faced?

“I always say yes. And not that [Clark] Gillies wasn’t pretty tough or a number of other guys. We fought eight times. I’ve seen video where I was going to fight a small guy like Dave Forbes. I could have fought those guys but I didn’t get a chance, because O’Reilly got in between us and I had to fight him, so I always say that. Now, I have a lot of respect for him. He’s a Boston Bruin, and his number is hanging in the rafters, and rightfully so. I got to meet him lately, and get to know him a little bit, because for many years we didn’t talk. I talked to [Clark] Gillies, Ty, [Tiger] Williams, and all these guys. So I always say he was, but again Clark Gillies was another tough guy.”