Roman architecture

Flyers aim to build Cechmanek's confidence

The most interesting item in the Flyers' dressing room -- where I spent some time last week -- sits next to a roll of tape on the shelf above Robert Esche's dressing-room stall. It's Esche's goalie mask, and it's painted with a scene befitting the NHL frontier from whence he came. Esche hails from New York state but he has spent most of the past two seasons playing for the Phoenix Coyotes. His mask looks like something you'd see on the wall at Cactus Jack's barbeque.

There's a picture of Waylon Jennings playing guitar painted onto one temple; Hank Williams Jr. graces the other. Elsewhere, there are silhouetted cowboys roping steer against the backdrop of rolling Western hills. "I'm just a redneck," Esche said last week, taking a manly draught of his water bottle. "A country boy."

What's fitting about this imagery is that the net is where the Flyers, who are heading into the season as the class of the Eastern Conference, just might be in for a wild ride. First off, if we're seeing Esche's mask between the pipes come springtime, Philly's in trouble. Under the tutelage of Coyotes' goaltending guru Benoit Allaire, Esche has developed into a tenacious and agile backup goalie. But he's still that, a backup, one who went 6-10-2 last season. He's not about to stand up to the likes of the Devils' Martin Brodeur or the Maple Leafs' Eddie Belfour in a playoff joust.

That job, the Flyers hope, will fall to Roman Cechmanek, their superbly talented stand-up goalie whose 2.05 goals against average and .921 save percentage during the regular season made him a Vezina Trophy candidate last year. In the playoffs, however, he was a Roman ruin -- again. In 2000-01, Cechmanek was on the short end of Sabres 8, Flyers 0, the loss that eliminated Philadelphia from the postseason. Last year, roamin' Roman tried to pull himself from a playoff game against the Senators because he was unhappy about getting shellacked. ("I don't like losing," he says.) The Flyers dropped that first-round series, too.

It's all a bit frightening for the Flyers and their fans, who know that not even a cast of forwards rich with names like Recchi and Roenick, Primeau and LeClair can win in the postseason without a goaltender composed of both high skill and hard skin. This is has been the story of the recent Flyers era, and the club has had an abysmal history of crushing its own goalies' psyches. The duet of (former coach Bill) Barber and (entrenched general manager Bob) Clarke, for example, jointly wiped out the confidence of netminder Brian Boucher, who led them to the Conference finals as a rookie in 1999-00. When Boucher struggled early the next season he was derided, singled out and benched. This summer he was shipped to Phoenix in the deal that brought Esche to Philadelphia.

These are changed times in Philly, though, primarily because Ken Hitchcock replaced Barber. The Flyers' new coach has already slated Cechmanek for a yeoman's load -- "He could play 65 games," he says -- and Hitchcock is the right man to work with a vulnerable netminder. He was masterful in cajoling the best out of the wiggy Belfour during most of his five-plus seasons in Dallas, and that's no small feat.

Hitchcock has made his presence powerfully felt all over the Flyers this preseason, expounding on his theories of hockey, getting his players to commit to chipping the puck past opposing defensemen, and drilling them on how to read and react to various situations as they unfold. "The stuff he's throwing at us is all pretty much common sense," says center Keith Primeau, scratching his shorn scalp. "But we're still working on getting the hang of some [of it]."

In addition to extolling Cechmanek, Hitchcock has also loudly praised Esche, glowing about the goalie's strong play in the 2000 World Championships and comparing Esche's style to that of All-Star Curtis Joseph. A coach who is at once a disciplinarian and a nurturer of player confidence? Looks like there's a new sheriff in town, the sort of man that Waylon and Bocephus would approve of.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Kostya Kennedy is covering the NHL preseason beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com.

 

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