12/14/2005


COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The date was Nov. 23. The place was Flyers’ coach Ken Hitchcock’s office. The topic of conversation was two-fold, but it targeted one player -- Flyers goalie Robert Esche. In a closed-door meeting, Hitchcock simply told Esche to stop taking jabs at his teammates and to concentrate on his own darn self.

Of course, the language was more colorful than that, but you get the picture.

Since then Esche hasn’t said much vocally, but the way he’s playing in goal has screamed out loud that he got the coach’s message.

For since that sit down, Esche has been spectacular. Of course, a groin injury intervened for a couple of weeks, but it was a distant memory when Esche returned to the ice Tuesday at Nationwide Arena.

Esche stopped 23 Columbus shots, and survived three, count them, three two-man advantages in the second period, backstopping the Flyers to a 3-1 win.

It was Esche’s third win in a row since the pow-wow with Hitchcock. In those three games, Esche has allowed only five goals and stopped 72 of 77 shots fired his way for a swollen .935 save percentage.

Yet, he hasn’t allowed this modicum of success revert him back to his old, loose-lipped habits in the locker room when addressing the media.

"I got fortunate because I think (the pucks) just hit me," said a reserved and modest Esche. "Some days they hit you, some days they don’t. I was just more fortunate than on other days."

Still, it was a baptism of fire of sorts for Esche, who really had his healinggroin put to the test in the second period and early in the third period when the Blue Jackets had six power-play opportunities, 3:02 of which was spent with a two-man advantage.

The Jackets got off 12 shots in that period and Esche stopped them all, the best of which came on a tic-tac-toe pass through the Flyers defensive triangle that ended up on the stick of Geoff Platt.

Platt one-timed the puck toward the open net, but Esche quickly got his left pad across the crease to thwart the scoring opportunity.

"I’ve never had that in my life," said Hitchcock of the three 5-on-3s in the second period. "I think I had it once in a game, but never in a period. But, our best penalty killer was our goalie. He made five or six great saves. ... You need your goalie on the road and we needed him in the second period."

The Flyers goalies must be doing a great job on the road, because in their last seven games away from the Wachovia Center the Flyers are an impressive 5-1-1.

They are also 5-1-1 in their last seven games overall, and when Sami Kapanen scored an empty-netter with eight ticks remaining it ended a streak of six straight one-goal games for the Flyers.

While the rest of the NHL is playing what amounts to a professional version of pond hockey where the game is all about two teams trading scoring chances almost at will, the Flyers have discovered a little secret -- how to play the "old-fashioned" way with low scoring, defensive posture, hard-checking and being opportunistic.

Hitchcock calls it "playing with composure."

"We’re learning how to play in that atmosphere again," Hitchcock said. "We started the season like most teams did playing an absolute track meet, but we’ve settled down now and we’re playing better. The young guys are playing with more composure and good things are happening. When you play with composure you’re going to win a lot of close games, especially when things get hairy like they did in the second period."

The thing of it is, no matter how hairy the second period was, the Flyers won that period on the scoreboard.

The lone goal of the period came when an unexpected quartet made a huge play to register the game-winning goal for the Flyers (18-7-4, 40 points).

Dennis Seidenberg made a smart play to keep the puck in the offensive zone. He got the puck to recently acquired Matt Ellison who fed a perfectly timed pass to AHL call-up Ben Eager in the slot.

Eager got of a good shot, but Columbus goalie Marc Denis (28 saves) made a better sliding pad save.

However he couldn’t cover up the puck and Jeff Carter swooped in and lifted it past the goalie for his eighth goal of the season.

After Jan Hrdina deflected a Duvie Westcott shot over Esche’s shoulder at 5:42 of the first period to give the Jackets a 1-0 lead, Peter Forsberg made a sleight-of-hand like move around Westcott to get a shot on Denis. Denis stopped it, but Forsberg tapped in his own rebound for his 10th goal of the season to tie the score at 1.

©The Daily Times 2005