By Brian Biggane, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 10, 2004
BRANDON -- Goaltending was a Philadelphia Flyers strength from the time Bernie Parent led the way to back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1974-75 until the death of Pelle Lindbergh in a car crash in 1985.
Since then, it is the No. 1 reason the Flyers haven't won a Cup in 29 years.
The announcement last summer that Robert Esche would be the team's new standard-bearer after Roman Cechmanek had been dispatched to Los Angeles was not seen as cause for celebration among the Flyers' faithful. Esche, 26, had mostly been a backup to Sean Burke in Phoenix before compiling a so-so 12-9-3 record in his one season in Philadelphia.
But General Manager Bob Clarke and coach Ken Hitchcock were intrigued.
"We felt he had the athleticism and competitiveness we wanted," Hitchcock said Sunday as his team went through an optional practice to prepare for tonight's Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals against Tampa Bay at the St. Pete Times Forum.
"He wasn't there yet; he still needed to channel it in the right areas," Hitchcock added. "He had a tendency to lose focus, but we felt he could improve in that area."
Esche has been on the short end of comparisons with the three goalies the Flyers have faced in this year's playoffs, starting with Martin Brodeur of New Jersey in the first round, Ed Belfour of Toronto in the second and the Lightning's Nikolai Khabibulin. But his 8-4 record, 2.11 goals-against average and.925 save percentage are evidence the matchups haven't been as one-sided as many had expected.
"Mentally, he understands where he's got to be come game time," left winger John Leclair said. "You need goaltenders to make the key save at the key time, and he has a good understanding of that."
This past season has been all about understanding for Esche.
Most young goaltenders are high-strung and extremely self-critical. One bad goal and they're convinced they've let their teammates down; two or three bad performances can send them into withdrawal and depression.
When the Flyers spent several days training at West Point Military Academy in October, Esche took the opportunity to meet with sports psychologist Nathaniel Zinsser, whose clients include Army Rangers and several Olympians. The two created a bond that exists to this day.
"My biggest problem was, you get into this old-boys school of hockey, where you are scared to death to act the way you are," Esche told The Philadelphia Inquirer. "The thing he changed in me, I already knew, but wouldn't do.
"He basically told me to be like (Flyers center) Jeremy Roenick. J.R. is J.R. because he doesn't care what people say about him. Dr. Z. is saying, 'Don't be what people think you should be. Be yourself.' "
Esche took that attitude into an Oct. 27 home game against Montreal and blanked the Canadiens 5-0. Five days later he put his newfound confidence on the line in a game at Toronto, known as the center of the hockey universe.
"I remember the whole game I kept saying to myself, 'Who cares if this is the media capital of the hockey world and everyone is watching me?' " he said. "There are a million or a billion Chinese who don't even know this game is going on.
"To me, the biggest thing I have ever heard in my career came from Dr. Z. It changed me."
When Burke was traded to Philadelphia in early March, he saw a different Esche than the one he'd known two years earlier in Phoenix.
"He's more mature," Burke said. "He knows what he needs to do now off the ice to get himself ready to play.
"Robert is the kind of guy who believes in himself, but he needs to be reassured of his abilities, and he also had to learn a little bit that if you have a bad game it doesn't make you a bad guy. You have to play a game and give 100 percent, but you also have to enjoy other things or it's not going to be worth it. He needed to find a balance."
So he rides motorcycles, goes fishing and plays the guitar. And during these playoffs, he's decided to decline all media interviews, using the time between games to concentrate on his next game.
It was the Philadelphia defense, not Esche, that let the Flyers down in Saturday's 3-1 Game 1 loss, twice failing to clear loose pucks that ended up in the net. Burke said Esche shared the team's disappointment but will be refocused come tonight.
"He's got the maturity level now where he realizes that just as you have to win four games in a series before it's over, you also have to lose four before you're done," Burke said.