Can Esche make good impression?

February 21, 2006 7:13 AM

WAYNE FISH - PHILLYBURBS.COM

TURIN, Italy - "Put me in, coach, I'm ready to play," has been what Robert Esche has been thinking, but not saying, since he arrived at the Winter Olympics.

There didn't seem much chance of that happening.

Until Monday.

That's when Team USA coach Peter Laviolette announced Esche would start tonight's final preliminary round game against Russia (2:35 p.m. EST).

Of course, this is basically a throwaway game for the Americans. They're locked into fourth place in the B pool and are already scheduled to play Finland, the first-place team in the A pool, on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.

But if Esche plays well, maybe he will give Laviolette something to think about. Rick DiPietro had started the three previous games and John Grahame the opener, but there's nothing that says Esche can't get his foot in the door.

"I'm excited to play," said Esche, who has dressed for two games but sat on the bench as a backup. "It's a frustrating thing backing up, but on the same hand there is only so much ice time to go around for everybody."

Before the tournament, Laviolette told Esche he was wasn't going to play.

Why the change of heart?

"It's an opportunity to get him in and see what he can do," Laviolette said. "We have three NHL starting goaltenders. They all start for their teams, and they are pretty capable."

Esche was surprised when he got the word.

"He just came in and told me a while ago 'Everybody wants a chance,' " Esche said. "I think I've handled this in the best way I could. The big thing is not to get worked up.

"Right now I'm extremely excited to play, but I don't want to overthink what I should be doing or am I prepared for it. I'll be ready for it."

The performances of DiPietro and Grahame probably didn't play into the decision to go with a third goalie, according to Esche. The problem is more about the Americans' inability to generate offense (just nine goals in four games).

"I think one is we haven't scored enough goals," Esche said. "We've run into good goalies, and we've also run into teams that will do anything to win. [DiPietro] has played really well. I don't think there's been a bad performance by any goalie in this tournament.

"We were working hard and everything in the Sweden game, but you have to score on those five-on-threes. There's no way around that. Those are the things that make or break these kinds of tournaments. After the great performances put on by Finland's Antero Niittymaki, Esche finally gets a chance to put on a show of his own. The way Niittymaki is playing, the battle for starting time with the Flyers should really start to heat up.

"You know what, I'm excited for Niitty," Esche began. "But he is on a great [Finnish] team. I don't even know the situation in Philadelphia. Ken Hitchcock is in the business of winning games. He will always be like that.

"As long as he's winning he's happy. If I don't perform well, if Niitty doesn't perform well, both of us will be out of the town. If Nitty plays better, he will be the starter and if I play better, I'll be the starter."