PHILADELPHIA - Robert Esche has never had a burning desire to do anything more than be a starting goalie in the National Hockey League.

He's always felt, that if given the chance, he'll pay his dues and earn his own accolades.

A month into the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Philadelphia Flyers goaltender has very quietly and effectively positioned the Flyers for a run at the Cup as they prepare for Saturday's start of the Eastern Conference finals against upstart Tampa Bay.

At the same time, the 26-year-old has elevated his status as a potential World Cup candidate for Team USA this summer, not to mention a spot on the Olympic team in 2006 -- assuming the NHL participates at the Winter Games in Turin, Italy.

Almost forgotten here is that Esche was more or less a throw-in to the Brian Boucher-for-Michal Handzus deal two summer's ago. And he was a long shot to win the starter's job over Jeff  "I can't" Hackett in training camp last fall.

His fortunes have improved dramatically since then and Team USA could be the ultimate beneficiary. Think about who's out there for the U.S. right now. Ryan Miller, Rick DiPietro, Mike Dunham, Boucher, Brent Johnson and Craig Anderson.

Among that group of American-born and bred goaltenders, Miller looked like a real keeper in Buffalo then went over the falls in Niagara.

DiPietro was the guy everyone thought was going to the next Mike Richter. Islanders general manager Mike Milbury is still waiting.

Dunham has had his shot in international competition but he's been buried with mediocrity in front of him as a professional with the Rangers. Not exactly the best NHL club to hone your skills.

Boucher had a marvelous run in Phoenix, establishing some NHL shutout records and Johnson looked like the real deal in St. Louis. Yet neither have taken that so-called next step. As for the rookie Anderson, the youngest of the lot, he's years away in Chicago.

Esche might be the U.S. best's hope.

"He has to be a guy for Team USA to look at," said Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock. "Him, Boucher, that Miller kid. There are a lot of up and coming American goaltenders. There's a real changing of the guard going on."

Hitchcock calls Esche "an emerging player" who is hoping these playoffs will erase the long-perceived notion that the Flyers are a team without a goaltender capable of winning the Cup.
Chances are, if you took a survey, a lot of so-called "puck heads," wouldn't recognize Robert Esche. The hottest surnames in goal this spring belong to Europeans … Kiprusoff … Nabokov … Khabibulin.

Last spring, the Flyers went through two rounds of Roman Cechmanek's good night-bad night syndrome while Esche suffered in silence, wishing he were in goal. When Cechmanek was jettisoned to Los Angeles over the summer, Hitchcock convinced general manager Bob Clarke that Esche had the tools to develop into a legitimate No. 1.

Hitch's mantra the entire season was: Why not Esche? And if not now, when? It was greeted with some amount of skepticism both locally and nationally among the hockey gods. And media.
Yet when Hackett suffered his vertigo breakdown in January -- ultimately forcing his retirement -- the door swung wide open for Esche's entrance as a No. 1. It hasn't closed since.

The former Whitesboro, N.Y. resident has overcome a fair amount of heartache in a short period of time. Younger brother, Eliot, an accomplished artist suffering from depression, committed suicide. Another brother, Henry, served with the Marines and was sent to Afghanistan. A house he and his fiancé built from scratch, burnt to the ground prior to move-in.

None of the above are trivial things, even to athletes.

While many people are stunned at Esche's performance, Hitchcock isn't.

"The only way you find out is by playing him," he said earlier this season. "You hope he emerges."

What's transformed Esche from just another backup into a starter was the psychological work he's done with season with the mysterious Dr. Z.

His real name is Nathaniel Zinsser, a sports psychologist from West Point, who works with the Army's Rangers corp. Dr. Z changed Esche's approach to the game and perhaps his outlook on everything outside the game, as well.

"My biggest problem was for years, you get into this old boys School of Hockey where you are scared to death to act the way you are," Esche said. "The thing he changed in me, I already knew but wouldn't do."

The turning point came on Nov. 1 in Toronto.

"I went into the Toronto game and remember the whole game I kept saying to myself, 'who cares if this is the media capital of hockey and everybody in Canada is watching me,' " Esche recalled. "There are a million or billion Chinese who don't even know this game is even going on."

The old Esche was tense. The new one is loose even though he is not talking to the media between games in the playoffs. What began as a "focus" thing on his part has become a superstition. Hockey players loathe breaking a routine once the playoffs start because they're superstitious. Especially, goalies.

Some see Esche as this spring's J-S Giguere, who was sensational with the Mighty Ducks last year. Others compare his run of good luck to that of Boucher in 2000, who took the Flyers to seven games against eventual Cup winner New Jersey in the 2000 Eastern Conference finals.

Even if the Flyers don't advance past the fleet-footed Lightning, Esche has to be considered a very viable candidate to play in goal for Team USA this summer and beyond.

He outplayed the best goalie in the world -- the Devils' Martin Brodeur -- in the quarterfinals. Outplayed him not only in the net, but in puck-handling. Brodeur made a couple of gaffes that series that cost him goals.

Esche also outplayed another likely future Hall of Famer, Toronto's "Crazy Eddie" Belfour in the semifinals, coming up with a clutch save on Tie Domi in the final minute of Game 6's third period and then several saves early in overtime to turn the Leafs' back.

A first-time playoff starter, when asked his feeling about that marvelous overtime period, he said, "I was excited just to be out there. You have to take of advantage of it."

Esche has a 2.02 goals against average and .931 save percentage this spring.

"If anybody still has questions about our goalie, they must have blindfolds on," Jeremy Roenick said. "Robert has been great. He's the reason we had a chance to win," the clincher in Toronto.

Esche shrugs the gratis off.

"We haven't accomplished anything yet," he said. "When you have your foot on the gas, you want to keep it going. The truth of the matter is that it's a team sport. You can't put focus on any one player."

This is one player, however, Team USA might want to focus on, nonetheless.