The Winter Classic Jerseys were unveiled Friday at 2 pm, just as the Flyers’ organization announced. There was a celebration, a broken pane of glass, and a brilliant white, inverted version of the orange thirds. Gotta love those throw-backs. Some hate the black nameplate on the back, but personally I like it.
Anyway back to my point, and you have to be asking yourself right about now, why the jerseys aren’t the subject of my title. Well they’re cool and all, but honestly, when there’s more newsworthy stuff out there, what color we’re wearing on game day takes a back seat. I’d rather look ugly when winning than look pretty and tank for a decade. Fortunately the Flyers will be getting the best of both worlds this season. There will be a lot of winning of course, and we hope that remains the case on January 1st when we break out the white retros. Pictures will come at the end, just be patient.
The real story of that rainy Friday afternoon was some kid who grew up watching the Rangers. While the jersey unveiling got people to the Flyers Skate Zone in Voorhees, it was 2nd overall selection James van Riemsdyk who kept them there.
The stomping of the bleachers, the clapping of hands, the “Let’s go Flyers!” chants were all signs that hockey was back, but I don’t think anyone in the standing room only crowd expected JVR to score four goals and add another nasty assist.
The seven to three victory was a blowout. Van Riemsdyk did not dominate physically, he played the same deceptively inactive style of hockey for which he is so often criticized, and he still made a mess of the entire Capitals’ roster. If everyone is waiting for JVR to develop into that Peter Forsberg, one-man wrecking-crew type skater out there then don’t hold your breath. As I explained in my Examiner.com article:
It’s not that van Riemsdyk did anything flashy either, despite his beautiful break-away shorthanded goal to add insult to injury late in the game. He was not flashy or overly physical. While many of his teammates pounded on the Capitals’ skaters, van Riemsdyk used his long, powerful strides, his surprising speed, his incredible hockey sense, and his mesmerizing stick-work to take care of business.
Outside of JVR most of the Flyers played well. Tomas Sinisalo, the camp invitee from the Finish league, seemed to feel right at home on the ice. He played a very good game as well as Kevin Marshall who seemed a cut above the competition yesterday. Patrick Maroon didn’t play because of a minor injury, but he will be skating for training camp which open this morning with conditioning and testing.
Andreas Nodl had some nice board-work but was generally invisible on the ice. He still seems to be missing that scoring touch he had in college. Marc-Andre Bourdon was not terrible at all but seemed a little shaky at times. Those expecting him to jump immediately into an NHL game should be a little more patient. While everyone seems to be excited about last year’s QMJHL defenseman of the year they should really focus on Marshall who is far more NHL ready.
Joonas Lehtivuori, Jonathan Kalinski, David Labrecque, and Jacob DeSerres all had a very strong game though. Look out for them to make some noise in camp.
Now for pictures: (if you want to see a high-quality gallery of better images go here)
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