As of noon today all-star defenseman Chris Pronger was officially welcomed to the Philadelphia Flyers by way of press conference at which he was handed his very own orange number 20 jersey. Everything he brings to the Flyers has been listed numerous times, but among all of his talents on the ice he brings the gift of leadership and experience to a young Flyers core. As well as his on-ice duties he is expected to mentor a lot of the players such as Braydon Coburn, who is similar in size but lacks the mean streak Pronger is so well known for, and Mike Richards, who will now be joined by a proven leader who has been a successful NHL captain for a number of years.
With all of the talk about his age and contract situation weighed against his future performance on the ice and the results that the organization is looking for, it’s easy to forget the off-ice mentoring role that someone like Pronger can bring to the Flyers. On the current pre-camp roster the team has eight players under the age of 25 who just lost veteran right winger Mike Knuble as an important locker room presence. A player like Pronger, who has seen it all, can go a long way to combat that loss.
Even at the press conference the future hall of fame blueliner was more than happy to teach the media about what it will take to stop the Pittsburgh Penguins. While the Penguins certainly are not the only dangerous team in the Eastern Conference or even the Atlantic Division they are the Stanley Cup Champions and won by going through the Flyers. This offseason everyone is playing catch up.
“No, [you need] two shut down pairs. Okay? That’s four.” Pronger said as the members of the press chuckled at his correction, “Two pairs against two different lines in Malkin and Crosby.” Then when asked what he would personally do seeing a line of Malkin and Crosby he offered to give a hockey lesson, “Well first you’ve got to take away their time and space, and a lot of it is not necessarily your defensemen. I could get a chalkboard and show you, but you’d need backside pressure. You’d need your defenseman to stand up and play physical and limit their time and space. Once you allow them time to get the blueline and dipsie-doodle and all that stuff they’re very hard to stop. But you’ve got to take away their time and space, and make sure they pay a price when you get a chance.”
As opposed to his math lessons, hockey scheme lessons, and his tutoring for the younger players on the team, the Flyers’ new blueline hammer Chris Pronger is offering classes in another course. This one is the one he is most known for. It seems that the majority of Philadelphia is waiting to watch his world famous lessons on what is called “Pronger Physics”. The veteran though is holding his cards to his chest. When asked about what kind of message he will send to guys like Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby playing the Flyers his response was, “I think you know the answer to that. I’ll just let you come up with your own.”
