Tough Spot: Pronger Won't Step on Richards' Toes
When the Flyers traded for Chris Pronger at the NHL Draft last summer, general manager Paul Holmgren said that the game's best defenseman would be expected would be vocal in the dressing room.
That he'd be someone 24-year-old team captain Mike Richards could lean on during hard times.
Well, these are hard times right now, with the Flyers losing five of their last six games and dropping like a stone in the Eastern Conference standings.
Pronger told CSNPhilly.com on Tuesday that Richards has not asked for his help and that he is wary of "stepping" on Richards' toes.
Holmgren added that now may be the time for Richards to trust his instincts, but the young centerman appears to be at a crossroads.
"Mike is an intelligent young man," Holmgren said. "He knows that he has experienced guys around him he can lean on if he has to. But I also think he has to trust his gut in certain situations. Maybe that is where he is at a crossroads right now. He has to trust his gut and his instincts. I think he has good instincts."
Pronger told CSNPhilly.com he is walking a "tightrope" in the dressing room right now.
"He hasn't asked me for any help," Pronger said of Richards. "I've been in his shoes. It's not [bleeping] easy. The expectations are high on him and on the team. We're not playing to the best of our abilities, and a lot of that gets shouldered by the captain.
"Sometimes it's fair and just and sometimes it's not, and it's hard to deal with that, especially at [his] age. You're trying to figure out yourself. At 24, some kids are coming out of college, business school, some don't even have a job at 24."
Richards and Holmgren met recently to discuss the team's slide, but Pronger, who is 35, said he has not been asked for advice from his end.
Pronger won a Stanley Cup in Anaheim in 2007, and has an Olympic gold medal with Team Canada, plus a Hart Trophy.
"[Richards] hasn't come to me [to] ask me anything, and it's delicate because at the end of the day, it's his team," Pronger said. "He's the captain. He needs to show the rest of the players that it is his team. I don't want to be the guy that has to stand up every day and tell ourselves to look into the mirror and play better and all this stuff.
"I don't know if he is 'rah-rah' type or talkative type. It is a difficult tightrope to walk. I don't want to step on his toes. Maybe he is evaluating. You can't just jump into a situation and ranting and raving without understanding what has gone on here in the past, as well.
"He's been here four years and sees how things have progressed from being a s----y team to a pretty good team, to having even higher expectations. I would think he has a better read on some of these guys than I do.
"I think Homer is right. [Richards] has to trust his instincts that got him to where he is at. That is something you learn early on. Especially, when you struggle to play the game sometimes, which we all do."
Pronger said if Richards is questioning his own instincts, "if he's already at that point, then I think we'll see something within the next few days. If he's trying to trust his gut or ask for help. I know Homer has talked to him"
Pronger said the entire club understands "the ramifications" of losing ground in the standings and also said the team seems to be trying "too hard" to win games. Several players said this week the Flyers sometimes make the game harder than it is on the ice.
"The expectations are high, you want to accept that challenge and embrace it and overcome it, but there is the idea you want it too badly or push it too much," Pronger said. "You try too hard to score a goal when the simple play is to throw if off the goalie's pads and the teammate who's driving the net, bangs it in. Little things like that get lost in the shuffle of what you are doing. ... You try to make the game more difficult than it is."
Coach John Stevens has emphasized that the effort is there but not the results.
"It's not like we're not working hard or just out there bleeping around," Pronger added. "We're not putting the puck in the net. Little things like that, sometimes, you over-evaluate and over-analyze things. The simplest thing is to take a step back and look at it from a simple perspective."
Pronger said the 1-0 loss in Atlanta was easy to dissect.
"How could we have won that game in Atlanta?" Pronger asked. "Could it have been that [3-minute] power play? Absolutely! Could it have been not to take that bleeping penalty-and go down 5-on-3? Absolutely! How about scoring some goals 5-on-5?
"Instead of Richie one-timing it and instead of [the puck] going into the corner, maybe it goes off his mask into the net? There's a lot of different things. If you want to analyze, there are 10, 12, 15 things that happen in the course of a game that could change a game and have it go either way.
"When you are not playing as well as we had been, and playing like crap on that road trip and losing and losing and then you are starting to come out of it, and playing a little bit better, you are still going to lose coming up that slope.
"You're playing good enough to win, but you are still in the dump, you're losing those games. At some point, that turns and you are winning those games. Then you've turned the corner."
Pronger said he felt the past couple games the Flyers deserved to win, but they still haven't cleared "the hump."
"We're losing games we should win right now, but hopefully, we're over the crest, we can see the top and start scoring some goals and win," he said.
The Flyers have one more off day before playing Vancouver on Thursday.
"We need to make it [bleeping] happen on Thursday," Pronger said. "It needs to [bleeping] happen now, so we can get over that hump and get this ship headed into the right direction."
