VOORHEES, N.J. – A smiling Dan Vladar looked and sounded quite happy to be recovered from injury in time to start in Wednesday night’s season opener for the Flyers.
But his teammates and coaches sounded even more pleased, mainly because the goaltender brings as much to the table off the ice as he does on it.
Vladar, who hurt his right arm early in the preseason opener against Washington, has been practicing for several days, so his availability for the game against the Penguins at Xfinity Mobile Arena was pretty much a given.
One cause for concern was Vladar only seeing a few minutes of preseason action.
Tuesday was the first day he was allowed to speak to the media about his thoughts going into the first game of the season.
Vladar admitted he may have dodged a bullet with this current situation.
“Somebody up there is watching up there, I guess,” he said in the locker room at the Flyers Training Center after Tuesday’s practice. “It was close but nothing crazy. You’re probably never going to feel a hundred percent. I don’t mind playing through pain.”
The Flyers think so much of Vladar, they handed him a five-year, $27.5-million extension on his contract in the offseason.
The Philadelphia players are most definitely a more confident bunch when Vladar is standing between the pipes.
“A healthy ‘Vlad’ is a game-changer for us,” defenseman Cam York said. “It changes how we play. It’s great that he’s healthy and feeling good. I think we were all a little nervous there for a second.”
When the Flyers need a pep talk or a pat on the back, having Vladar around is like an extra coach on Rick Tocchet’s staff.
“He’s a leader,” York said. “In the locker room he’s a big voice for us. Whenever we’re chaotic and we need someone to calm us down, he’s that guy for us.”
Tocchet said what Vladar’s overall contributions mean to the team can’t be overstated.
“He’s one of those guys where, when there is a bit of a lull, he can get the guys thinking positively,” Tocchet said. “You could be down three-nothing, he’s still pushing guys. It’s not yelling, it’s more positive.”
Any team can use that kind of upbeat approach, that enthusiasm. The positive vibe can be infectious.
“It’s like, (he says) ‘if we get a power-play goal, we can get back in the game,’+” Tocchet said. “It’s positive reinforcement. And it has a little bite to it, which I like.”
The Flyers know public expectations are higher this year because of what happened last year. How does that change the players’ approach?
“Whether it’s good or bad, we’re just focusing on ourselves,” Vladar said. “Nothing is changing for us. We’re one year older maybe but one year wiser. Hopefully we’re going to show it on the ice.”
>Sanheim ready
Travis Sanheim is coming off one of the best seasons of his career. He played for Canada in the Winter Olympics and had a big part in the Flyers’ surprise march to the second round of the playoffs.
In his opinion, the Flyers look about as healthy as they’ve been at the start of a season in quite a while. Denver Barkey might be the only scratch vs. Pittsburgh.
On defense, Sanheim has been paired with Rasmus Ristolainen for quite some time and the York/Jamie Drysdale pairing looks set. That alignment should be productive this time around.
“We’ve had injuries to start the year (in the past) and that’s been the main impact,” Sanheim said. “To be healthy this year I think is huge for our group. We like our group back there (on defense) and they’ve played together for a while now. Just the familiarity, the comfort of playing together, being able to make those reads without having to learn the other guy’s tendencies – that should be a huge advantage.”
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