Flyers Coach Already in Bad Mood

It must be playoff time in Philadelphia. Flyer Coach Ken Hitchcock is grumpy.

With a chance to move into a first-place tie in the Atlantic Division this week, the Flyers dropped a home decision to the Toronto Maple Leafs -- who are barely in the Eastern Conference playoff chase.

That was Philadelphia’s last game until this weekend, when it was scheduled to face division rivals New Jersey and the New York Islanders. The Flyers and Rangers will meet in New York on Tuesday.

So Hitchcock took it easy in his club the morning following the Maple Leafs’ loss. Well, at least as far as not making them practice.

Hitchcock wasn’t happy with his team, and he wasn’t shy in getting that message across. He was still upset Thursday morning when he held a closed-door meeting in his office with a small group of club leaders.

“You always get to hear it when you lose,” forward Peter Forsberg said. “I think everybody knows we didn’t have a good performance on Tuesday and we have to bounce back right away.

“We deserved to hear it.”

Hitchcock sent his club out for a 38-minute practice on Thursday and let Simon Gagne and Petr Nedved rest with injuries. Already in playoff mode, Hitchcock would describe Gagne’s injury only as upper-body -- believed to be his left wrist -- and Nedved’s as lower-body.

Once the Flyers started skating on Thursday, Hitchcock had calmed down.

“I was grumpy before we went on the ice,” he said. “I was much better once we got on the ice. It was good to yell. Screaming and yelling and going for a walk and everything.”

But it was clear the loss to the Maple Leafs stung. Hitchcock said teams out of the playoff mix generally try as long as they are given a reason to work hard. He wants the Flyers to jump quickly on weaker teams he refers to as “wounded bears” so they can take away their desire.

The Flyers and Rangers have two more matchups left with each other.

“It’s going to be hard right until the end,” said Hitchcock, who coached Dallas to the 1999 Stanley Cup title. “When we get to play them we can control our own fate, we want to be able to do that. We don’t want to have to rely on other teams. That’s what was disappointing about Toronto is we would’ve been in a terrific position to control our own fate.”

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Not since the days when Jimmy Carter occupied the White House have the St. Louis Blues sat out the NHL playoffs.

History is repeating itself, 27 years later.

Back in 1979, the Blues fell short of a playoff spot for the second straight year when there were only 17 clubs in the league. But St. Louis has made it every season since; that is, until this one. The Blues are already out of the race as they limp to the finish.

St. Louis got all the way to the Stanley Cup finals in each of the team’s first three years -- from 1968-70. The Blues didn’t win a championship but still got back to the playoffs each of the next three seasons.

It wasn’t until 1974 that they missed the postseason. The back-to-back, also-ran seasons in the late ‘70s mark the only other years that the Blues sat out.

But things are looking up for the Blues, who have the second-worst record in the 30-team league and the worst mark in the Western Conference.

After stripping the roster down and trading away high-profile players such as Chris Pronger and Doug Weight, the team is close to getting a new owner -- and one who knows NHL success.

Bill and Nancy Laurie reached a deal to sell the team and the Savvis Center to Dave Checketts -- the former Madison Square Garden president -- and his Sports Capital Partners and Towerbrook Capital Partners.

“Next season we will move ahead and begin working toward the ultimate goal of a Stanley Cup championship,” said Checketts, who was in charge when the Rangers won the 1994 title and ended a 54-year drought. “That’s what I think is very possible, and I want our fans clearly to know that.”

Now that the Blues are out of the mix, the Detroit Red Wings have the NHL’s longest current postseason streak at 15. They are already in and are prime candidates to have the league’s best record for the fifth time in 11 seasons.

Their playoff run is also the longest active streak in the four major pro sports leagues in North America.

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Being raised way up north in Moose Factory, Ontario, it would stand to reason that Jonathan Cheechoo would have rooted for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Not so says the San Jose Shark forward, who is on the cusp of a 50-goal season thanks to assist machine Joe Thornton.

Sure Cheechoo watched “Hockey Night In Canada,” but instead of being swayed by the Leafs, it was the Vancouver Canucks that captured his heart.

“I used to like Richard Brodeur when I was real young, he was my favorite, by far,” he said of the goalie, who won 131 NHL games. “But, you know, a little later on, I grew to like Pavel Bure because of his speed and goal scoring.”

Bure makes sense, but Brodeur?

“They used to put me in front of the TV when I was just a little kid, and that’s the only time I would be quiet, my mom said,” Cheechoo added.

And it’s from his mother where he gets the allegiance to the Canucks.

“Everybody back home either cheered for the Maple Leafs or the Canadiens, so I grew to dislike both teams,” he said.

Now with Thornton in San Jose and on his line after the Sharks plucked the former Bruins captain away from Boston earlier this season, Cheechoo can put up numbers to at least rival Bure -- a two-time goal champion.

“He’s so big and strong that, you know, he can beat a guy or he draws somebody else to him,” he said. “That opens everybody on the ice up and you’ve just got to find the hole for him and he’s a great passer, so he’ll put it right there for you.”

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Tim Thomas has taken quite a worldwide tour on his way to becoming the No. 1 goalie with the Boston Bruins.

Since leaving the University of Vermont in 1997, Thomas had a brief stay in the NHL but also played in Alabama, Texas, Detroit, Canada, Sweden and had three stints in Finland. Quite a bit of culture shock for a guy who enjoys bear hunting in his home state of Michigan.

Thomas starred in Finland last season, racking up a league-high 34 wins with Jokerit Helsinki. Not bad considering that Finland spends most of the winter without sunlight. That leads to lots of depression.

“They have pretty bad stats in the dark,” he said.

But now the soon-to-be 32-year-old goalie has seen the light, the bright glow of the NHL.

The Bruins were struggling when Thomas, who signed as a free agent, got the call.

He got into an NHL game on Jan. 10 for the first time since April 5, 2003. Thomas started four days later in Boston against Dallas.

“I always knew I could play,” he said. “The first while all I was thinking about was having total fun and enjoying it. Against Dallas I was thinking, ‘This could be my last chance.’ And I wasn’t even thinking of it as a chance I was just trying to enjoy myself.

“Then as it went on, I realized, ‘OK, maybe I am playing for the future.’ I didn’t even realize I was playing for the future at the beginning, so it did change a bit, but I did try to keep the same attitude because it worked.”

It sure did.

Thomas, who entered the weekend with an 11-9-7 mark with a 2.61 goals-against average, signed a three-year deal with the Bruins in March. That came on the heels of going 8-4-4 while making 16 straight starts.

“It was pressure I didn’t put on myself at the beginning for sure,” Thomas said. “Then I just had to think, ‘What do I have to lose?’ ”