In early December of last year, Peter Laviolette walked into this very unique sporting enterprise. When you think about it, there really are very few teams in any sport with an image that has been as recognizable over years and decades. Oakland Raiders. Pittsburgh Steelers. Los Angeles Lakers. But who else? Who else but the Flyers?
"People have always talked about Philadelphia like that," Laviolette was saying the other day, stopping for a few minutes in the reception area of the team's offices in Voorhees, N.J.
"Even when I wasn't here, for all of those years I was around, it was always 'the big, bad Flyers,' " he said, laughing. "I don't think that's such a bad thing. And then to have people come into your building and really fight for the ice, fight for the space - not literally fight, but just to compete at that level - it's a good thing."
Less than 6 months later, Laviolette has his team in the Stanley Cup finals against the Chicago Blackhawks. When he replaced John Stevens as coach, he brought with him a faster, more persistent forechecking style of play that fits this team and fits these times in the more wide-open NHL.
He is, in many ways, the perfect Flyers coach: outwardly passionate, sometimes loudly and outwardly; tactically aggressive, always.
"It's not like I feel like I have to have five fighters in the lineup," Laviolette said. And, in fact, his dislike of fighting with the Cup-winning roster he had in Carolina in 2006 actually made some news here when he was first hired, especially among some parts of the fan base.
"But if this organization has always wanted an aggressive style - if that's the image they have - I think the way we play feeds into that," he said. "We're an aggressive team. We want to finish every hit. We don't want to give up one inch of ice without it being contested, somehow, some way."
