"I think that's what everyone here likes about Mike Richards, is that he has his own identity and he is his own man."
For some, the captaincy is an invitation to the podium in the usually boisterous Flyers locker room. For Richards, who spent the first two seasons of his captaincy undergoing a constant personality inventory from outsiders, it was a test.
Richards, 26, is normally quiet, shy and reserved, when others expect something else. Pronger calls Richards an "intellectual."
He is not cut in the typical mold of the cheerleading captain. Drawing on his small-town roots, he has earned respect from his teammates and around the league for what he does, not for what he says, at least when surrounded by microphones.
"There's a lot that goes on in a locker room, but I'd much rather be quiet than be out in the open," Richards said.
But Richards realized last February in Vancouver - while representing Canada at the Winter Olympics with the weight of the country on his team's shoulders - that he already has what it takes to be a successful leader in the NHL.
"He's pretty guarded with his personal life," Pronger said. "But when you spend 3 weeks with a person, almost 24 hours per day in a dormitory setting, you learn a lot about them. I think the Olympics were a big step for him, being in that atmosphere and having those types of players around to see what kind of dedication it takes.
"That translated how he approached the team after the Olympics."
When he returned to the Flyers - who went on to lose eight of their final 12 games of the regular season but made the playoffs on the final day - Richards changed by not changing at all.
