"Last year, I watched on TV," said Couturier, 19, at the all-star media day on Friday, "so it's pretty cool just to be around all these guys."
"I talked to my college coach the other day for the first time in a long time," said the 5-foot-10, 185-pound Read, 25, a graduate of tiny Bemidji (Minn.) State, who leads NHL rookies with 15 goals, "and he goes, 'Eight months ago, you were still playing hockey for me and now you're going to the All-Star Game!' And I was, like, 'Holy cow, it's true.'
"It's been a whirlwind."
While Couturier and Read aren't playing in Sunday's All-Star Game, they have made a major impact in the Flyers' success. Both are contenders for the Calder Trophy, given to the league's best rookie.
The Flyers have never had a player win the award.
'Canadian kid'
Read lived in Calgary until he was 4, and then moved to Vancouver Island, where he first played hockey. Six years later, he moved to Colorado Springs, where he lived until he was 14, which is when the family headed to Ilderton, just outside London, Ontario. That's where he lived until he started playing juniors, "and I was kind of living on my own."
All the moving may have been unsettling to some. Read, however, said it enabled him to "develop character as a personality trait. I guess I'm a quiet guy because I never had the same friends growing up, but I like being the listener and trying to learn as much as I can about people."
Hockey-wise, the moving helped him learn how to persevere.
"I would have to start from scratch," he said about playing for youth teams in various locations. "It was kind of like that for me this summer - I started from scratch and got the opportunity to try out. You've got to make the best of those opportunities."
