Jaromir Jagr claimed he didn’t know he set a record Tuesday with his 119th game-winning goal. It can’t hurt, so long as Downie is coaxed into playing ‘under control.’ But at the very least, it was an acknowledgement that no real fix is currently available for an offense in need of major repairs. But then, this was a cheap, for-the-moment kind of move. He won’t help add much balance and consistency to other Flyers forward lines that lack both of those things in great measure.
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Steve Downie? He might work his edgy game to effect, free up a few more pucks and have Giroux and/or Lecavalier score a few more goals.
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But he always seems caught in a classic struggle between playmaker, slow shooter and unsure leader, trying to grasp how to group the three hockey personalties. He’s a fine defensive forward with a passing touch and superb shot when given time to uncork it. Giroux probably doesn’t have a clear idea what he’s supposed to be for this team. Now they’ve added a guy with a harried history of taking penalties and playing edgy (and occasionally more than that) hockey who also happens to be skilled at digging out pucks out of crowded slot areas. First, Paul Holmgren told his personally appointed coaching savior Craig Berube to put Vinny Lecavalier next to the captain to try to get him going. But without Giroux scoring consistently – or in the case of this season’s first month, score at all – they won’t be able to fool even themselves that they’re good enough to earn a playoff spot. The Flyers as presently constituted are far from a championship team. So acquiring Downie in the last year of his contract is a cheap emergency move to try to bolster the offense – and at the same time try to stick a boot into Claude Giroux’s lower-padded zones. Essentially the Flyers were getting nothing offensively out of Max Talbot, who might know how to kill penalties well, but has the quiet critics out there wondering if he has any meaningful hockey left in the tank. So bringing back Downie wasn’t so difficult, as he became the 357th Flyer in franchise history to enjoy a second Philadelphia term (editor’s note: that number is a guess, but hey, it’s probably not too far off). He had an incident during training camp with Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog that didn’t put him on good terms with new coach Patrick Roy, who should understand edgy psychosis better than most. And there’s always the worry that Downie may still cross the edge at times. I still bring energy.’ Yet the word out of Colorado is such that the knee injury suffered last season was still impacting Downie’s skating. ‘But I still play the game hard and play the game with an edge. ‘That was seven years ago, (and) I was a little bit immature,’ Downie said Friday. So too the kind of dangerous, leaping hit to the head of Ottawa’s Dean McAmmond that cost him a 20-game suspension just as Downie’s NHL career was beginning. But Downie’s flip-out on the junior hockey practice ice several years ago on a teammate who had purportedly offered no willingness to participate in a hazing incident is a thing of the past. Any guy that goes after a teammate is simply asking for that. Steve Downie’s going to have a reputation.
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