Shanahan Meets With Flyers Over Hits
VOORHEES, N.J. — Luckily for them, the Flyers haven’t seen a lot of Brendan Shanahan in his trademarked videos this season. Only Jody Shelley and Tom Sestito have been suspended this season and required editions of the ever-popular Shanaban Video Series. But on Friday, the league’s disciplinarian was there in flesh and blood at the team’s practice facility, going over the right way and the wrong way to hit.
“We just went over what it is that he looks at and trying to continue the videos that you see on the NHL Network describing the hits and why this one got something and that one didn’t,” said Peter Laviolette. “I think he was just trying to keep the players informed and up to speed on the hits to the head and the boarding calls and what constitutes a penalty and what doesn’t. I thought it was really good. I thought it was a lot of good information.”
Shanahan spoke for about a half hour with everyone from the players, to coaches, to general manager Paul Holmgren. The in-person drop-by was made in front of HBO’s cameras and will likely find a place in the first edition of “24/7” that will air next Wednesday.
“He just wants to show us right and wrong hits, that’s pretty much it,” said Braydon Coburn. “Obviously they deal with a lot of hits every night. I think he just wanted to show us some examples. So far, I think at the quarter-point of the year, some of the bad ones and why they were bad and some examples of good hits.”
Apparently, Marc-Andre Bourdon’s hit on Buffalo’s Nathan Gerbe was not included in the playlist of bad hits, since Shanahan didn’t walk to the front of the room and start the assembly with: “In a game between the Philadelphia Flyers and Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday night…”
The point of the meeting is obviously to keep the players healthy and avoid injuries like Brayden Schenn’s recent concussion.
“To get clarification from him,” said Schenn, “standing in front of you for a half hour, that’s good for everyone.”
While it’s likely that Shanahan has or will have similar meetings with the rest of the team’s in the NHL, Laviolette wasn’t sure.
“I don’t know, maybe we’re just special,” said the coach.
Perhaps, but they far prefer seeing Shanahan in person than having him star a video in which a Flyer is facing disciplinary action.
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