Van Riemsdyk Sparks Flyers in Game 1 at BetLM

Van Riemsdyk Sparks Flyers in Game 1

PHILADELPHIA (NHL/Kimelman) — James van Riems­dyk might have been one of the most dom­i­nant play­ers in the 2011 Stan­ley Cup Play­offs, scor­ing seven goals in 11 games. He was so good, he fin­ished tied for ninth goals with­out play­ing past the sec­ond round.

After an injury-plagued 2011-12 sea­son, that player finally made his reappearance.

Van Riems­dyk had a goal, was a plus-3, took a team-high five shots on net and set the screen on Danny Briere’s over­time goal that allowed the Fly­ers to take a 1–0 series lead against the New Jer­sey Dev­ils with a 4–3 vic­tory Sun­day in Game 1 of their East­ern Con­fer­ence Semi­fi­nal series.

After his dom­i­nant turn in last year’s play­offs, van Riems­dyk signed a six-year con­tract exten­sion in August. How­ever, he missed time early in the sea­son with a lower-body injury, and then missed a month with a con­cus­sion suf­fered Jan. 12. He returned to play six games when he broke his foot block­ing a shot March 1. Sub­se­quent surgery kept him out for seven weeks, until Game 5 of the Fly­ers’ first-round series against the Penguins.

Even when he was healthy, how­ever, van Riems­dyk couldn’t con­jure up last season’s suc­cess, as he had just 11 goals and 13 assists in 43 games, and saw his name come up in trade rumors.

“It is one of those things that hap­pens,” van Riems­dyk said. “Those injuries are a part of the game; trade rumors are a part of the game. I am lucky that I have a good sup­port sys­tem that only lets me worry about what I have to do out there on the ice and they block me out from the rest. I am def­i­nitely thank­ful for that and I just go out there and play hockey.”

Van Riems­dyk played lim­ited min­utes in the two games he played against the Pen­guins, but that was by design. No player might have ben­e­fit­ted more from the Fly­ers’ week off between the end of the first round and the start of the second.

“I thought get­ting James back was a real pos­i­tive for us,” Fly­ers coach Peter Lavi­o­lette said. “But he hadn’t had at that point a whole lot of com­pe­ti­tion. … The week really pro­vided an oppor­tu­nity to push him with his con­di­tion­ing and his pace and his on-ice play.”

The result was a per­for­mance that was rem­i­nis­cent of his star turn last year.

“The way he skated, the way he was so strong … that was great to see,” Briere said. “It’s a guy that we didn’t see in the first round, he only played a lit­tle bit the last two games try­ing to get his game. But he had the whole week to get his legs and his wind. The way he played last year in the play­offs, if he keeps play­ing the same way that’s another huge asset up front for us. What a game he had.”

The Fly­ers con­tinue to lead the League in play­off scor­ing just under five goals per game, but hav­ing another player with van Riemsdyk’s offen­sive gifts is some­thing the team believes it will need in order to reach its ulti­mate goal.

“We need plays like that,” defense­man Kimmo Tim­o­nen said. “When he skates really hard, espe­cially when he gets the puck … when he’s full speed, he’s one of the bet­ter skaters in the League when he gets the puck at full speed. As a [defense­man], when you see that hap­pen­ing, it’s really hard to play one-on-one against him. We’re going to need more from him. That’s the way he has to play. I can’t wait to see him more.”

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