[Drew]

Source: phillyBurbs.com

VOORHEES - His wife and two sons were still living in Ontario, the Devils had blown the Bruins out of the playoffs and back to Boston, and Jeff Hackett had a thought: This is it.

Rather than re-sign with Boston for another season, rather than spend another year away from his family, he would end his career as an NHL goaltender. He would retire.

Then Bob Clarke called him. That was all it took - one phone call from the general manager of the team of his dreams, three words from Clarke that persuaded Hackett to play again: We want you. Hackett signed a two-year contract at $3 million a year, moved his wife, Cheryl, and their sons, Montana and Kurtis, to Haddonfield, and yet that call from Clarke was all that kept the man who is ostensibly the Flyers' starting goaltender from leaving the game forever.

"The members of my family weren't all together," he said last week in the locker room of the Flyers' training facility here. "It was tough. But I always wanted to play here. This is the first time I've been able to pick a situation to go to, and I knew I still had hockey left."

He sat there after a scrimmage, a voluntary workout for veterans before they formally reported to training camp. He looked sharp in the scrimmage, honing his vision of the puck and his lateral movement in the net. He sat there tired and sweating and ... well, indignant - scorned by the suggestion that a 35-year-old goalie who is 78 games under .500 in his career, who has suffered nine injuries to eight different body parts in his 14-year career, who almost retired last spring can't carry the Flyers to a Stanley Cup.

"All I ask is that you guys come in with an open mind," he said. "Judge me on how I play and not on anything else. I've had some very good years when I'm healthy. If you mark anything on wins and losses, yeah, my career's not going to look good. But look at my numbers on teams fighting for the playoffs.

"Here, it's going to be based on wins and losses, and I'm looking forward to that."

Fine, but this is quite a leap of faith Clarke and Hackett are asking of Flyers followers. They seem to say, Jeff Hackett is not Roman Cechmanek, and that's enough. Trust us. Of course, 28 years without a Stanley Cup and their routinely meek exits from the postseason make it difficult to trust any move the Flyers make.

Though Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne went to Colorado for bottom-shelf prices, Hackett's signing was the entirety of the team's offseason acquisitions - nothing to address a lack of scoring punch, only the possible promotions of defensemen Dennis Seidenberg, Joni Pitkanen and Jeff Woywitka to make the Flyers younger and faster.

Certainly, Hackett is better suited than Roman Cechmanek for coach Ken Hitchcock's defensive system - a style that requires a goaltender to make all the unspectacular saves, a requirement that Cechmanek could not fulfill. And the Flyers seem to be banking that the players' renewed confidence in their goaltenders, Hackett and understudy Robert Esche, will lift them to a level they could never reach with Cechmanek.

"They don't know him," Mark Recchi, Hackett's teammate in Montreal, said of those who would doubt Hackett's credentials. "He's been on bad teams. The biggest thing is that he's competitive. He wants to win.

"We all want Martin Brodeur, but there's only one out there. Cecho did some good things for us, but we feel more comfortable with the two guys we have now. ... People can perceive whatever they want. It's what players think when they're shooting the puck on him that counts. We don't give them much, and Jeff's going to be square to the shooter and make the saves. You don't want a guy who's going to create problems."

But Cechmanek was merely the biggest problem last year. He wasn't the only problem. And the addition of Hackett won't be enough to overcome the Flyers' flaws. He acknowledges part of his job is to tutor Esche, to make it easier for the Flyers to go with another goaltender. He doesn't score goals. He doesn't make them younger. Even in Hitchcock's system, he will need to be Martin Brodeur for the Flyers to be a factor in the push for the Cup, and he's not.

Hackett, of course, wants to hear none of such skepticism.

"Unless you really educate yourself on watching me, I don't think you can say that," he said. "It's easy to sign someone well-known."

It's definitely more difficult to do what the Flyers have done. They have placed their trust in a goaltender who put off retirement to play for them, who finally will be judged on wins and losses. They have chosen the hard road to glory.

[Blindside]

I just hope to God that our D is strong enough to outweigh Hackett's sketchy goaltending. Now THAT'S skepticism Hack, prove me wrong... or else feel the wrath of my M16 smiley like Brash has.

[Drew]

Too funny man....