Cool with critics, JVR finally fires up his game
PHILADELPHIA >> James van Riemsdyk doesn’t seem like a complainer, even when he was dealing with a lack of playing time and a change in role with Scott Gordon behind the Flyers’ bench.
Van Riemsdyk earned a fourthline demotion for Tuesday’s loss in Washington, and really, he wasn’t a player easy to notice out there before or during that game. Of course, being on the Flyers ... he’s been one of many.
Entering a Thursday game with the Dallas Stars, JVR and the Flyers were dragging along an eight-game losing streak. You couldn’t blame him, then, for thinking his demotion wasn’t top-story material.
“When the team isn’t winning games there are going to be lots of things that get changed around, moved around,” van Riemsdyk said. “So yeah, that’s kind of how it goes. It’s part of the things that happen. Certainly for me, I came from a place where I played with the same guy (Toronto center Tyler Bozak) for six years, so there was going to be an adjustment no matter what. It’s something that happens during the course of the season.”
As for his conversation with the coach, van Riemsdyk said, “That’s professional sports right there. There should be dialogue between the coach and the player. That’s how you get growth.”
Van Riemsdyk, the Flyers No. 2 overall pick in 2007 who played three seasons here before being traded to Toronto, fully developed his offensive game over six seasons with the Maple Leafs. That was enough for former Flyers general manager Ron Hextall, in search of a pure scorer on the left side of the top line and a power play specialist, to issue a five-year,
$35 million offer on July 1 to bring van Riemsdyk back.
By the time he lined up on the first line Thursday night against the Stars, van Riemsdyk had scored but six goals and 14 points in 27 games. An injury in the second regular season game set him back, but it’s been his lack of offensive involvement lately that was causing concern.
“JVR’s a proud player,” Gordon said after the Flyers snapped their losing streak Thursday night via a 2-1 victory over the Stars. “I think somewhere along the way he’s kind of gotten lost in the shuffle. The expectations for himself, coming in here as a free agent signing, then getting hurt in the second game of the year, that probably put him behind the
8-ball and he never really got on a roll.
“Our conversation, I felt there were more opportunities for him getting into better areas. I really felt he did an exceptional job of that (Thursday) night.
Going back on the top line with Claude Giroux and Travis Konecny, van Riemsdyk took advantage. He made a terrific backhand pass in the slot to Konecny to set up the Flyers’ first goal. Then he tipped home a Giroux shot for the eventual winning goal.
“Certainly when a team is doing this sort of thing (losing eight straight games), I don’t think anyone can be too content with how things are going for themselves personally,” van Riemsdyk said. “I’d like to have a little bit more production. I’m putting my best foot forward, using the same process that I’ve always used. You continue to dig in and grind at it and go from there.”
As for his struggle to adjust to playing for his new/old team, van Riemsdyk added, “This is something I knew coming in, that there was going to be an adjustment. You’re trying to find your role into a team and the team’s trying to find the best place to use you. That’s a process. Sometimes it seems it can be quick and sometimes it seems like it can take a while. But certainly I can be better.”
Certainly, the size of his contract would demand that. Van Riemsdyk might know his boost in financial stature is part of the adjustment he’s trying to make; that is brings with it an extra measure of intrinsic pressure is another new dynamic.
But when asked how that’s impacted him, he said, “Nothing. To be honest, that hasn’t affected me at all.
“That aspect has never really been my motivation. I play this game because I love it; the money thing is aside,” van Riemsdyk said. “It hasn’t changed how much effort I’ve put in and different things like that. I want to be the best player I can be, no matter where (the salary) is at.
“So no, that hasn’t bothered me at all. Now certainly, when you sign a bigger contract that comes with some different sorts of things. But as far as a player, you try to do the things that earned you that contract, and the rest is outside of your control. But I don’t care if I’m playing for the league minimum or $50 million a year. I want to produce.”
Everyone wants that, including the critics, those present at games and omnipresent on his phone.
“It’s funny in the social media age. My first couple of years there wasn’t so much social media, now there is,” van Riemsdyk said. “To be honest, playing in a place like Toronto pretty much prepares you to play anywhere else. So again, you learn to focus on the things that matter, focus on the things you can control.”
But van Riemsdyk likes to point out he can focus on his game while still spending a little time scrolling through his Twitter followers and detractors.
“I still use it for my news and stuff. I’m not one of those guys that’s like a mental midget and stuff like that,” van Riemsdyk said of his breaking-news phone. “People want to say what they want to say. It’s their perception, they’re entitled to that. It doesn’t make it a reality, it just makes it what they see.
“I know all the stuff behind the scenes that I go about to be a productive player, stuff I’ve proven I can do. I’m just going with that process and continuing to work at it.”
And as for the social critics ... “I don’t go searching for them,” van Riemsdyk said. “If I’m scrolling through, it’s a lot more Donald Trump, anyway. So I can thank Donald Trump for taking up a lot of my Twitter feed. There’s a lot more people carving him up than worrying about hockey stuff.”