James van Riemsdyk had a career night. He scored his first career NHL hat trick less than 100 miles from his hometown of Middletown, NJ, and the Flyers won the game 4-1.
He was sitting on top of the world.
And then he heard the following post-game comments from teammate and alternate captain Kimmo Timonen.
"He's a good player but he's still young and he needs to learn how to play that game every night. You can still see some ups and downs…as long as he can keep the passion and be excited every game and be the player he was [Saturday] he can be a great player but he's still going to have games where he's going to…you know…it's a learning process and he will learn."
Timonen’s statement was not completely shocking.
Head coach Peter Laviolette has used the media to question van Riemsdyk’s effort and consistency; however, this was the first time that one of his teammates was so vocal about his performance.
I know Timonen was probably trying to keep van Riemsdyk grounded and motivated, but the n ...
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Article written by Mike Pascale
Philadelphia Flyers: James Van Riemsdyk Scores Hat Trick, Has Effort Questioned
March 27th, 2011 by Mike Pascale Leave a reply »
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