Pronger: 'I Don't Play for Second Place'

FanHouse's Christopher Botta reports from Flyers training camp

VOORHEES, NJ -- Attention, Eastern contenders: Chris Pronger has not returned to the conference with the intention of coasting through the back half of his 30s.

"I feel better than I ever have," Pronger told FanHouse on Monday after a long day at training camp. "I'm more hungry to win than I've ever been."

By winning, he doesn't mean just qualifying for the playoffs. "I don't play for second place," he said.

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Pronger is at the stage of his first-ballot Hall of Fame career that if he was an NFL player, he'd find a way to show up a few weeks into training camp. But every morning he's here early, attacking drills with the verve of a rookie. In the punishing skate near the end of practice, Pronger leads the defensemen lap after lap. When his two hours on the ice are over, the defenseman pushes himself through another hour of footwork and lifting.

"He doesn't stop," said Flyers goalie Ray Emery. "When you see a 15-year veteran with an approach like Pronger's, you better believe it rubs off on the rest of the team."

Pronger has no intention of ever pulling a Strahan or Favre in training camp.

"I don't look at it as a job," said Pronger. He turns 35 on Oct. 10 but with his boyish face and haircut -- or maybe it's just that he has all his hair -- he could still pass for 25. "This is fun, but the season is long if you reach your goal. You have to be ready. You need talent and commitment, the team that's in the best shape and stays healthy gives itself the best chance in the playoffs."

Pronger says he never takes a break during the offseason. ("Not even a week. If you do, you end up paying for it.") As Flyers head coach John Stevens installs a more up-tempo, puck-pursuit system, Pronger will need to prove he hasn't lost a step.

"He hasn't," said Flyers wing Arron Asham. "And if he ever does, Prongs will make up for it with his reach and his smarts. As physical as he plays, as much as he has played, that man has a lot of years left in him."

The Flyers are counting it. They traded a truckload of young talent and draft picks to Anaheim to land the Norris and Hart winner of a decade ago. The Ducks received 25-goal scorer Joffrey Lupul, stud defense prospect Luca Sbisa -- inciting worship this week in Anaheim's camp -- and first-round draft picks in 2010 and 2011.

Executives at teams without the guts to make such a bold move whispered that GM Paul Holmgren overpaid. Analysts jumped on board and questioned if Holmgren thought he was getting the Pronger he coached in Hartford 15 years ago. Philadelphia columnists declared that the legacy of the Flyers GM hinged entirely on whether Pronger delivers the Cup to Broad Street.

That's exactly why Pronger is here. The Flyers have plenty of talent up front -- Mike Richards, Simon Gagne, Jeff Carter, Scott Hartnell, Daniel Briere, the on-the-brink Claude Giroux -- but they cannot match up in the division with Pittsburgh's superstars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. The path to the Cup final could also go through Washington, where Alexander Ovechkin resides.

Holmgren saw another solution in Pronger. "He's still one of the best defensemen in the league," said the general manager. "We have a team that doesn't back down, but it was important to get someone who could make life really miserable for our opponents. Chris is going to do that for us, plus he's a leader and he has won."

Pronger minimizes the importance of ring-owners on a roster, pointing out that blueline colleague Scott Niedermayer was the only key player on the Ducks to win a Stanley Cup before Anaheim's championship in 2007. "I will lead every way I can," said Pronger, whose jersey is No. 20 in honor of his father, who wore the number in a senior men's league. "This is still a pretty young team so if something happens during the season where I can lend my experience, I'll definitely help the guys along. But what's more crucial is everyone maintaining their hunger to win, and for everyone to buy into our system and commit to it each and every day."

The workload of the 15-year veteran could be eased a bit because of the deep Flyers blueline, including his likely D mate Matt Carle, minute-cruncher Kimmo Timonen, Braydon Coburn and Ryan Parent. "Thirty minutes would be stretching it unnecessarily," said John Stevens, "but Chris is still going to see 23-26 on a given night. When you're matched up against the other team's top scorers and play both special teams, you're going to play a lot."

Pronger is well aware that he'll be judged on how the Flyers do against the dynamos in Pittsburgh and Washington. "I understand that," Pronger said. "That comes with the territory ... your big guys against theirs. But we've already started to talk about this as a group. This is a different era in hockey. Those days are gone when you could assign an Esa Tikkanen to shadow a star and he'd get the job done by himself. Now you have to handle the big stars as a five-man unit. Even better than that, control the puck, make them work. The last thing goal scorers want to be doing is playing defense."

On the other side, Chris Pronger lives for it.