from Dave Poulin at the Toronto Star,

Everyone showed up at the rink early on Christmas Eve, coming off a strong win over divisional rival Washington the night before. Our practices under Keenan were short, spirited and always intense. We practised like we played. Hard. That day was no exception, and everyone pushed. We understood the staff had done us a favour and we returned it with our effort.

The final drill was one of the coach’s favourites for conditioning: a 12-minute aerobic skate that started with 12 pucks at centre ice. Keenan brought out a big boom box and Christmas carols were turned up to full volume. As each minute elapsed the whistle would blow, the coach would fire one of the pucks into a net and we’d all reverse direction, hooting and hollering as we went. As the pucks dwindled, the pace increased. Aerobic became anaerobic, and guys were literally sprinting through the last few laps, leaving everything we had out on that ice surface.

Coaching legend Mike Keenan liked structure in his time behind the Flyers bench, but wasn’t against the occasional curveball.

The final whistle blew and we gathered at the centre dot. Our coach simply pointed to the end of the rink and said, “Line up on the goal line.”

What followed was one of the most vivid 45-minute memories of my entire playing career.

In a scene straight out of the movies — Herb Brooks had famously skated the 1980 U.S. Olympic team in a similar manner — our coach buried us.

In shocked disbelief, we sprinted hard to reach oxygen levels we didn’t know we had. The cursing grew louder, all directed at the Grinch in the middle of the ice.

Players cramped up, dropped to the ice between repetitions and struggled to put one skate in front of the other. We had given him everything we had in the first 45 minutes, and he had dared to take what we didn’t know we had in the last 45. In a surreal scene with the music still playing, our coach blew a final whistle, called everyone together and said: “Expect the unexpected. Merry Christmas.”

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