Van Riemsdyk, who had been out of town, arrived at Newark Airport by 7:10 p.m. and was at Prudential Center in time, he said, to miss only one or two shifts. James van Riemsdyk, a rookie forward for the Philadelphia Flyers, saw five minutes of ice time and did not score, but the Flyers beat the Devils, 2-1.
“I hate to miss these games,” Frans van Riemsdyk said Friday. He had more time to spare for Game 2 of the best-of-seven series, a 5-3 Devils victory in which his son had an assist
rookie from new jersey is skating for the enemy
, and he was joined by at least 100 relatives and friends from Middletown, N.J., the Monmouth County Township bordering the Atlantic Ocean that is the family’s hometown. They had all become Flyers fans, of course.
The van Riemsdyks — and many relatives and friends — used to be Rangers fans, but as James said before Friday’s game, that allegiance was thrown out the window. It is an ideal series for Van Riemsdyk and his family, because their hometown is in the middle of the action. “This
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is something you dream about when you’re a kid,” James van Riemsdyk said. “Playoff hockey is the most exciting to watch.”
Three years ago, the Flyers used the second pick in the N.H.L. draft to select van Riemsdyk, a rangy, 6-3, 190-pound left wing. He was the highest pick from New Jersey since Brian Lawton, who was from New Brunswick but played at a prep school in Rhode Island, was the No. 1 overall choice of the Minnesota North Stars in 1983.
Van Riemsdyk, who scored the winning goal f
Category › Hockey
Title › Rookie from New Jersey Is Skating for the Enemy
or the state parochial championship in his last game at Christian Brothers Academy in Lincroft, played for the USA Hockey program in Ann Arbor, Mich., for two years, then spent two years at the University of New Hampshire.
When van Riemsdyk was drafted, Ron Rolston, one of his USA Hockey coaches (and the brother of Devils forward Brian Rolston), said of him, “I think a lot of his improvement is in front of him.”
Only 12 ½ months ago, he signed with the Flyers and played briefly for their farm club, the Philadelphia Phantoms. But even as a first-round pick, a spot with the Flyers for this season was not assured. He made the team and scored 15 goals in 78 games.
Van Riemsdyk was drafted one spot behind a forward from Buffalo named Patrick Kane, who scored 46 goals for the Chicago Blackhawks while van Riemsdyk was at New Hampshire. Kane played for the United States at the Winter Olympics. Van Riemsdyk moved at his own speed.
“Those expectations have been around him for a long time,” Blair Betts, the veteran Flyers forward, said Friday. “I don’t think that it was anything he was not used to. He’s been a success. He’s just kind of a reserved guy. Good kid. Takes his job seriously. Comes to the rink and works hard.”
Van Riemsdyk, who will celebrate his 21st birthday May 4, lives by himself in an apartment not far from the Flyers’ practice rink in Voorhees, N.J. He focuses mostly on hockey, but he enjoys the Flyers’ community outreach programs, such as visiting children in hospitals.
Although he said his rookie season had been an unqualified success, there have been some bumps. He scored only one goal in his last 20 games. His ice time has diminished slightly. He understands he needs to be bigger and stronger to deal with the grind.
Darroll Powe, a 24-year-old Flyers forward who played at Princeton, said: “Obviously, the biggest thing coming from the university to the pro level is the schedule. He’s learned to prepare himself, to play 80 games instead of 30 games.”
Powe, who is in his second full N.H.L. season, said of van Riemsdyk: “For a guy coming out of college, there’s a lot going on. It’s your first time having a job. You’re on your own for the first time. You’ve got all these games. But James has figured it out pretty quickly.”
Van Riemsdyk has learned to count on the Flyers’ veterans for advice. He said he has enjoyed the challenge. The Flyers scrambled to qualify for the playoffs — beating his old favorites, the Rangers, for the last spot — and now they are playing an opponent even closer to home.
His father said: “I’m extremely proud of him, for starters. When the season started, there were no guarantees that he’d be able to make the jump directly from college hockey to the Flyers.”
This summer, van Riemsdyk plans to work on becoming, in his words, “a dominant presence” close to the net. As he explained it, a player can never be too good. He said, “I’ve never thought of myself as someone
