Flyers hope defensive-minded Nodl mixes in a little offense

In the waning minutes of Game 6 - one of the Flyers' season-saving comeback bids - against the Bruins in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals, all of the usual suspects were on the ice.

Well, most of the usual suspects.

Chris Pronger, Kimmo Timonen, Blair Betts, Mike Richards, and . . . Andreas Nodl.

It was a startling revelation for Nodl, 23, who just had been inserted into the lineup for injured forward Ian Laperriere.

"I thought he had a real strong playoffs for us. When we needed players to come in due to injury, he was a guy that popped in for us," coach Peter Laviolette said yesterday. "I go back to that Boston series, there was a time when we had a one-goal lead and he's out there with a minute and a half or 2 minutes to go.

"I just had that trust in his game that he was going to play a strong, positional game. He would get pucks in and get pucks out and do the right thing."

Nodl, a second-round pick in 2006, has matured as an all-around forward since he left St. Cloud State after just two seasons in 2007-08.

"Over the last 2 years, I've learned a lot about how to be responsible," Nodl said. "If you want to play in this league, you've got to be good defensively. I learned how to make smart plays and not try to hit a home run all the time.

"It was something that you played for growing up as a kid, to be out there with a couple minutes left helping your team."

Now that Laviolette has confidence in Nodl taking care of his defensive responsibilities, he'd like to see the native Austrian chip in offensively. In 48 NHL regular-season games, Nodl has just one goal and four assists. Most were expecting the point-per-game player he was in college.

Some jokingly referred to him as Andreas "No Goal" instead of Nodl (pronounced NO-duhl).

In fairness, he was expected to provide energy in a checking role in most of his call-ups, like he did against Boston in the playoffs. This training camp, Nodl is paired with skill players - like Claude Giroux on Tuesday against New Jersey - to see if he can score.

"He's going to get an opportunity in this camp to play with some skilled players," Laviolette said. "It would be nice to see that part of his game evolve. He's been good defensively, he finishes checks. I'd like to see some offense in there, too."

"Usually my role was get [the puck in the zone] and grind it out," Nodl said. "Now I'm getting more and more comfortable. I'm hanging on to the puck a little more now, looking for the play. I'm pretty excited for the next few games."

Laviolette said Nodl is one of many players "quietly" competing for a spot.

"There's always that push," Laviolette said. "Training camp is an opportunity to do that."

Nodl is a realist. He knows that with Bill Guerin in camp on a tryout - in addition to the 13 forwards already with one-way contracts - it would be a longshot to find himself on the opening-night roster.

"They are pretty stacked up there, so we'll see what happens," Nodl said. "If you're good enough, you'll make the team. I don't put any extra pressure on myself. I've been sent down before, so that's the worst that can happen."

Chris Pronger participated in full-team drills with rookies for the first time since his July 27 knee surgery. Pronger had been skating on his own for a week. Pronger, Ville Leino (hip), Blair Betts (knee/shoulder) and Tye McGinn (ankle) wore yellow jerseys to avoid contact drills . . . The Flyers will make their annual trip north to London, Ontario, to square off with the Maple Leafs at the John Labatt Centre tonight. Brian Boucher will start in goal and play the first two periods. The Flyers will have a rematch with the Leafs tomorrow in Toronto before heading to Minnesota for a game against the Wild on Saturday. Both Toronto games will be broadcast on the NHL Network.

For more news and analysis, read Frank Seravalli's blog, Frequent Flyers, at

http://go.philly.com/frequentflyers. Follow him on Twitter at

http://twitter.com/DNFlyers.