Flyers might not have much fight left in them

FOR THE FIRST time in 43 seasons, Broad Street will be Bully-less.

In each of those seasons, the Flyers have featured at least one player in the lineup whose sole responsibility was to fight.

In 1996-97, when the Flyers went to the Stanley Cup final with Ron Hextall in net, all three players on their fourth line - the "Dan Line" of Dan Kordic, Dan Lacroix and Scott Daniels - racked up at least 160 penalty minutes each.

Those days, the days of Dave Schultz and Donald Brashear are long gone. The Flyers actually want to play hockey this season.

Scrunched by the salary cap and seeing no obvious need for his diminished role, the Flyers placed veteran enforcer Jay Rosehill on waivers yesterday. Rosehill, 29, will join the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms if he goes unclaimed by the other 29 NHL teams by noon today.

What in the name of Shawn Antoski is going on?

"We've got some toughness on our team. Don't forget that," said Hextall, on the eve of his first full season as general manager. "We've got some guys that can handle themselves. But I think when you look, there weren't a lot of fights in the preseason. There are never any fights in the playoffs. In between, there's been less and less.

"We've got some people in Allentown; it's a short drive away. If we've got to adjust, we can adjust. Right now, we like the look of the [fourth] line. They're giving us some offense. They're giving us some quality minutes. We wanted to increase that line's ice time."

The move seems to represent a total about-face by the Flyers on the role of enforcer. Only last week, coach Craig Berube - who made a nice living playing the exact role for 18 NHL seasons - raved about Rosehill's job last season.

"In today's game, it's a tough role," Berube told the Daily News on Sept. 23. "I do, for sure, see value in it. Obviously, Jay wants to get in there more; it just depends on the other team's lineup. I think any game he went in there, he gave us energy. I thought he played his role terrific."

Rosehill played in only two of a possible eight preseason games. Thursday night in Washington, Hextall spoke of the "diminishing role" of enforcers.

Yesterday, the NHL's seventh-all time leader in penalties, said he and Hextall were on the same page.

"Yes, of course [I see the diminished role]," said Berube, who had 3,149 career penalty minutes. "I think everybody knows that, right? Look at the rules. Look at the game. Look at everything."

Hextall acknowledged the result might have been different if the Flyers had more salary-cap space. It was more beneficial for the Flyers to keep Kimmo Timonen on the active roster, rather than utilize his long-term injury salary relief now, and keep the number of players at 22 instead of 23. That made Rosehill, who played in only 12 out of the final 58 games last season, the obvious choice.

Rosehill has fought 137 times in his 9-year pro career. He took on some of the biggest names, including Shawn Thornton, Krys Barch and Jody Shelley. This training camp, he was actually the Flyers' fastest skater in straight-line sprints.

In Lehigh Valley, the Flyers will spend $800,000 on enforcers this season between Rosehill ($675,000) and Zack Stortini ($125,000). Zac Rinaldo and leading goal-scorer Wayne Simmonds will be left to do the dirty work.

Glen Cochrane wouldn't be thrilled.

"Fighting is here now. If it needs to happen, I'll be there to do it," Rosehill said in a candid interview with the Daily News on Sept. 23. "If it doesn't happen, I'll change my game to stay here. I've changed my game many times. At the end of the day, I want to play more, I want to make another jump in my career, take strides I haven't taken before."

His malleable skill set wasn't enough for Hextall to keep him around, marking the end of a memorable Flyers era.

"Jay was a hard one. He does maybe the hardest job in pro sports, and he did it very well," Hextall said. "He works extremely hard. He doesn't everything for the team. He fights. He sits out. He's got a good attitude. We're going to have it up in Allentown. We're going to have it there if we need it."

Ron Hextall said Wayne Simmonds' status for the season opener in Boston on Wednesday is "up in the air." Simmonds ("lower-body injury") did accompany the team to Cape Cod for its bonding excursion, which includes paintball, fishing and team meals, in addition to on-ice practices. "Am I optimistic? I'm not sure," Hextall said. "I think he's got a chance of playing. But there's a chance he won't" . . . Winger Chris VandeVelde and journeyman goaltender Rob Zepp also hit the waiver wire with Jay Rosehill. There's a good chance the Flyers will see all three in the lineup at some point this season if they go unclaimed . . . Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, a 29-year-old native of France who will center the fourth line, said he wouldn't believe he made the team until seeing his name on the roster on Wednesday.

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