Philadelphia Flyers Forward Blair Betts Interview: The Blair Betts Project

Philadelphia Flyers' forward Blair Betts is a blue collar player who doesn’t mind doing the dirty work.  He spends most of his time on the ice killing penalties, but has no qualms about it.  He is appreciative of his success and is always modest.  It was a pleasure to talk to this hard worker and it’s an even bigger pleasure to have him represent the orange and black.  Enjoy my conversation with Blair Betts!

Donald Wood: How are you doing today?

Blair Betts: I’m doing well, thank you.

DW:  You’re one of the hardest working players on the penalty kill, do you like working the penalty kill?

BB:  I do, yeah.  I take a lot of pride in it, it’s something that has become part of my game and you have to take a lot of pride in it if you want to be good at it.

DW: I know you guys have been shorthanded a lot this season so far, a lot more thus far than last year at this point.

BB: Yeah we have.

DW:  The penalty kill unit has been playing well and you’ve only allowed seven power-play goals on 61 opportunities.

BB:  Yeah we’re doing well so far.

DW:  You’re playing real well but how much are you missing Ian Laperriere on the penalty kill this year?

BB:  Yeah, we are.  He was a big part of the team and he obviously has the experience in this league and that is something we definitely miss as well.  He is a great guy to have around the room and he has a lot of personality and character to him.  As far as on the ice, he was a guy I killed penalties with and played with for most of last season.  We were definitely sad to hear about the situation he was in.

DW:  How about Darroll Powe, how has he fit on the penalty kill unit this year?

BB:  He has done a great job.  He and I have been killing penalties the whole year together and when Ian [Laperriere] was out last year in the playoffs, Darroll and I were killing penalties.  It wasn’t a tough transition, Darroll is a great player; he is intelligent, he works hard, he’s a great skater, and he does all the things you need to do to kill penalties and it has been easy working with him.

DW:  How much is it about trusting the people around you on the penalty kill?

BB:  Yeah, everyone has their job to do on the ice.  Whether you’re killing penalties or doing anything, if you trust that your teammates are going to do the right thing , then you don’t have to worry about that and you can worry about what you’re doing.  The more you kill penalties together, the more you get comfortable with reading the plays.  The goal of the power play is to confuse the penalty killers a little bit and the less confusion the penalty killers have the easier it is.  When you’re killing penalties with new players or a new team there is always a transition period, but I think we are doing a good job.

DW:  Definitely.  So how do you like playing in Philadelphia? I know this will be your second season with the club, so how do you like the town and the fans?

BB:  Oh I love it!  The city has been great and the fans have been great!  Two summers ago, I was looking for a job right up until training camp and I had a few options as to where I could try out but I didn’t have any contract offers or anything like that.  A couple of teams were offering tryouts but in hindsight I was pretty fortunate to come to Philly because it’s just been a breath of fresh air and given me a new life in my career.

DW:  Your one of the hardest working guys on the ice and that’s what Philly loves, that blue collar mentality.

BB:  Thank you.

DW:  What did you think of the Danny Briere suspension?

BB:  I didn’t end up seeing the replay of the incident until after the suspension was given and to be honest with you, I think he has a suspension or two in the past which I think probably had something to do with the three game suspension.  I don’t think there was any harm to the player.

DW:  No, he stood right up.  I thought with the three game suspension, you guys are playing the Islanders this weekend , right?

BB:  That’s right, yeah.

DW:  With the Nick Hjalmarson hit on Buffalo’s Jason Pominville and the subsequent two game suspension, it let Chicago’s Nick Hjalmarson come back for the first game against the Buffalo Sabres.  The NHL took some flak for that, and it was the fear of retribution that made the NHL decide on the three game suspension.

BB:  You could be right, like you said that third game takes him out of the Islander game as well.  There could be some truth to that, it might take some bad blood out of the game but it might not.  Danny was obviously disappointed with the NHL’s decision and we don’t want to have a player like that out for any length of time.  It’s an unfortunate situation but it’ll give a couple of guys an opportunity to step up.

DW:  Yeah like 20 year old forward Eric Wellwood, how does he look?

BB:  He looked great!  I was impressed with how calm and relaxed he was, I can remember my first game in the NHL and how nervous and jittery I was. He showed a lot of composure and they put him right up there on the top line with top players like Mike Richards.  He played really well and had some really good scoring opportunities and he made a good showcase for himself.

DW:  When you see a young player coming into the league like that, you worry about turning the puck over and controlling your emotions but he kept his composure.

BB:  He didn’t seem nervous and was joking around at laughing a bit before the game and everybody has their way of preparing for a game.  When you are coming up from the AHL or Juniors you have to prepare the same way you normally would and play the same way, and that’s what he did.  That shows a lot of maturity on his part.

DW:  Talking about another rookie, how good is Sergei Bobrovsky looking in net?

BB:  Yeah, he is looking great!  Personally I hadn’t heard too much about him coming into training camp but he played well in training camp and with the Injury to [Michael] Leighton, he is getting the opportunity to play some games here early in the season.  We keep winning when he’s in net.  Being a young goaltender coming into the NHL has to be the hardest thing to do and the hardest position to play.  That also shows the maturity and poise he has and his ability and his character as well.  When Leighton gets healthy we’ll have to see what happens.

DW:  How much does the success of your goalie really show how good your defense is playing?

BB:  Over the summer, the additions that we made on the back end were big.  We added a couple of guys with experience, guys like Sean O’ Donnell, and having Chris Pronger back and relatively healthy is huge for us. 

DW:  Listen, I really appreciate you taking time out of your busy day to speak with me.

BB:  No problem, no problem at all.

I would like to thank the Philadelphia Flyers organization and Blair Betts for their cooperation with this interview.