Leier Looking Forward To Playing Hockey Again
"It's been three days now. It's a lot of emotions running thorough my head. There's a lot of adversity. I think, as you have seen me play here and got to know me, adversity has never been a thing I've shied away from. For now, it's been disappointing but as soon as I play and get ready for a game there's going to be nothing stopping me. None of that disappointment will play a factor in how I play. If anything, I have a fire burning inside of me. I'm looking to prove a lot of people wrong." - Taylor Leier to Inside AHL Hockey
ALLENTOWN - For Taylor Leier, the past few days have been a bit of a whirlwind emotionally. Already with the Philadelphia Flyers in Colorado in anticipation of the NHL club's season opener, Leier was placed on waivers with the intention of reassigning him to the Flyers' AHL affiliate in Lehigh Valley. After he cleared waivers, he found himself back in the minors - practicing Friday with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms at the PPL Center in downtown Allentown.
"Every day I was bringing it - as much as I could," Leier said, acknowledging, "Sometimes things just... life's not perfect. Things happen. The things that are the most worth doing aren't usually easy, so there's never really any guarantees. It's always going to be ups and downs in professional sports. There are only so many roster spots, and it's a battle to keep those and earn those."
Leier declined to share what the conversation was like between himself and Flyers management, adding that if they want to share that, they can. He didn't think it was his place to share it with the public.
While there's undoubtedly a chip on his shoulder, Leier explained after practice Friday that he's trying his best to keep a glass half-full approach to his current demotion to the AHL.
"For now, it's been disappointing but as soon as I play and get ready for a game there's going to be nothing stopping me," a confident and visually excited Leier told Inside AHL Hockey. "None of that disappointment will play a factor in how I play. If anything, I have a fire burning inside of me. I'm looking to prove a lot of people wrong."
Playing hockey is something that Leier simply was not doing much of with the Flyers last season, particularly from the turn of the calendar year on. Leier, himself, noted his four preseason games with the Flyers this fall were "my first games since I think the beginning of January."
At the end of the day, it's pretty simple - hockey players want to play hockey. And a healthy and able-bodied Leier will now get that chance to get into a regular playing rhythm again with the hopes to restore a confidence in his game to raise it to a level where he'll be knocking down the door for his next NHL opportunity.
"Honestly, from how I was feeling at points last year when I wasn't playing I just wanted to be a part of the team," Leier said about some of the low points last spring when being out of the lineup for long periods of time as a healthy extra forward. "I'm really excited for that feeling again. Helping out the guys to win. I'm just raring to go. I want to score. I want to win. I want to play with the guys. I literally just want to play. I don't know how to put it any other way, I haven't played any hockey lately. I can't wait to play. It's pretty simple."
