Steve Eminger had his first chance to show the Washington Capitals they were wrong for giving up on him tonight, and he made good on it. Eminger had an assist on the game-winning goal and nearly had two tallies of his own in a 2-1 win for his Philadelphia Flyers against the Caps.
“[It was] preseason, but I felt like I was pretty jacked up for the game,” Eminger said. “I wanted to make a good impression, and I wanted to win.”
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Eminger logged 22:06 of ice time, which was third among Flyers defensemen behind Braydon Coburn and Kimmo Timonen. He saw significant time on both the power play (his assist, a perfect diagonal pass to Joffrey Lupul came with the extra man) and the PK.
“I am pretty happy with getting to play special teams,” Eminger said. “When you get a chance you just have to take advantage of it. You can’t just relax on it; you’ve got to do something. I don’t know what is going to happen during the season, but when I am out there I just want to take advantage.”
Eminger, who is now wearing No. 26, even got into a couple of shoving matches with his former mates. Well, one was with Jay Beagle, but he also got in a pretty good shot on Alexander Semin near the end of a play.
“A little bit – you kind of talk here and there, but when it comes down to it, guys are pretty focused throughout the game,” Eminger said when asked about the on-ice chatter.
He said he’s got a place in Old City, and is enjoying his time in the City of Brotherly Love. Eminger said he was paired with Randy Jones a lot earlier in camp, but Jones has been injured and Eminger also missed some time with a sore hip.
It certainly ins’t unreasonable to think that Eminger can be this team’s No. 4 defenseman behind Coburn. Timmonen and Jones. He certainly looked like a top-4 type against his former mates.
“All three games [I’ve played] have been kind of the way I want to play – physical defensively, solid defensively but join the attack and chip in offensively,” he said.
