Brind'Amour, Berube, Tocchet say time as teammates had lasting impact

Rod Brind'Amour, Craig Berube and Rick Tocchet were teammates with the Philadelphia Flyers at various points during the 1980s and 1990s and their friendship remains obvious.

The coaches for the Carolina Hurricanes, St. Louis Blues and Arizona Coyotes, respectively, spent time laughing, joking and reminiscing Friday during a videoconference set up by the NHL.

Brind'Amour and Berube even took a few shots at Tocchet for a recent inline skating mishap. Brind'Amour set up the joke when asked if skating was something he was doing to stay in shape.

"I think Rick's got to take this all the way," he said. "He's got the hands-on experience on this."

Tocchet explained: "Got a little cocky, I hit a little pothole, went down hard. I'm not going to lie to you, it still hurts. I got the big raspberry on the butt, down the leg."

Berube quickly chimed in, "He's toe-picked a few times."

Tocchet debuted for the Flyers in 1984-85, and Berube joined him as a rookie in 1986-87.

"[Tocchet] really took me under his wing," Berube said. "When I ended up staying there I moved in with him and he really looked after me. It was great for me to have a guy like that to live with and to learn from."

Berube's education began the summer before at development camp.

"Pat Croce was the strength coach and he would just put you through the ropes for a week," Berube said. "I got a rude awakening. He'd come up to me every day [and say] 'You'll never play for the Flyers you fat [expletive]', and was just all over me every day. I went home and I never trained so hard. I came back to camp, I weighed 190 pounds and I was ready to roll."

Tocchet and Berube helped the Flyers reach the 1987 Stanley Cup Final. They lost in seven games to the Edmonton Oilers, but Tocchet said their current teams reflect much of the mindset of that 1987 team.

"I'm not sure there's a harder working team that I've ever been on," he said. "We all pushed each other. Had a lot of young guys, we had some veterans sprinkled in there but a very hard-working team. Wayne Gretzky is a good buddy of mine, he always says that's one of the hardest-working teams he's ever played against.

"... If you look at [Brind'Amour's] team and [Berube's] team, the one thing I know they do, their teams work hard. That's why St. Louis won the Stanley Cup, that's why Carolina's been one of the best teams the last couple years. They instill that and that's the stuff we're trying to do with the Arizona Coyotes. But that 1987 team to me is the way to approach the game, where from the first guy on the roster to the 23rd guy on the roster, they gave their all for the team. I really respected that team."

Brind'Amour joined the Flyers in a trade with the Blues on Sept. 22, 1991. He was going into his third NHL season and credited Tocchet, who was the Flyers captain, for showing him what it took to be a successful NHL player.

"I was a little younger, still kind of trying to find my way, and you don't realize as a young guy how important the older guys are really," Brind'Amour said. "He was so phenomenal just even with me and the way he handled the whole group. He took charge, and I look now, 20, 30 years later, but that's why he's a coach now. He was a leader back then. ... We weren't a great team but right away coming there I knew what it meant to be a Flyer. [Tocchet] instilled that in me."

Brind'Amour was traded to the Hurricanes on Jan. 23, 2000, and Tocchet was reacquired from the Phoenix Coyotes on March 8. The Flyers reached the 2000 Eastern Conference Final but lost in seven games to the New Jersey Devils. Berube, who scored four goals in 77 games that season, is remembered for scoring the winning goal with 7:02 remaining in the third period of a 3-1 Flyers win in Game 4.

"The funny part of that, I get back to the bench and Tocc is jumping up and down, happy for me, and [forward Keith] Jones is beside him and he's like, what is he even doing on the ice at that point in the game?" Berube said.

Brind'Amour said the good memories he had of playing with Tocchet and Berube in Philadelphia helped him as a player and help him now as a coach.

"They instill what it's about to be a Flyer," Brind'Amour said. "And I think those are things you take now, now that I've been in Carolina for a long time, trying to instill that kind of identity and that camaraderie."