Steve Mason will be the first to admit he ignored some sound advice.
From the time he was with Columbus to even when he became a Flyer, he never heeded the advice of Adam Dennis, his goalie partner from junior hockey.
Every summer, Dennis would ask Mason to join him in working out with goalie trainer, Dave Franco, back home in Oakville, Ontario.
It wasn’t until Rob Zepp joined the Flyers last season and became the oldest goalie (age 33) since 1926 to ever get a win in his NHL debut that the 27-year-old Mason began to wonder about what Dennis had been telling him.
Zepp worked with Dennis and Franco and swore their offseason workout regime was unlike any other he had experienced, even in Europe. It was goalie specific and different from what skaters do in the offseason.
“For years, [Dennis] told me to come out and work with him and I never did and now I am starting to regret not going out and working with him,” Mason said.
“He gave me this unbelievable base to come into training camp with. The tempo of practices he would run with me and Zepper, the only two on the ice, trying to catch your breath and before you can, you are back in the net.”
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As added prep, Mason also worked with David Rubio, a goalie coach who handled Curtis Joseph and Jamie Storr.
Rubio is important because the Flyers had not yet hired Kim Dillabaugh as their goalie coach to replace Jeff Reese last spring and Mason wanted more instruction.
“I look back to last year and I thought Zepper was probably the best goalie in camp,” Mason said. “A lot of that has to do with the prep he put in. I wanted to make sure this season I took that opportunity and built the relationship with Dave back home.”
Mason felt all the prep work he did over the summer with Franco gave him a huge head start in terms of conditioning coming into camp. The fact he had a fulltime, offseason goalie coach in Rubio didn’t hurt, either.
Mason said the training he got this summer helped him become more “technically sound.”
Keep in mind, Mason was seventh in the NHL in goals-against average (2.25) and third in save percentage (.928) on a poor Flyers club last season that didn’t make the playoffs.
This preseason, Mason clearly stood out as the one player in training camp who seemed ahead of everyone else.
Which is good because this Flyers club is going to have to rely on him to buy them some time to get their act together.
“The goalie work, I noticed the benefit from it and I am glad I did it,” Mason said at the end of camp.
General manager Ron Hextall was equally impressed.
Hextall admitted the kind of prep work Mason did over the summer with specific position coaches simply didn’t exist when he was a player in the late 1980s or even into the 90s.
“There was nothing goalie specific,” Hextall said. “All they did with us was gave us our equipment and said, 'Go get 'em.'”
Hextall said Mason came into camp in terrific shape.
“He’s obviously in better shape than he was in his early career and I think the maintenance part for him, he knows his body,” Hextall said. “The nutrition part, I think all of our guys are getting better.
“Mase has come a long way and I think again, you leave the game and you always ask people how you want to be remembered and most guys say, 'I want to be remembered as a good teammate and a pro’ and I think Mase is getting to the point where he’s a good pro.”
Mason has come a long way as a Flyer in a short time and needs to take that next step where he carries a team deep in the playoffs the way guys like Jonathan Quick, Corey Crawford and Henrik Lundqvist have done.
“If you look from within, Mase has done a good job for us,” Hextall said. “We expect him to continue on and be real good and real consistent.
“His consistency has improved, though we expect big things from Mase for sure. The top guys, you could argue that all day long.”
If people recognize Mason in the above group, he figures it will be because he took the Flyers to new heights this season.