Q&A: Former Flyers captain Mike Richards talks alumni game, trade, and ‘The Shift’

It has been a while since Mike Richards stepped inside the Wells Fargo Center.

April 24, 2016, to be exact. More than 2,800 days ago, when Richards and the Washington Capitals eliminated the Flyers in Game 6 of the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. It’s been even longer since he donned orange and black — almost 5,000 days.

Friday will mark his return to the building he called home for six seasons. Now 38 and retired since 2016, Richards will be lining up with fellow Flyers alumni in a game against the Boston Bruins old-timers.

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Richards skates about once a week when home in Kenora, Ontario, so he won’t be shaking off too much rust. But while he knows that his legs and hands will be up to par, what the former Flyers forward is uncertain about is how the fans will react when he hits the ice in a Flyers jersey for the first time since his trade in June 2011 to the Los Angeles Kings.

“I’m not sure, to be honest,” he said. “When I played there with L.A., it was kind of a mixed reaction I think. ... I’m not really sure what to expect, but I’ve always loved playing there. I always loved going back, so I’m looking forward to it one way or another. And, I’ll be in a Flyers jersey and they kind of love their own.”

The Inquirer recently caught up with Richards in advance of his long-awaited return.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

I didn’t know much about Philly before I was drafted to be honest. I obviously followed the league and saw a lot of games but didn’t know anything about Philadelphia, the city, literally at all. Summer camp, we went there and kind of got to see the craziness of the fans. You quickly see the passion and what kind of support you get and kind of the whole craziness of the Philly sports fan.

I think it was more just confidence that, yeah, I can play even though it wasn’t the NHL. You’re still playing with grown men as a 19-, 20-year-old. It just gave me more confidence rather than thinking about pressure and just playing at that level.

And it was during the lockout, so there were a lot of younger guys there, a lot of familiar faces that played in the NHL the year before or were going to the following year. So it was a good opportunity to kind of get the feet wet. It set me up the next year for feeling more comfortable and starting out my career on the right foot.

Not really pressure. As a younger player, I don’t think there’s much pressure. The team did a good job of just, “Go out there and play.” We had Peter Forsberg and Derian Hatcher, so we had a lot of guys that had already been there, won, had success, stuff like that.

So for Jeff [Carter] and I to come in, it wasn’t like a savior-type situation. We kind of just stepped in and with the salary-cap system that was implemented after the lockout in 2005, teams were looking for younger players that were on cheaper deals, so that also kind of set the stage for a lot of teams having younger players.

It did. We lived together our first year pro, so to have a guy that’s doing everything basically lockstep with you helped. We weren’t … the guys on the team, so you can kind of blend in a little bit more, too. So going through it with somebody that you knew, not having that pressure that you had to succeed right away and you can kind of just kind of feel your way in the NHL instead of being thrust into it helped and kind of make things easier. ...

I’d never really lived on my own either before that ... so kind of navigating that off the ice was probably a bigger deal than performing on the ice.

It was kind of a wild day. It didn’t seem like, at the time, it was that big of a deal I guess, just based on going through preseason, playing with the jersey already. So I don’t know if it was just mindset at the time, not making it a bigger deal than it was, but it just kind of felt maybe a little bit more than another game. But it was pretty cool to score, too.

My parents were there. I look back on that now and think how cool my first game was against the New York Rangers in Philly. At the time, I think it’s just something that you almost minimize, so it’s probably cooler now than I thought it was at the time.

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I don’t. I’m not a memorabilia guy. I actually don’t have much of anything, which is unfortunate because now I probably wish I would have had it or did something with it. But I don’t have it. I don’t even know where it is.

Probably the [2010 Stanley Cup] Final. That probably is the most disappointing and the best memory. Going to the Final, seeing the city, how crazy it was, how just everybody, everywhere had a Flyers shirt, a Flyers hat, jacket. Everybody.

So I just remember everybody in the city just wearing Flyers gear and everywhere you went, people knew what was going on. That was probably the best run in the playoffs. ... Even though we made the playoffs on the last day, everyone kind of assumed we’d have success once we got and we ended up doing it.

Nothing really changed … [just] enjoying it while you’re in it. You lose, get down 3-0, and just go back into the rink the next day for practice. There was really no mindset change or anything. It was just, playoff hockey is so crazy; get a couple of bounces and then everything changes.

So we decided to, I guess, start playing a little bit better [said with a laugh], and one game led to the next, and next thing you know, the series was over. Literally. It seemed like it happened that quickly to be honest.

A lucky bounce. Try to not knock into the goalie, and then it’s just literally right on your stick. From what I remember, that was one of the loudest times I’ve heard that building. Just the craziness that ensued after. Like I see the video all the time, so I still get chills from it when I see it. But that goal kind of just shows the energy that’s always in that building. That one was special.

It was really emotional. I signed in December 2007 [a 12-year contract] to basically play my whole career in Philly. That was the mindset when you sign that long deal with a no-move clause [the final eight seasons]; you just assume that you’re going to be there your whole career.

And then the whole thing, I just remember it happening extremely quickly. Like maybe a phone call the night before of like, “Hey, this is what I’m hearing” from my agent and then getting a call in the morning and it was like an hour of, “Yeah, it’s going to happen” and maybe an hour, maybe not even that, of [general manager] Paul Holmgren calling and being like, “Yeah we traded you to LA.’”

It was emotional, it was kind of wild how quickly that happened, and then similar to what I was talking about with the draft of like, this is the city you’re going to play for, this is where you’re going to live. And it happened that quickly too, of, you’re going to play and good luck. So it was pretty emotional.

You go from a spot that you love, and you do the contract that you’re going to be there the rest of your career, and then all of a sudden everything changes. So it was a pretty wild day.

No, there was no conversation like that. To be honest, even now it doesn’t really matter to me. I was never looking for a conversation or anything and probably at the time wouldn’t want to hear it, either. So, yeah, it’s just one of those things about sports. It’s pretty crazy that you can just get traded at a moment’s notice and one of those things that you kind of have to accept when it happens.

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No complaints.

I don’t know. I think that’s a dangerous game to play with. Looking back and having regrets, I don’t regret anything from my career. It’s kind of led me to the place I am now, which I’m happy with.

Are there things I could have done differently? Of course. But at the time you’re going through it, you’re probably not taking a step back and looking from an outside perspective on what’s going on and you’re just kind of living and doing things. …

Do I think things might have been different? I don’t know, it’s hard to say that, too, because I enjoy where I am right now. So if things changed or things were different, would I still be in the same spot? I’m not sure. … And probably not going to lose sleep wishing things were different at certain points.

The first couple of years after I stopped playing, I didn’t watch much hockey. I was hockey-ed out. But the last few years, I started paying a little bit more attention to the league and keep up with what’s going on. I watch the Flyers, not a ton, but whenever they’re on the national games. I like watching them. They’re a fun team to watch. I like that they play hard.

They seem like they kind of have that old-school mentality, which is fun to watch. It seems like everybody’s enjoying doing kind of the grunt work, and I like what Danny Brière and Keith Jones are doing with this rebuild. I remember talking a few years ago with somebody about the Flyers and how they were just kind of meddling in the middle. He couldn’t tell if their goal was to win a Stanley Cup or just make the playoffs.

From what I’ve read — and I haven’t talked to Danny or Keith — it seems like they’re getting back to trying to win the Stanley Cup instead of just making the playoffs. So for a rebuilding team, and for a young team, it’s pretty awesome what they’re doing, and they’re definitely fun to watch.

Haha. No. Not worried at all. He can take it. He’s fun to watch. He’s one of the guys I really enjoy watching.

Probably the night we beat Montreal. You can probably add to the regret list touching the Eastern Conference trophy. When I was with L.A., we didn’t touch the trophy and we won the Stanley Cup. So, maybe that was the kiss of death. But yeah, that night probably would be the best. Just the energy in the building and the excitement afterward.

I used to love walking around the Old City. A bunch of us lived down there, so it was always awesome during springtime in Old City when it started warming up. That’s just a nice area to kind of walk around, just clear the head. I used to love getting home from practice and just going to walk around the city.

Right now we’re in Florida. We’re doing the snowbird thing for a bit until April, and then we’ll head back home to Kenora. We have horses, my wife rides and we have horses at home, and then we bring the one down to Florida with us. I bring the fishing boat and fish down here and golf.

A little bit but not successful in any of them. It’s bass fishing. All summer long I do that. Hopefully one year I can add to the collection of trophies in the house. A fishing tournament win, that’d be pretty cool. I don’t know if it’d be the same level as a Stanley Cup or a gold medal, but it’d be up there.

Probably just a guy who loved the city, loved playing for the Flyers, and hopefully, it showed on the ice.