When I was really getting into the NHL courtesy of EA’s 2001 game for my newish PS2, Roman was Philly’s hot new goalie and GM Clarke traded Brian Boucher to Phoenix for Robert Esche to assure him. It didn’t matter after a couple seasons, he got the blame like many goalies before him when the blue liners shared responsibility.
But when he was on his game, Cechmanek was fantastic in the net. When he wasn’t he was crap and my biggest complaint was his tendency to confront or “crowd” the shooter too far away from the goal; thus he’d get skated around for the easy empty netter. This irrational move earned him the moniker Roamin’ Cechmanek.
The season before the 2004-05 lockout, the Flyers traded him to the LA Kings and he then returned to his home country to coach until his untimely, sudden death.
Thanks for helping me appreciate and get more into hockey Roman.