VOORHEES, N.J. -- Ray Emery is a goaltender at the highest level of professional hockey, but for a few minutes Monday he was a star-struck fan. Meeting one of your heroes can have that effect.

Former heavyweight champion Joe Frazier stopped by the team's practice facility Monday specifically to meet the Flyers' goaltender. Emery, a longtime boxing fan, has paid tribute to Philadelphia's two most iconic fighters by having images of Frazier and Bernard Hopkins painted onto his goalie mask.

"The eyes are the same," Frazier said upon inspecting the helmet, "and my nose ain't too flat."

The champ is 65 and certainly moves a little slower than when he was on top of the world back in the early 1970s. A diet of 12 pills a day helps him control his diabetes and he gets around with the use of a cane.

Though most of the Flyers players were born after Frazier's prime, they still clutched autographed pictures like kids treasuring baseball cards.

"Actually, just last night I was YouTubeing a bunch of his old fights and checking him out," said Emery, 26. "He was a puncher and then some. It's crazy watching the fights back then and how talented he was."

Frazier won a gold medal at the 1964 Olympics and in 1970 became the heavyweight champion of the world. He won his first fight with Muhammad Ali in 1971, but would lose the two rematches. The bouts are boxing's most famous trilogy.

"The heavyweight division used to be unbelievable with the characters that were involved with it," said Flyers coach John Stevens, 43. "I was young at that time, but watched it unfold over the years. It was unbelievable with Ali and Frazier and (George) Foreman and all these guys. To see him here today, it was exciting."

Frazier's best verbal jab of the day was aimed at Ali, who tormented Frazier with some cruel shots of his own when the two were active.

"He says he has Parkinson's. He ain't got Parkinson's," said Frazier, holding out his legendary left fist. "He's got left hookitis."

Frazier recalled how Philadelphia was figuratively on fire during the Flyers' two Stanley Cup championships in the 1970s. He also said, in his own inimitable way, that hockey is much more difficult than boxing.

"Hockey's a dangerous game," he said. "You can get your brain shook, your money took and your name in the undertaker book. That's a rough game."

For Emery, who smiled giddily as Frazier autographed a DVD documenting his 1975 "Thrilla in Manila" bout with Ali, it was the highlight of camp.

"I'm a big boxing fan and he's a very historical figure in the sport," said Emery, who attended last Friday's fight card at the Blue Horizon. "Coming to Philadelphia, I knew he spent a lot of time here and trained here so I thought it was fitting to throw him on the helmet. But I definitely didn't expect to have him sitting here beside me. It's really cool."