Top-line players playing with some levity
Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but a couple of Tortorella’s key targets when it came to holding them extra accountable and having them sit for games or periods here or there, throughout his tenure, were on fire in this win.
Matvei Michkov finished the game with two goals and one assist (and he should’ve finished with his first career hat trick if it wasn’t for a couple inches on an empty-net goal), Sean Couturier scored two, and Travis Konecny was playing with his head on fire and earned one assist. And maybe it is just anecdotally, but they looked to be playing with more energy and with a new breath of life out there on the ice.
Michkov and Konecny had 21 shot attempts between the two of them and they were just humming all night. And to dive even deeper, Michkov, Couturier, and Tyson Foerster finished their nights registering three high-danger attempts each. It was just a solid, controlled offense. Do we contribute that to Tortorella not being on the bench? Maybe.
An actual power-play goal was scored
The “0-for-March” joke has to come to an end, sadly. Sean Couturier tallied a power-play goal in the third period to make it 5-2 for your Flyers.
Maybe the solace we can take from it is that it was a goal off the rush, so wasn’t your prototypical “power-play goal” set up in the zone to generate the scoring chance. Before this game, the Flyers were 0-for-31 on the power play for the month of March, and now with this goal they are a whole 1-for-35. A real big improvement, right?
Oh, there was also a hockey game tonight.
Hours after the Philadelphia Flyers announced that they have fired head coach John Tortorella with just nine games remaining for the season, they took to the ice and everyone was trying to notice what might have been different now without the grumpy veteran bench boss.
Well, there were actually a few things that we haven’t seen in some time.
The Basics
First period: 1:55 — Matvei Michkov (Konecny, Couturier); 7:55 — Alex Newhook (Savard, Hutson); 10:13 — Nic Deslauriers (Lycksell, Abols); 11:15 — Sean Couturier (Michkov, Pelletier)
Second period: Nothing
Third period: 2:15 — Cole Caufield (Strumble, Hutson); 10:09 — Tyson Foerster (Seeler, Brink); 11:43 — Sean Couturier (Unassisted); 13:34 — Christian Dvorak (Anderson, Gallagher); !3:52 — Matvei Michkov (Unassisted); 16:47 — Patrik Laine (Suzuki, Slafkovsky)
SOG: 30-30
Some Takeaways
First game post-Tortorella
For the first time in years, the Flyers played a game without John Tortorella employed by the team. The man that was brought in to solidify a foundation which a rebuild was laid upon, got fired in the dying moments of the season after a tumultuous three weeks have caused the Flyers to go from respectable to one of the worst teams in the standings.
We have grown so accustomed to his antics, that maybe we just thought that was going to be the rest of our lives as Flyers fans. Well, the main might have been fired but some of the controversy remained.
Cam York sitting on the bench for the entire game, not playing
The Flyers will never not be a normal hockey team.
While we thought we were free from anything that would get the attention of the whole hockey world, and make them look at our favorite hockey team with some weird, scrunched-up face; well we’re not. Defenseman Cam York got dressed, went through the whole process ready to play the game, sat on the bench, and never stepped foot on to the ice.
That’s right. York, one of the Flyers’ better young blueliners, didn’t even play a second of hockey in this winning effort. Just sat there.
After the game, interim head coach Brad Shaw said that York did not play because of a “disciplinary issue”.
While it’s nice to hear that he will be playing when the Flyers host the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday, it’s just another instance of this team being the peak of never having a dull moment.
Eric Hartline-Imagn Images
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