Back home, Couturier urges Flyers to get back to basics
Fresh off one of their biggest slides of the season, the Flyers got back to playing against a familiar Metropolitan Division opponent Thursday night, and looked to get back to playing the brand of hockey that had gone missing in recent days.
To that end, players on this captain-free team could follow the leader whose mere absence all of last season and much of the year before could account for the club’s long, torturous recovery from the dregs of their division.
“I don’t think we’re playing bad,” Sean Couturier said, before providing two assists in a 3-2 shootout loss to the Blue Jackets. “It’s just not good enough at this time of the year. We’ve just got to find another level to our play.”
Couturier, 31, then detailed how the Flyers’ level of play in various facets of the game had dropped off during their recent road trip westward, losing their last three games in Seattle, Calgary and Edmonton, and dropping five of six overall (1-3-2).
“Forechecking, puck placement … we’re kind of shooting ourselves (in the foot) a little bit when getting rid of the puck,” Couturier said. “We’re trying to do the right thing by getting it deep, but sometimes goalies play it. We can’t set any forecheck or pressure. Offensively, I think we try to make maybe a little bit too much (risky) plays.
“We’ve got to get back to basic hockey, get some movement, but go to the net and get more dirty goals. Off the rush and stuff where we’re creating, it’s more sustained offensive zone time, and I think we’ve got to find a way to create more chances. The last few games, it’s been maybe a little on and off. … We just have to find a way to get back to playing our way and we’ll be fine.”
Since returning from an absence which stretched from Dec. 18, 2021 to the season opener in Columbus on Oct. 12, after his injured and tweaked back mended slowly, Couturier has
been steadily getting back to playing the way he did as the team’s best two-way center for so many seasons.
He entered Thursday having scored nine goals with 15 assists through 35 games, most as the topline center.
“Honestly, it was hard to put any expectations or anything on myself. I had some questions even for myself going into the year,” Couturier said. “But I’m kind of happy, personally, how the year’s gone. It’s getting better and better and I’m starting to feel pretty good about my game. I’m just trying to move forward and get better every day. And it’s that time of year, where, as a team too, we’ve got to take another step and that’s what I’m looking forward to doing. …
“I think we know our identity, but I think it’s more, ‘Can we bring that to another level?’ As the year goes,
games are going to get a lot tougher, the pace of the game is going to get faster. … We have to take anther step forward also.”
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NOTES » Travis Konecny was announced during the game as the team’s lone representative for the NHL All-Star Game. Konecny promptly opened the scoring with his 19th goal of the season. … The Flyers led 2-0 early in the third period before being pushed to a shootout, South Jersey’s Johnny Gaudreau beating Sam Ersson for the only goal of the skills competition. … Trying to make a statement — no, come on, not the kind into a microphone — after a stretch of five losses in six games, John Tortorella scratched healthy forwards Cam Atkinson and Morgan Frost. … Rasmus Ristolainen played in his 700th NHL game.