Couturier improving but has ways to go
Having earned back to back team MVP awards, Sean Couturier wanted everyone to know Friday that he wasn’t satisfied.
Leading the way among a week’s worth of Flyers team award winners, Couturier was named winner of the Bobby
Clarke Trophy as the club’s most valuable player, the second consecutive year he’s won.
And yet...
“There’s always room for improvement,” Couturier said. “I’m not perfect. I still do mistakes sometimes. I just want to keep improving every year, every game. I think I can.”
Couturier, a defensive checking specialist earlier in his career, this season alternated between the top two lines at the center spot, finishing second in team scoring with 59 points (22 goals, 37 assists) over 69 games played.
“Obviously, it’s a great reward, it’s a tremendous honor, but I still think I have a lot of hard work to do to stay a good player in this league and to be a great player,” said Couturier.
“I’m just focused on doing the right little things and trying to improve in all areas of the game.
In a statement, Couturier stressed how honored he was for winning the award that has had “a lot of great names throughout Flyers history who have won this.” Doing it twice in a row is all the more impressive, posting 33 goals and 76 points in 2018
19.
This time around, Couturier had all the more help, as newcomer Kevin Hayes provided a perfect complement at center.
“As a team we had a great year,” said Couturier, just 27 years old despite having put in nine full seasons with the Flyers. “With new coaches coming in, a lot of experience, they kind of prepare us really well. We made a few additions during the offseason last year with some experiences, with guys like Hayes, (Jason) Braun and (Matt) Niskanen, those are three veterans that brought some leadership and made our team that much better. As a team we bought into the new coaches’ game plan and we had a lot of success. My success kind of reflects the team’s success also, so that’s kind of nice.”
It’s kind of nice for the Flyers to be heading for what’s supposed to be a full playoff tournament in Toronto beginning next month, one of four top seeds out of the East. The plan for that tourney carried with it an official end to the coronavirus-impacted regular season, which was limited to 69 games due to the pandemic.
Flyers training camp will begin next Monday with a full roster and schedule to be announced at a later date.
As for the other Flyers annual team awards, presented by Constellation Energy:
Niskanen provided great help this past season to top defender Ivan Provorov, who rightly won the Barry Ashbee Trophy as the club’s top defenseman.
Checking line center Scott Laughton won by the Yanick Dupre Class Guy Award by the team’s beat writers for his honesty win or lose. He also won the Pelle Lindbergh Memorial Trophy as most improved player.
That came despite him missing 20 games at the season’s start with an injury.
“I think it’s pretty special,” Laughton said. “Being in the organization for a little bit of time it might have taken me a little bit longer to kind of get my wheels spinning and get comfortable in the league. It definitely means a lot. Just a lot of hard work that I put into it to try to get better and create a role for myself. So yeah, it’s pretty special.
“Obviously our team play was really good. We had a really strong team and a lot of guys I played with throughout the year really helped me, and just the opportunity I was given by the coaching staff of carving out my role and being the reliable guy helped.
“It was the most comfortable I’ve been on the ice in my time in the NHL.”