Couturier gets sharper, Flyers only get hotter
PHILADELPHIA >> You might not have noticed, but Sean Couturier has played in every Flyers game this season.
He’s still in the middle of their top line, still a defensive anchor up front, a skilled playmaker and sneaky scorer. It’s just that with the start Couturier had, there might have been questions as to the state of his game. Even his teammates might have silently wondered a bit.
“He was pretty good out there,” Flyers defenseman Robert Hagg said Saturday of Couturier. “It’s great to have him back to the same way he was last year. He’s not been that bad as some say ... good for him.”
It was very good for the Flyers on this day, as Couturier scored a pair of goals, assisted on another and played shut-down center against an assortment of leftover Chicago star scorers to lead the Flyers to a 4-0 blanking of the Blackhawks.
Only days after firing threetime Stanley Cup winning head coach Joel Quenneville, the once fearsome Hawks have been freefalling. This extended their streak of lousy performances to 0-6-1, with the presence of such former luminaries as Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Artem Anisimov and goalie Corey Crawford not mattering a whit. The Hawks did manage 33 shots on goal, but Brian Elliott was rock solid in the Flyers net and really wasn’t stressed at any juncture.
Meanwhile, Couturier and top linemates Claude Giroux and Travis Konecny were causing headaches for the shaky Chicago defense and the crusty, rusty Crawford.
To them, Couturier and Co. didn’t look much different from the line that gave a lot of teams fits last season. But it’s only been recently that they’ve started to hit the gas, primarily because Couturier had to shake off a little rust of his own.
Due to a knee ligament injury suffered during a charity tournament in August, Couturier missed the start of training camp and only participated in the Flyers’ last exhibition game. So he wasn’t exactly up to speed when the regular season commenced.
“Right now, I’m more confident,” Couturier said. “I think my skating is better than it was, I’m moving the puck more and supporting my linemates more. As a unit, I think we’re supporting each other all around the ice. It’s just a matter of timing sometimes. It’s one thing to be in shape but to be in game shape where you’re not ahead of the play or behind the play it’s always touchy (after an injury).
“Sometimes it takes a while to get that back. You don’t get into game situations and don’t get that timing. You can practice all you want but it’s never like the real game.”
Couturier simply wasn’t skating well enough at the start of the season, and the shortcomings really showed up defensively more than in his offensive game. He entered play Saturday with a so-so five goals and three assists, but he hadn’t been doing much to prevent the Flyers’ embarrassing team-wide defensive deficiencies. That contributed to a rather awful start, which finally started to turn around on a recent fourgame western road trip.
Prior to this game, they were still next-to-last in the league in goals allowed (60, tied with the Blackhawks), but the Flyers have been much better during a much needed run of success that now has reached 5-0-1 in their last six games.
With his sharpness obviously improving, Couturier has been a key player in that recent revival.
“I don’t like to use that as an excuse,” Couturier said of the injury. “It’s timing, you know? It’s important to get a feel for the game, get a feel where the pressure is coming from. As a centerman you have to support the puck all around the ice and you have to know when you have the pressure, where guys are on the ice. You don’t get that feel until you get into a game.
“I’m feeling better,” he added. “I think I’m sharper on little details. My game is getting better, better timing, better chemistry with my linemates. I just have to build on that and keep going.”
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As Couturier goes, so goes Giroux. He started the scoring Saturday with an unassisted goal via a beauty of a move in the weakly defended Chicago slot area in the first period. He then proceeded to help set up both Couturier goals, though one of them also was helped along by Hawks and former Flyers defenseman Brandon Manning, who redirected a Couturier angle shot past Crawford into the net.
“When everybody’s playing well, your job becomes a lot easier,” Giroux said. “TK and Coots (Konecny and Couturier) are playing very well right now, so we’re just trying to have good chemistry and keep going.”
With the 50th three-point outing of his career, Giroux passed Flyers great Rick MacLeish and is now No. 4 on the franchise scoring list at 699 points.
“It’s a great honor,” Giroux said. “There’s a lot of good players that played here and to be able to be in that group, it’s very special.”
••• Although his numbers haven’t been anything to brag about this season — due at least in part to the play in front of him — Elliott certainly seems to have rebounded from the collision with Konecny last week that kept him out of a game. This 33-save shutout was as solid as he’s been all season.
“Anytime you put a donut on the scoreboard, you feel good,” Elliott said. “But tonight I felt I was on. I was seeing pucks and the puck was hitting me. That’s all you can ask for as a goalie.”
Elliott was quick to warn, however, that this sudden 5-0-1 run is only something for the Flyers to continue to build on.
“As soon as you rest on your laurels that’s when things go bad,” he said. “So it’s just a constant reminder in the locker room that you have to bring it every shift, every period. Tonight was definitely a step in the right direction. It was a little bit of a fragile team over there and I think we did a good job to limit their chances right away and kind of just pounce on ours.
“I think we did a really good job of just being consistently like a bulldog out there.”
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NOTES >> Giroux and Couturier were each plus-4, matching a career-best for both . ... Elliott’s shutout was career No. 38 . ... Most important stat: The Blackhawks were oh-for-4 on the power play. It was the first time in 10 games the Flyers didn’t allow a power play goal.