Couturier Cherishing Stadium Series After Injury: ‘I don’t take anything for granted’

Just hours before being named the 20th captain in Philadelphia Flyers history, Sean Couturier stripped his gear off, sat back in his locker room stall, and was promptly greeted by a scrum of media members.

Couturier was the only one in that scrum who knew the news that would later be announced, but that didn’t stop the Flyers’ captain from keeping things in perspective.

The 31-year-old went 668 days between his last regular season game and the opening night of the 2023-24 season. Couturier did play in the NHL Outdoors at Lake Tahoe game early in 2021, 10 months before his devastating back injury that cost him nearly two years of his career.

Keeping that in mind, Couturier, who smiled at the thought of playing in the outdoors as a kid, cherishes Saturday’s Stadium Series matchup against the New Jersey Devils a little bit more.

“I don’t take anything for granted,” the Flyers‘ longest-tenured player said after some thought. “I try to enjoy it as much as I can. I’m starting to be, I guess, maybe on the back end of my career. I know I have a couple of years left.”

“I don’t take anything for granted,” he repeated.

Couturier and the Flyers have been given a generous amount of outdoor games, but some teams, like Saturday’s opponents, haven’t had that luxury. The Devils have played in only two outdoor games, while the Flyers have played in six. That’s tied with the Chicago Blackhawks and Pittsburgh Penguins for the most outdoor games played.

Of course, there’s no guarantee that the trend will continue. Couturier, who lost one and a half years of playing time due to his injury scare, knows that.

Now serving as Flyers captain, the 2019 Selke Trophy winner is putting business first and opting to live in the moment.

“At the end of the day, you’re still there for two points, and that’s what we need.”

Philadelphia will try to do so without the services of Tyson Foerster and Rasmus Ristolainen, who both remain injured.

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