Philadelphia Flyers
5 Thoughts Following Crazy 7-5 Flyers Win vs. Wild
The Philadelphia Flyers advanced to a 2-5-1 record on Saturday afternoon after Sean Couturier, Travis Konecny, and Matvei Michkov produced some fireworks and led the team to a dramatic 7-5 victory over the Minnesota Wild.
Couturier, 31, scored a hat trick in the 12-goal thriller – a rare sight for Flyers players these days. Couturier’s three goals were his first three of the season, and they snapped a 32-game goal drought for the longest-tenured Flyer.
Additionally, Couturier scored for the first time since Feb. 10 against the Seattle Kraken, which means that these were his first three goals as Flyers captain.
Better late than never, eh? And talk about doing it in style.
Is Sean Couturier back?
Honestly, Couturier has played some pretty good hockey for the majority of the season, even if he makes it look ugly.
At 6-foot-4, Couturier has never been the fastest or most nimble guy, and he’s also had two back surgeries and a hernia surgery in the last two years.
Combine that with his age, and it isn’t really a surprise to see that his pace of play has declined.
That all said, Couturier looks much more like the version of himself that dominated the final three months of 2023 than the one who disappeared after the stroke of midnight on Jan. 1, 2024.
Couturier’s future going forward
The Flyers captain isn’t going to get any younger, and on some nights, he does look a step behind his younger, more spry teammates. It can be a blessing or a curse, depending on how the Flyers want to utilize Couturier going forward.
One parallel I draw is to late-career Travis Zajac, a longtime New Jersey Devils center who was supplanted by Nico Hischier as the No. 1 center in his twilight years.
Zajac battled with inconsistency late in his career on some Devils teams that were consistently bad, but he was usually good for a dozen goals and 40 points. Zajac also took tons of draws and did a lot of the heavy lifting defensively, which undoubtedly helped ease Hischier into that role over the course of a few years.
I think Couturier can be a 30 to 50-point player for the Flyers for the next few years, and his veteran presence and leadership will certainly rub off on Jett Luchanko and other young centers the organization might add in the near future.
Michkov and Konecny
Matvei Michkov and Travis Konecny looked pretty good together flanking Couturier in Saturday’s game against the Wild, but that didn’t surprise me.
They already worked well when centered by Morgan Frost (who only played 11 minutes against Minnesota), and I was convinced then that those two needed to stay together.
I have it in writing to prove it; see: Despite Loss, Flyers Find Home for Matvei Michkov
Hopefully, they stay together for more than a game this time. Konecny is making the big bucks now and he has more than enough talent to play the left wing and play it well.
It will only benefit him and Michkov in the long run.
Burning out Sanheim
Travis Sanheim played a season-high 27:49 against the Wild on Saturday afternoon. That is… not sustainable.
We all saw how the Flyers fell apart at the end of the season, and though Sanheim was fortunate to play in 81 of 82 games, he took a beating. So did his defense partner, Cam York, who is on injured reserve now.
Maybe now that Nick Seeler is back things will change, but on the same token, York is hurt, Egor Zamula has had a rough season so far, and John Tortorella does not appear to be intent on giving Erik Johnson or Emil Andrae a good chunk of meaningful minutes.
We’ll see how things play out in the long run, but I worry about Sanheim getting burned out so early in the year.
Playoff Risto?
Going back to the defense, Rasmus Ristolainen played a really strong game against a talented Wild team in a new role.
Ristolainen played most of the game alongside Sanheim, adding a goal and an assist while clocking a whopping 34 shifts and 25:25 of ice time. Before Saturday afternoon, the most Ristolainen had played this season was 19:01 in the season opener against Vancouver.
I’ve been a big fan of Ristolainen’s since I started on the beat, and I think he deserves the chance to play on a top pairing again for the first time since his Buffalo days.
He’s put in the work to improve defensively, he’s physical, he can move the puck, and the coach trusts him to play in any situation.
A confident, healthy Ristolainen is a huge boost for this Flyers team.
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Could not agree more about Risto. There have been many fans that were upset with the contract he got and how he wasn’t living up to it, but at the same time there was a major discrepancy between the Flyers records last year comparing when he was in and out of the line up. With York on the shelve for a few weeks, keep him on the top pairing with Sanheim and see what happens.
the center position continues to strain everything . Playing like our defense had to today is not sustainable . They aren’t going to sit zamula either because of michkov . And that’s fine as long as he’s out there with Johnson, Seeler or risto , we can decide on those thing 2 years from now for all I care
great to see Coots doing his 2017 in front of net thing . Frost continues to disappoint . The center of the ice is collapsing with him out there . Not to mention the offense is starved at our wings because of centers . Torts has made that clear after last 3 games too. Sucks luchenko went back but I know that’s for his best interest and ours When Ersson isn’t in net it’s going to still be a tough season . This should be our last by next year we should be more comfortable and effortless . Michkov looks like our best sniper off wing since recchi in 1995 pre trade for leclair . With all do respect to Jeff Carter and Simon Gagne
we are all going to need to be patient at center though until more helps arrives . Patience with drysdale too
So far Morgan Frost leads the team in a…. minus 12 in 8 games….somehow he needs to pick up his game.