After undergoing his first full practice at Flyers morning skate in February/March of 2023. That was the first time in some time that Sean Couturier was on the ice with his teammates. Couturier was wearing a yellow no-contact practice jersey, he felt pretty good afterwards, “The goal ever since I have gotten surgery was to come back this year,” Couturier said following that particular morning skate. “Here we are getting closer, maybe get a practice in by the end of the week, and go from there.”
Check out our Flyers Nitty Gritty Store
Cool Matvei Michkov merchandise
Unfortunately, that never came to fruition as he missed yet another season of Flyers hockey. A 30-year-old standout in Sean Couturier has proved to the entire league that he’s a force to be reckoned with, when healthy. That’s just it went healthy as he hasn’t suited up in the game since December 18, 2021 against the Ottawa Senators. Coots could be the heart and soul of this young Flyers team, and without his services it really depletes this team down the middle. There was no doubt he was the MVP of the team in 2020-21, and it might be because is no stranger to playing through pain.
“I feel great. I feel like I’ve pretty much done a full offseason of training already and I’m starting again. I’m already excited for camp, and obviously it’s a big summer of training for me. I’m going to work extremely hard to get back to the pace of the game. Just looking forward to next year.” – Sean Couturier
John Tortorella thinks Couturier will be ready for next season, but he understood why Couturier would have liked to get into some games this season. Tortorella doesn’t want to hype up his expectations so he says, “No (To playing this season), haven’t even thought about it.” This was a good way to operate if you are the coach of the Flyers. If he hyped up the expectations of him playing in a handful of games towards the latter part of the season, and obviously it didn’t happen then Tortorella would have had to do damage control as to why it did not occur.
Couturier played through a torn in MCL in games five and six versus the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2018 playoffs, and he mustered four goals and two assists in those aforementioned games. Unfortunately, he had back revisionary surgery on October 27 in Dallas, Texas, but he also knows he has to get back into game shape, “Probably just going to have to skate a little more. I’ve trained a lot in the last year and a half, and I feel strong again, I feel back 100%. So, it’s just a matter of getting back to the level of a high NHL player. It’s going to be on me to just get ready. Obviously, I’m disappointed I couldn’t get into a few games and see where I’m at, but only time will tell if it was a benefit or not. We’ll see next year, but I’m for sure going into this offseason motivated and with a lot to prove coming into next year,” Couturier said.
“I’m not going to be saving this organization coming back. I think it’s important to do this rebuild the right way. What I’m saying is, if you look at kind of like New York a couple years ago, they send out that letter and you think it’s a big rebuild – three, four years – and next thing you know they’re in the playoffs the following year, two years later, and they’ve been good since. It’s like I said, things can change quick in the NHL. We’ve seen it the last two, three years, we were supposed to be one of the top-end teams and we went to the bottom of the standings. It’s on us as a team, as players, as an organization to switch it around and get back to where this organization belongs.” – Sean Couturier said
Coots missed a large part of last season, which turned out to be a season ending injury. He underwent successful back surgery and wound up missing the remainder of the 2021-22 campaign. Couturier was sidelined from December 18, 2021 (As stated above), and has yet to play a meaningful hockey game since. It was labeled as an ‘Upper-body” injury by the Flyers, but Couturier ended up having surgery to not further delay his possible return. Accountability is a missing element from Couturier on and off the ice. This was a strong word that was used for the Flyers before the 2022-23 season began. Couturier is no stranger to holding himself accountable, and that rubs off on his teammates, as well. Even while rehabbing he took the time to mentor Noah Cates on faceoffs at practices, as he continues to groom the youth, while wanting to return to game action, “He plays a mature game,” Couturier spoke of Cates. “He’s really reliable defensively, and I think he has some undercover really good offensive skills, also. I think if you give him maybe a little more opportunity offensively – power play and stuff – I think he can maybe produce a little more. He’s just one of those guys that you can throw out in any situation, and he’ll find a way to succeed. It’s like I said, he’s one of those guys that that you need to make runs and win.”
Couturier plays in all situations and does them well. The Flyers closed the first month of the season out with a 5-2-1 record, but most knew this wasn’t sustainable without the services of Couturier and Cam Atkinson for an extended period of time, and of course, their best play driving forward in Travis Konecny for an extended period of time, as well. Things have changed in the organization since he assigned his contract, forever remains committed to the team, “I feel I have a lot to prove coming into next year. New coach, a lot of new teammates that I got to know over the last year and a half, but a lot of these guys I haven’t even played with,” Couturier said. “Whatever the captain situation is, or leadership group is, I’m still going to be the player and the guy I am and try to lead by example and do the right things all the time. So, doesn’t really change much for me.”
Last week was a hugevstep forward in Couturier returning to the ice for Training Camp. He looked solid, and he even was able to get in a bit of contact in the scrimmage before Rookie Camp began. All good news, so hopefully this is a sign of good things to come.
Danny Briere said that “Knock on wood, so far so good. Ellis will not hit the ice,. Otherwise everyone is doing well. Everyone is healthy, our vets, it’s exciting to see them participate in contact drills (Couturier and Atkinson).” According to Briere, both Atkinson and Couturier have participated in drills, to include contact drills. The lone player that will miss time is Ryan Ellis, but that was to be expected. He will not hit the ice as Training Camp opens.
It was a struggle without the services of Couturier and Atkinson last year. That’s why it was nice to see Atkinson participate in scrimmages throughout the Summer. What the scrimmages did for Atkinson was give Flyers fans hope that he could possibly return 100% healthy for Training Camp.
Here it is one day before Training Camp and both Atkinson and Couturier are finally, finally 100% and ready to go.
“Winning Culture”
The Flyers envisioned on building a tight, winning culture. The process started last season, now did the Flyers win a ton of games last season? No, of course not, but they did mange to finish with 75 points. However, in the same token first year Head Coach for the orange and black John Tortorella started to build a more competitive team. That was step one, step two was weeding out those players that did not appear or was hesitant to buy in to the culture that was being built.
“We expect the same thing this year. We’re not tanking any games. We’re not trying to lose on purpose. We’re going to do things obviously for the future, but at the same time we expect these guys to go out and win every game,” Danny Briere said yesterday at his pre-training camp presser.
Briere continues, “We’re not trying to lose, we’re trying to develop our guys in hopefully a winning culture and an environment where they leave everything on the ice every single night.”
It’s a simple philosophy. Try your hardest to win the hockey game. The Flyers lost at least five or more games by one goal or less, add Sean Couturier and Cam Atkinson to the mix and the orange and black could have ten more points.
“We’re not tanking any games. We’re not trying to lose on purpose.” – Flyers’ General Manager Danny Briere
This season will be interesting, anything can happen. With a healthy Couturier and Atkinson, the sky is the limit for this young hockey club. One thing is certain, expect the Flyers to be a competitive bunch again.
