I’ll speak for every Flyers fan right now…it would be nice to have Sean Couturier back. The overall team defense will only get better following a good defensive effort last night against the Boston Bruins. The loss of the current Selke Trophy Award winner Sean Couturier was a big one, and people saw just how valuable he was on a nightly basis. Couturier covers up many mistakes and gaffes by the defense, and in reality it makes them appear to better than they actually are. One of the biggest weaknesses to this 2021 Flyers team was the overall team defense in his absence, but the Flyers have put forth a solid effort in the last two games.
Blown coverages, bad breakouts/zone exits, bad passing, and sloppy play in the neutral zone were all present in Couturier’s absence. Hopefully, these issues will be a thing of the past with his return to the lineup.
These defensive mishaps were at the forefront due to Couturier’s absence. Robert Hägg struggled with transitioning, and just lofts pucks out of the zone, or he tries using the glass to get the puck out of the zone. Why not try to carry the play up the ice for a clean zone exit for once. Teams have become accustomed to his style of play, thus it is causing turnovers and odd man rushes the other way in some instances. Moreover, Erik Gustafsson was a turnover machine, and he is usually solid at pushing the play up the ice. The Flyers defense overall struggled mightily with transitioning from defense to offense, that the Forwards appear to be just skating around. They are not giving the Forwards a chance to have some sort of puck posession, as breakouts were brutal in the early going.
The Flyers were skating to close together. They should spread out more to open the ice up a bit more. Even on some goals scored by the opposition they are supporting each other on one side of the ice, thus leaving players open in the slot or in front of Hart and Brian Elliott. Again this is caused by blown coverages, and decision making. It appears the Flyers are trying to be too perfect, rather than just letting the game come to them or just keeping it simple.
In the end, the Flyers have too much depth within their system to overcome this key loss of Couturier in their lineup. Couturier is not a reason for them losing hockey games, rather it was the team beating themselves and making ill advised decisions with the puck. Somehow the Flyers managed a respectable record of 6-3-2 in Couturier’s absence. Pretty darn impressive with all these mistakes mentioned above. In the end Head Coach Alain Vigneault said he would talk to Flyers Director of Sports Medicine Jim McCrossin before tonight’s game about Coots, Philippe Myers, and others.
“There’s no doubt that he’s getting closer,” Vigneault said, “If that will be tomorrow, Tuesday or a day or two after that, I’m not quite sure yet. Today was the first time he’s had a practice with the team, but he has been skating since the beginning whether it’s the taxi squad or on his own. So I’m not concerned at all about his conditioning or his timing because he’s been able to skate and push through this. So it’s just a matter of him feeling healthy and our doctors and our medical staff saying he’s good to go. Today we basically had him out there his first time. I haven’t talked to him since practice was over. So I’ll have a better idea in the next couple hours.”
Vigneault continued, “Carter’s playing tomorrow, so he’s good to go. As far as Oskar he’s fine, and Phil and Coots I would say to you are both day-to-day at this point. I’m not ruling anything out for tomorrow. I just don’t know what my lineup is going to be and what my lines are going to look like until I have a better idea of who’s going to be available. It’s a noon o’clock game, we’re busing down here in about an hour and 15, so I figure once we get to Washington I’m going to have a power play meeting tonight because of the new protocol and 12:00 game and probably find out from Jimmy who’s good to go and who’s not good to go.”
Some good things happened yesterday at practice that seemed to indicate Coots would play today against the Washington Capitals. For instance, he was placed on the top line and top Power Play Unit (PP1). Moreover, Couturier was also given stick taps as the team welcomed him back in a circle as practice concluded. That’s usually what the team does when a player enters the lineup that has been missing for a period of time. For example, they did that when Samuel Morin played. In the end, let’s see if Couturier returns. It would be a big boost of morale that’s for sure.
Thankfully Carter Hart, and Oskar Lindblom are all good to go to today, per Alain Vigneault. However, it appeared Myers will not play today as the defensive pairings at practice yesterday were:
Provorov, Ghost
Hägg, Braun
Sanheim, Myers
