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Takeaways: Couturier, Zegras lead Flyers to first win of Rick Tocchet era

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In the first ever win of the Rick Tocchet era, the Flyers took care of the back to back champs, defeating the Florida Panthers by a score of 5-2. A fantastic Trevor Zegras third period assist was the difference, and the Flyers have now earned 3 of 6 possible points against tough competition to start the year. 

The Basics

First period: 8:54 – Tyson Foerster (Sean Couturier) 

Second period: 15:47 – Sean Couturier (Travis Konecny, Travis Sanheim); 19:22 – Sam Reinhart (Anton Lundell) (SHG) 

Third period: 10:15 – Sam Bennett (Reinhart, Brad Marchand) (PPG); 15:50 – Couturier (Trevor Zegras, Jamie Drysdale); 17:43 – Bobby Brink (Noah Cates, Nick Seeler) (ENG); 18:33 – Christian Dvorak (Sanheim, Couturier) 

SOG: 26 (FLA) – 22 (PHI)

Some Takeaways

A quick start 

The first period was probably the best period the Flyers have played yet this year. The Flyers came out of the gate with immediate pressure, earning an early power play that went scoreless, and holding the Panthers to limited opportunities. In terms of shots on goal, the Flyers didn’t dominate the period, but the Flyers dominated possession of the puck and the pace of play. The shot attempts were 18-6 Flyers, and the Flyers carried an expected-goals-for percentage of 87%, according to Natural Stat Trick. They really took it to the Panthers, a very difficult task against the back-to-back Cup champs. 

Foerster gets his first 

As part of the Flyers’ strong first period, Tyson Foerster notched his first of the season on a beautiful individual play. After Couturier won a battle along the boards, Foerster received a pass around the circle and made a nice move to the slot, before beating the goaltender cleanly. While Brink and Cates weren’t on the ice for the goal, Foerster getting on the board is yet another example of the trio carrying the Flyers through their first three games. 

Vladar continues excellent start 

Who would have thought the Flyers goaltending would be the biggest positive story of the first three games? In two games versus the Panthers to start the season, Dan Vladar has allowed a grand total of four goals, stopping 56 shots of the 60 he’s faced. Tonight, he came up with all sorts of saves to keep the Flyers ahead in this one, and seems especially strong so far at controlling rebounds and remaining calm in net. So far so good from Vladar, and his calmness in net is a nice change of pace from the Flyers’ goalies of past seasons. 

Trevor Zegras makes the pass of the year…

Adding Zegras was the signature move of the Flyers offseason, and a major reason for that was the immediate influx of skill that Zegras brings. Well, for the first time in a Flyers uniform, we saw some magic from Zegras that ultimately decided this game. Late in the third period, with Sam Bennett and Aaron Ekblad bearing down on him, Zegras made a nifty move around the two. Absorbing contact, Zegras found an open Couturier, making a pass that possibly no one outside of him and Michkov could pull off. With two ultra-physical players right on him, the play was unbelievably impressive. 

…but a resurgent Couturier is the player of the game 

Sean Couturier was absolutely everywhere tonight. The Flyers desperately needed something from their captain, who had looked a bit sluggish in the first two games of the year, even with Matvei Michkov on his wing. Tonight, Couturier was involved in all the ways that we’ve come to expect from the captain. Disrupting plays defensively, forcing turnovers in the neutral zone and in the offensive zone, and continually making the smart play, Couturier had his hands in a lot tonight. With a four point night, including two goals, Couturier notched one of his biggest offensive outputs of recent years. The Flyers could really use a return to pre-injury form from Couturier, and tonight is certainly a hopeful step forward towards that outcome. 

A ref show 

There’s no such thing as a Florida Panthers game without a heavy whistle from the refs. There was a total of 10 penalties in this one, with five penalties being called on each side. Many blatant calls were made, but it certainly feels like the refs can’t ever swallow their whistle when the Panthers are playing. Maybe it’s just the fact that the Panthers play an in-your-face, aggressive style of hockey that’s conducive for high-penalty hockey to occur, but man it can be a really choppy experience. 

As for the Flyers power play, a power play late in the second was one of the most visually pleasing Flyers power plays in a long time. The Flyers had the puck in the zone for the entirety of the man advantage, with the trio of Michkov-Zegras-Drysdale putting on a clinic. The team went 0-5 today, but there were some really positive signs that the group could break through soon.

Emil Andrae impresses 

Andrae spoke pregame about his need to make an impact in his first game back with the big club in a while, and he did just that on Monday night. At least visually, Andrae looks the part. Tocchet wanted to see puck movement from the defenseman, and Andrae rose to meet that task pretty well. However, he still only received 10:22 TOI, the lowest among all defenseman. That’s not a ringing endorsement of Andrae’s play from Tocchet, but we’ll see what Tocchet thinks after the game of his performance. It might have just been the fact that the Flyers heavily leaned on the top two pairs in this game, but Andrae’s level of play should earn him another extended look here. We’ll see if Tocchet agrees soon.

Michkov continues to struggle 

Finally, as has been much discussed these first three games, something looks slightly off with Matvei Michkov. After being benched following his turnover at the end of the Carolina game, Michkov was given every opportunity tonight to redeem himself, given plenty of ice time in the first two periods of this game. Michkov ended with only 14:55 in ice time though, following a third period where Michkov saw the ice only a few times. Michkov’s TOI was the lowest among all other forwards in the Flyers top-9, and frankly, it’s a justified decision from Tocchet. You never want to see a young player as important as Michkov get benched like this, but Michkov’s play certainly isn’t warranting anything better right now. It’s imperative that the Flyers get him going soon, but for now, we can write this off as a rough start for the second year forward. 

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