Sean Couturier Reflects On A Year Of Pain, Pride & Promise With Flyers

And the grind didn't stop with the body. Couturier was also asked—repeatedly—to navigate a changing role under now-former head coach John Tortorella. The minutes weren't what he was used to. The fit wasn't always seamless. It was clear that the pair didn't see eye-to-eye in many situations. For a player of Couturier's pedigree and leadership status, it was, understandably, difficult.

"If you looked at the minutes, I think it tells how I was kind of maybe being pushed aside," he said, not with bitterness, but with a steady realism. "It is what it is. I didn't agree with the way I was getting pushed aside, but I was just trying to not be a distraction and keep my mouth shut, put in the extra effort to try to get back to where I should be."

That phrase—"keep my mouth shut"—did a lot of heavy lifting. Couturier wasn't throwing punches, but he wasn't hiding, either. He acknowledged the complexity of the situation, a tug-of-war between a player trying to rediscover himself and a coach with a different blueprint.

"I don't know," he answered, when asked why he might have fallen out of favor. "If you look at the way Torts wanted us to play, it was fast, quick on the puck—maybe not fully my type of game. If you look at my career, I was never the fastest guy, but I still found a way to be first on the puck. I think that's maybe the reason, but I don't know, honestly. It is what it is."

There's a vulnerability in those words. The sense that a player who's given so much—through injury, effort, and leadership—is still trying to understand where exactly he fit. It's not an indictment, but it is a human response. Couturier has always been that: honest, measured, and proud without being boastful.

Still, he kept bringing it back to the team. The group. The brotherhood that kept showing up, night after night, even when the results didn't follow.

"I think as long as we're all in this together and pushing in the same direction together, that's the main goal," he said. "I just felt, at times, I got pushed aside. I didn't know the reason or maybe wouldn't agree with the explanations or whatever was given to me, but whoever the coach is, it doesn't matter. We just need to be all in together."

That "all in together" was the central heartbeat of Couturier's media availability. Not the clashes with the coach. Not the frustrating lack of ice time and opportunity. Not the doubt. But the strength of the room, the refusal to fracture when things went sideways.

"I'm not too worried about the guys we have; we have a great group of guys that stick up for one another, stick together, and are tight," he said. "As much as this year's been tough, the one thing I'm proud of is no one's gonna point fingers. Guys still played hard for each other and wanted the best out of each other. That's the thing we need to keep building on."

Philadelphia Flyers center Sean Couturier (14) during warmups before a game against the Washington Capitals at the Wells Fargo Center on Feb. 6, 2025. (Megan DeRuchie-The Hockey News)

And maybe that's the clearest window into who Couturier is—and still wants to be. He's not chasing his old self; he's evolving into the leader the Flyers need now: someone who can withstand pressure and pain, setbacks and silence, and still be standing when the dust settles.

He knows the window isn't endless.

"I'm going into every year trying to win, make the playoffs, so it's been tough these last couple of years," he admitted. "I don't have as many years as there used to be, so...I don't want to say that the clock's ticking, but I want to win before I'm not playing. Hopefully we can turn this around quick and get back into contention mode and where this organization deserves to be."