The first four games of the Flyers season wrapped up with a 1-2-1 record, some great work on the power play, some exciting rushes and some questionable goaltending. But one of the underlying factors from the West Coast trek that became quite apparent the longer it went was how the Flyers dealt (or didn’t deal) with some liberties taken against some of their better players.
The attempted liberties have been visible since preseason when Sean Couturier answered the bell after Matvei Michkov was tussling with the immortal Bruin Billy Sweezey, leading the captain to drop the gloves and fight. Meanwhile in the game against Edmonton, the Flyers’ Jamie Drysdale skated through the neutral zone and got leveled on a good clean open ice check. Tyson Foerster jumped in to defend Drysdale and spent 17 minutes in the box. While the idea of defending your teammate is great for the room and gives each player a sense they’re in it together, even coach John Tortorella wasn’t lauding Foerster for the move. Instead Tortorella mentioned how Drysdale needs to protect himself in areas where a big hit could leave him the injury-riddled blueliner quite vulnerable.
Tortorella also made reference to Foerster spending a lot of time off the ice, meaning lines were jumbled up at times and a valueable contributor sat and watched the proceedings like the rest of us. As if that wasn’t enough, Joel Farabee (who tried to fight Blake Coleman in Calgary for a hit on Konecny) had a fight against the geriatric-leaning Corey Perry, holding his own during the brief scrap. And Couturier fought Troy Stetcher after Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner earned an Oscar nomination for dipping his shoulder into Couturier, getting clipped and having his hands outstretched to officials from the near fatal collision that transpired.
On Thursday night in Seattle, the Flyers saw not one but two big hits delivered by two newly acquired Kraken blueliners. The first of them was in the second period against the Mad Russian by Brandon Montour. Michkov turned trying to avoid the hit but made the impact far worse.
Although looking injured initially, Michkov seemed to brush it off and missed no ice time. A second after the hit Owen Tippett tried to nail Montour but just grazed him. No penalties were called on the play but the Flyers never seemed to try and at least give Montour as good a check as he delivered to the Russian rookie.
Near the end of the second, Konecny took a brutal hit that in locker room speak is intentionally unintentional. Chris Tanev lined up Konecny shoulder to shoulder and rammed him, caused Konecny’s head (worst case scenario) to seemingly hit the glass and his helmet to fly off. It wasn’t a flying elbow, a stick swinging at his noggin or a flying dropkick. By the rulebook it was legal and no penalty was called. But anyone believing Tanev wasn’t aware of what he was doing or meant to do needs a reality check. Konecny was down briefly but, after what should have been concussion protocol thanks to spotters, looked fine. A fight with Yanni Gourde, with the game at the time looking out of reach, was dreaded by most fans. Another hit to the head certainly wouldn’t help Konecny on this night but he didn’t get clocked.
The two constants through four games are as follows: the Flyers have not had Nick Seeler in the lineup in the first four games. And Nic Deslauriers, now on the back half of a four-year contract, was not in the lineup, sitting as a healthy scratch. Both Seeler and Deslauriers will not lead the Flyers in goals, assists or points this season. Also hindsight is 20/20. But had a healthy Seeler or Deslauriers played it’s doubtful Michkov’s earlier hit wouldn’t have been resolved immediately with an equally big hit or challenging Montour. Having Deslauriers sit when some of the bigger names on the team are taking big hits or, even more alarming, having to fight to defend themselves, is another issue altogether.
For example, nobody could argue Montour’s hit on Michkov doesn’t happen if Deslauriers was dressed on the fourth line. Nobody can predict the future, except maybe Michkov. What Deslauriers could have done (had he been dressed) is perhaps at least made it clear to the Kraken that such hits on the Flyers’ stars were going to be curtailed. Or, at worst, then the Kraken stars would have to keep their heads on a swivel realizing both sides could play that game. Had that transpired then, it would be reasonable to think Tanev’s hit on Konecny would’ve been avoided. Hell after Konecny fought Yanni Gourde (this writer initially thought he was squaring off against Tanev), the Kraken didn’t look all that menacing.
Why it took Konecny alone to try and settle things is headscratching, especially for a locker room culture that often lauded itself for being extremely tight and prides itself on sticking up for each other. Perhaps you don’t want to risk having a skater sit five, seven or possibly seventeen minutes for fighting days after your coached admonished Foerster for doing just that. And you don’t want your talented players to be putting themselves in bad positions where they are going to get blown up really good. But most importantly you also don’t want to see your stars sit for days, weeks, months or the season due to taking needless hits.
Granted some might argue having Deslauriers in the lineup puts the Flyers at a disadvantage, seemingly having 11 forwards and an enforcer who has seven goals in his first two years of his tenure in Philadelphia. They would be correct as he’s not potent offensively. In fact he’s quite offensive to some in terms of offensive production for the limited ice time he’s awarded. His presence might also be a negative to the Flyers in terms of analytics or metrics. But when three players over two games are hit, hit hard and, outside of Foerster and Konecny himself, nobody seems to lift a finger to address the hit, it’s up to a guy like Deslauriers to ensure this stops or will no longer be tolerated. Scratching would mean the Flyers (at least for the next few games or until Seeler gets back) are putting far more productive forwards at risk of being nailed by either clean, questionable or just downright Matt Cooke-ish moronic hits. It’s certainly not worth the risk especially to a rookie like Michkov, a physically diminutive Konecny, an injury-prone Drysdale and a newly turned 18-year-old in Jett Luchanko.
One of the first things general manager Danny Briere mentioned to Michkov when he arrived in Philadelphia was how he showed the rookie a video of Deslauriers fighting, most likely against the Rangers’ Matt Rempe in arguably last season’s best fight. Briere told Michkov the enforcer would be his new best friend. It’s probably a good idea, especially if Seeler remains “day to day” according to Tortorella, to see that new best friend in the lineup against Vancouver. The home-and-home against Washington (and Tom Wilson) would be almost criminal if Deslauriers isn’t in one or both of those if Seeler’s still out. It’s difficult juggling players to get them all some playing time especially when Luchanko’s situation remains unclear. A far more pressing issue would be juggling lineups if your stars are on injured reserve or long term injured reserve from taking hits that go unaddressed. Or injured trying to stand up for themselves, especially when Deslauriers was signed for that particular aspect two seasons ago.
