PHILADELPHIA — Not that many fans in the Wells Fargo Center Saturday night would have known, but a guy who should retire (not anytime soon) as one of the most respected Flyers in franchise history had an anniversary of sorts to celebrate while trying to play against the Vancouver Canucks.
Sean Couturier, appointed not all that long ago as captain of a Flyers team that has missed the playoffs four years running and has started out a possible fifth miss with a 1-3-1 mark through its first five games, played in his 800th regular season game as a franchise pillar Saturday.
He’s been here since being selected No. 8 overall in the 2011 NHL Draft. He made the team as an 18-year-old out of training camp that year – the Flyers were going through one of what would be many rebuilds that continues to this day – and he’d become one of the best defensive forwards in the NHL before long.
As he matured, and as the team around him devolved offensively, Couturier was moved up in the lineup until he became a top-line center with franchise star Claude Giroux by his side. He scored 14 goals, a career-high, in 66 games during 2016-17. And over the next two seasons, he scored 62 goals over 162 out of a possible 164 regular season games after his move to the top line.
With Giroux aging and becoming more a playmaker than scorer, Couturier became counted on as a go-to guy. With the onset of the pandemic in early 2020, he still managed 22 goals in 66 games (winning the NHL’s Selke Award as top defensive forward), then 18 goals over 45 games in 2020-21.
But back pain short-circuited his 2021-22 season, and amid subsequent setbacks from which he only recovered fully in the past year, along with dealing with the rigors of what is now his 13th season, his game has slowed.
But to celebrate game No. 800, and with the team just getting back late Friday afternoon from a four-game road trip through Western Canada and Seattle, Flyers head coach John Tortorella started Couturier Saturday … on left wing of a fourth line. Granted, you don’t want to overwork a guy that missed 22 months with severe back problems not long ago, along with some time last year due to a sports hernia.
But a fourth line? Not that it seemed to bother him or anything…
“Found out right before the game,” Couturier said. “(It’s) a little adjustment. I’ve played (left wing) before, you know, with (Giroux) for a couple years. We would switch, flip-flop here and there.”
Yes, but usually they were doing that on the No. 1 Flyers line. Anyway, as for the sub-par, season-opening trip, he added, “Everyone goes through that kind of schedule at one point in the year. It’s on us to be better prepared.”
For this team, the now 31-year-old Couturier knows he’s coming off an 11-goal season, and can’t be shocked if he’s in for a role change with so many young and at least a few talented offensive players around him.
“It’s hard to judge right now,” he said when asked about the first five games. “Five-on-five, we’re not creating enough off the rush. A lot of one-and-dones. So we have to find some chemistry and get some lines going.”
Whatever he has to do to help his club win, he’ll do. But that still seems to be a tall challenge.
“We wanted to put in a solid effort and make our fans proud,” said Couturier, who played just under 16 minutes against the Canucks, and still has only one point (an assist) to show for his first five games. “Tonight wasn’t our best. We’ve just got to do better.”
