Phanatic Hockey Editor
Remember last Spring, when Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet came right out and said it: he hates all the after-whistle pushing and shoving, and would rather his (or any) players square off, just drop the gloves and get over it?
Well, this fall the club has the same amount of young, dynamic players who require protecting. Tocchet hasn’t changed his stance, although his roster has noticeably changed from this year to last.
No more Nic Deslauriers - given a dues-paying veteran’s exit to the Carolina Hurricanes where he won the Stanley Cup. No more Luke Glendening - left unsigned as a free agent and picked up by the Tampa Bay Lightning. No more Garnet Hathaway, either - traded during the summer to the Florida Panthers in a deal where he was the only human body.
If you bet new acquisition, defenseman Simon Benoit, as the first player to drop the gloves, in Game 4 at Tampa, Atlantic City awaits. If you had him as the only Flyer to engage in a fight over the season’s first 10 games, do not pass go, head directly to Vegas.
So what’s the plan? Maybe this is one of the Stanley Cup blueprints the organization *shouldn’t* have learned from the Carolina Hurricanes, having four mechanical lines grind down the opposition. Like it or lump it, physicality in its most brutal form is a Flyers trademark. When one of the beats cry "fix the 4th line, pleeeeaze" there's no amount of deck-chair re-arranging that's worth anything unless an element of mayhem is part of the plan.
“It’s gotta come naturally from this team. It’s gotta be part of your DNA,“ head coach Rick Tocchet quizzically said about baked-in toughness on this roster after a 3-2 shootout loss to the Seattle Kraken 8 days ago.
Other than that, not a single question from training camp up through last night’s 3-2 win against Colorado arose from those who closely cover the team. Since I was denied a chance to do so for the season’s first 3 weeks and also denied a pass to the postgame presser last night, I couldn’t ask Tocchet about another element present last year that's clearly missing from this lineup.
According to Hockeyfights.com, the Flyers recorded 25 bouts last season, most since they logged 36 in John Tortorella’s first season as bench boss 4 years ago. Deslauriers and Hathaway both notched 5 fights, while Glendening acted more like a (bleep) disturber and didn’t log any time with the gloves dropped.
Nick Seeler had a couple scraps, so did Noah Cates. And of course, Garrett Wilson made good on his one chance to prove he could handle himself in The Show.
As much as there is to criticize Tocchet, this is something he knows well about. It’s been a thing ever since Twitter exploded in 2010, but he is the Flyers’ all-time leader in Gordie Howe hat trick games with 9.
Depending on what statistician you believe, he was the last NHL player to score 30 goals and record 300 penalty minutes in one season (1987-88). He fought 23 times alone in his 2nd NHL season of 1985-86 and dropped the gloves well over 100 times (regular season and playoffs) for the Orange and Black. Why he's not publicly crying out for more guts, may be an indictment of the man upstairs.
The Flyers really don’t need more guys who can hit and punch and do little else.
Remember, among the franchise greats, Dave Schultz had 3 hat tricks and 20 goals the first Cup year; Dave Brown added seasons of 10 and 12 goals, Donald Brashear an 8-goal, 25-point full season, Dan Carcillo netted 14 goals combined in 2009-10 including a playoff OT marker. Outside of Philly, Chris Simon scored 29 goals and you have to begrudgingly admit Tom Wilson became a complete player riding shotgun with Alex Ovechkin on the Caps’ top line.
Last year, Deslauriers, Hathaway and Glendening contributed all of 3 goals and 96 penalty minutes as the muscle end of the 4th line, so the bar isn’t that high. Among other issues, Briere did not prioritize finding replacements on the market at all.
Noel Acciari came over from the Penguins. Can fight. Has fought. Never more than 3 times in a season. Acquired primarily for his defensive-zone faceoff acumen.
Wilson tried to establish himself in the Flyers’ preseason opener at Hershey vs. the Capitals but fought to a draw. It remains to be seen if he possesses any other NHL-worthy skills. Ten days ago in Boston, he got the call again. Even though he drew a regular shift with the Flyers down 3 late in an eventual 5-1 loss, he let that golden opportunity slip away.
Unless he learns to adapt, Wilson’s another Tyrell Goulbourne – better at damaging press box commodes than punching faces, skating or shooting.
Briere made an early shakeup move to bring in unsigned free agent Michael Bunting less than 24 hours after the loss to Tampa. He’s skated and dived and logged time on the top power-play unit but provided nothing of note. He posted 98 goals the last 5 years (with career bests of 23 in 2021-22 and 22-23 with Toronto) but maxed out at 103 PIMs in ‘23. He only has 2 NHL fights on his ledger.
Nobody did a thing in the second period of a 4-1 loss to Carolina the next night, when ‘Canes forward Jordan Martinook got in two too many punches on a prone Tyson Foerster as they , entangled at center ice. Fans howled for blood and booed the zebras, but there was zero pushback from the Orange and Black.
Pushback actually did happen on Tuesday, with Trevor Zegras getting into what amounted to two slap fights with Seattle goaltender Philipp Grubauer in a 3-2 shootout loss. If only literally any of the roster were as “horny” to shake things up and risk a shift in momentum as they are to make a play once they possess the puck, at least the punters would be distracted enough to miss whatever else has gone wrong.
Nothing but a couple post-whistle scrums happened in a 2-1 loss at Detroit which followed, at the same time the Dallas Stars announced David Perron would return for a 20th NHL season on a 1-year, $850k deal. Even upon breaking the streak on Saturday in a 3-1 home win vs. Ottawa, two wounded clubs couldn't muster the energy to hate quite enough. Then, only some minor scuffling and a dumb retaliation penalty on Monday night in the second period when Avs defenseman Cale Makar decked Acciari with a hard hit near the head.
If a guy with a long-standing connection to the team who's been fighting Stage 4 cancer can't get these guys all fought up, what can?
Last Thursday, Phantoms winger Noah Powell – after scoring the game-winning goal in a 3-1 triumph at
Hartford – made a pretty strong statement to which *someone* in the Flyers front office should pay attention.
“I feel that it’s the role that I gotta play, embracing it, bringing energy and run with it,” he said when asked by club radio voice Bob Rotruck to talk about his physically-centered role. “It’s definitely not something I’m afraid of, or shying away from. I feel like I’m pretty comfortable.”
Later in the interview, he strongly hinted that he’s taking extra practice to learn how to keep balanced and throw correctly because – wait for it – adding pugilistic skill might just get him to the NHL.
Powell, unlike Alex Bump, is an overlooked Flyers’ 5th-round draft choice who spent just 2 seasons in D1 hockey, one each with Ohio State and Arizona State. He tallied 43 goals in 61 games 3 years ago at Dubuque in American juniors and fought a little bit.
If he can chip in a goal for every couple fights or majors in Lehigh Valley, why not give him a shot later on?
It's a certainty that, unlike Bump, Powell won't be crushed in the line blender. He's 4th line all the way. What's the tipping point?
