Sean Couturier is healthy scratch tonight (March 19) when the Flyers host the Toronto Maple Leafs. Reporters at this morning’s skate noticed the recently acquired Denis Gurianov, Cam Atkinson and Couturier were all doing extra work at practice after the remaining players left the ice, a signal they were scratched for tonight. Marc Staal also was doing extra work and is scratched.
Couturier confirmed the news after practice.
The notion that Couturier, a former Selke Award winner and recently named the 20th captain in the team’s history, would be a healthy scratch seemed ridiculous earlier in the season. But over the last few weeks, Tortorella placed Couturier up and down in the lineup, eventually seeing him on a fourth line and often paired with Nic Deslauriers as one of his wingers. Couturier was instrumental in Deslauriers first goal of the year Saturday night in Boston when the Flyers lost 6-5. But it appears Tortorella’s expectations of Couturier is different (at least from Tortorella’s view) from what Couturier is doing on the ice in now more limited minutes. If anything it seems this will be a fork in the road for the Flyers, whether they are capable of gutting out some wins with an already thinbare back end and now Couturier watching — at least for Tuesday night — from the wings.
When asked earlier in March about the switch in lines, Tortorella cited Scott Laughton as being on the fourth line earlier in the season. “I don’t do by – and it’s certainly not a disrespect in any fashion to the player — I’m not gonna run the bench based on what people think about you, or where you sit as a veteran guy, a captain,” he told PHLY. “I just don’t do it that way.”
Tortorella doubled down on that mindset regarding Couturier on Monday. “I’ll never worry about him as far as effort, as far as attitude,” the coach said of him according to NBCSP. “He is a pro. I have a tremendous amount of respect for him. I’m not worried about that. I need him to be better, that’s all.”
When asked about his situation the same day Couturier said he thought his play improved recently. “If you would asked me this a couple of weeks ago when I would mess up defensively and was costing games to the team, I probably would say I deserve it, to be demoted,” Couturier said. “I feel the last couple of games, the limited opportunities I’m getting, the ice time, I think I’m playing all right. Obviously not great, but I’m just trying to do the most of what I can right now and just be a good teammate. Hopefully other guys step up and I can kind of step up here eventually.”
Couturier has 36 points (11 goals, 25 assists) in 64 games this year and was averaging between 19 to 20 minutes at the beginning of the season. His season high for minutes (thanks ESPN) was 24:01 against Calgary on Jan. 6. In January he averaged 20:35 ice time per game. In February that dropped to 15:45 and this month has declined to 14:14, including 11:10 in the Boston defeat Saturday night.
If the message wasn’t clear to the players before, this scratching will only drive that point home: nobody is safe from being benched or watching crucial games down the stretch from the press box. Perhaps it’s a case where Couturier — essentially not playing hockey for two years after two back surgeries — hit a wall where previously both player and coach thought 20 minutes a night was a given. He did it before, he can do it again. Yet all the offseason rehab and training couldn’t possibly prepare him for what his 31-year-old body two surgeries later can do over an 82-game season. It’s a learning season of sorts for Couturier (and hopefully for Tortorella) in terms of knowing what he can and can’t do anymore.
The future for the Flyers and Couturier looks to be quite solid, especially with six more years left on his contract ($7.75 million AAV) and a full no movement clause (NMC) part of it. So the chances he’s out the door this summer are remote. Maybe what both sides need to do moving forward is “load managment,” namely seeing Couturier at his best for between 60 to 65 games a year but, just like a starting goalie, having nights off to maximize what he can do in those games he’s playing.
Regardless, Couturier is not playing and the Flyers, who were already in tough with this brutal stretch of stiff competition this week, need to win without their captain tonight.
