On scratching Sean Couturier and asking the difficult questions

In many ways, this has been a strange week for the Flyers -- in ways and for reasons which we\'ll get to in a bit -- but undeniably, it has been a positive one as far as the results are concerned. The Flyers were coming off a tough stretch which saw them, if you recall, walloped by the Lightning, then only just managing to beat a deeply struggling Sharks team, and then beaten pretty handily by the Leafs and the Bruins. Make no mistake, these were some tough opponents, but this also certainly made for a difficult run to come in the midst of trying to secure a playoff spot.

But this week was different -- so far we\'ve seen them turn around and pretty handily beat the Leafs on home turf this time, and then secure a point on the road against the Hurricanes (who will almost certainly be a legitimate Cup contender in short time). In short, they\'ve done well to collect points that they\'ve needed, but more impressively, they\'ve managed to hang with two of the best teams in the league, and do it in pretty convincing fashion.

And they did this, we remember, without their captain in Sean Couturier, who\'s been healthy scratched for these last two games.

It goes without saying that there has been much discussion thrown about around this whole situation. Rarely do we see a captain healthy scratched, and even rarer is it to see them scratched practically immediately after being named captain. And even rarer still is it to see their coach as cagey about discussing the situation as John Tortorella has been of late. So all we\'re left with are rumors and speculation, left to run wild.

One of those rumors -- this, a report from Elliotte Friedman -- is that the reasoning for the scratching is that Tortorella has an issue with Couturier\'s pace of play. And while the broad scratching of a new captain feels surprising, this particular development and reasoning does not. The Flyers have moved to a distinctly more uptempo, rush-based offense this year, and it\'s something that\'s undeniably served them well. But it\'s also no secret that Couturier\'s level of play has slipped recently, and despite some movement around in the lineup and a decrease in his minutes, his impacts still look to have taken a hit.

So as we make our detour into the realm of feelings, we have to acknowledge the difficult position we find ourselves in -- at once it feels surprising, indeed upsetting, to see a player who has been as instrumental to the team\'s success in the past as Couturier healthy scratched pretty unceremoniously, but it\'s hard to deny that the team has looked faster, more dynamic, dare we say, better, in these last two games without him.

Now, here is where we\'ll take a moment to let logic back in. Couturier certainly hasn\'t had an easy go of things here -- after being shut down back during the 2021-22 season, he underwent back surgery and spent the whole of the following season just rehabbing and working himself back up to game speed. But game speed, we know, is hard to replicate in a practice setting, which made the beginning of the season a bit of a trial by fire for him, as he had that first taste of real game speed in well over a calendar year, and was tossed heavy and difficult minutes to work with right from the hop. It would certainly be easy to chalk up his recent dip in play to overwork and fatigue, note that he likely just needs a bit of a break and some more time to get back to real top form, and to punt our anxieties to next season.

This is also just a two game sample that we\'re talking about, with a team who, despite the overall success that they\'ve had this season, has also not been without their struggles for consistency. Leave him out of the lineup long enough, there\'s a chance that we see them regressing and looking now like they desperately need him back in the lineup.

But all of that said, the glimmer of an uncertainty has still been left with us.

When Couturier was named captain, it felt like a bit of a formality -- to many, between his time spent here in the organization to the excellent work he\'s put in over his years here, he felt like the de facto captain anyway. And because of that, while we\'ve spent so much time thinking about this rebuild (which in many ways even now feels like it\'s been a bit accelerated), it\'s always been Couturier in our minds being the one to lead the rebuilding team to their next era of real success.

Who could forget his hat trick scored on a torn MCL in Game 6 of the Flyers\' 2018 playoff series against the Penguins -- the last time they played in a real, genuine, in-person series, what we\'re hoping to see again in just a few short weeks. He’s long been the anchor for this team in the best way, and his current position in flux makes for a difficult pill to swallow.

Couturier has never been a player who played with a truly massive amount of speed, but that was okay, because he was always able to slow the game down to his level and do his work that way. It’s what made him so effective, his control over the game in front of him. But right now, the speed of the game seems to be controlling him, and it isn’t being kind.

To fall into a cliché (that we hope we’ve earned by now) before we go, time truly does heal most wounds, and we hope that will be the case here. To say it feels likely that with more time and settling in, his control of play will return and all of this will feel like a silly little blip on an otherwise stellar playing history. He will rebound, as he always does.

But until this rebound happens, the team will have to contend with this looming question of what to do if the current system no longer suits the player who has long been one of their very best. Who or what will be the one to give?

It’s an untidy situation with even worse timing, and a larger question that will surely linger even beyond Couturier’s eventual return to the lineup.

Talking Points