There weren’t many bright spots in the Philadelphia Flyers’ 4-3 loss to the Montreal Canadiens last Sunday night. It was perhaps the club’s most demoralizing loss of the season, even in spite of their furious push in the game’s dying minutes to make the final score appear less lopsided than it should’ve been.
By all accounts, their performance bordered on lifeless and mind-numbing for 58 minutes. The team lacked energy and urgency, and it resulted in a loss against one of the weaker teams in the Eastern Conference. Almost every Flyer in the lineup appeared out of sorts against Montreal.
But if there was one standout, it was defenseman Travis Sanheim.
Sanheim almost singlehandedly made the game interesting, logging points on all three of the Flyers’ goals. He netted the Flyers’ first marker of the night with a wrister through traffic that tied the game at one goal apiece late in the opening stanza and later sparked the Flyers’ belated push with another goal as time dwindled in the third period. He also registered a secondary assist on Travis Konecny’s late tally that brought the Flyers within a goal of tying the game.
The point production has receded since Sanheim’s first multi-point effort of the season, but his strong overall play has remained constant. And he’s doing it all without his defensive partner.
Cam York, who usually lines up alongside Sanheim on the Flyers’ top defensive pairing, suffered an upper-body injury late in the Flyers’ tilt against the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena last week. He has since been placed on injured reserve and is expected to miss the Flyers’ next several games.
But in his absence, Sanheim is thriving.
The 28-year-old’s play-driving numbers have been stellar throughout the start of the season. He leads the entire team (minimum 50 minutes of 5-on-5 ice time) with a 53.24 Corsi For percentage and an outstanding 55.26 Expected Goals For percentage, and the Flyers own a 90-76 shots advantage with Sanheim on the ice. But in four games without York by his side, Sanheim’s playing arguably the best hockey of his life. Not only has he seen a slight bump in Corsi For and Expected Goals For percentage (55.32 and 59.50, respectfully) without York, but he’s also been a defensive menace, stifling opposing players on the rush, sniffing out and disrupting enemy scoring chances, and blocking shots at a rate bested by only one Flyer — Nick Seeler, one of the top shot blockers in the entire NHL.
The Flyers have since won back-to-back games for the first time this season. And in their last two outings, they’ve allowed a grand total of one goal and 46 shots.
That’s no coincidence.
“Remember the first year how I felt about the situation? Look where [Sanheim] is now. It’s the best I’ve seen him play in the two-plus years that I’ve coached here,” Flyers head coach John Tortorella said after the Flyers’ loss to Montreal.
“I’ve seen him bring it to a whole different level.”
Rasmus Ristolainen, Sanheim’s new defensive partner, has stepped up his game as well. Once considered a 200-foot albatross on the blue line as recently as the 2023-24 season, thanks largely in part to his eyesore of a $5.1 million annual salary, Ristolainen has transformed himself into a legitimately steady, reliable presence on the back end.
With Sanheim, Ristolainen is rewriting the narrative.
While far from perfect in its first action against the Minnesota Wild last Saturday, the Sanheim-Ristolainen duo at least got off to a good start from a point production standpoint. Sanheim logged an assist, and Ristolainen registered a goal and a helper of his own — still his only two points of the season to date.
In its last two outings, the pairing’s largest contributions have primarily come on the opposite side of the ice. Sanheim and Ristolainen were superb in Beantown Tuesday night against the Boston Bruins, guiding the Flyers to their first shutout of the season. The strong defensive play continued Thursday when the Flyers hosted the St. Louis Blues for the Halloween Spooktacular, and if not for an unlucky bounce off of Sanheim’s skate that landed right on the stick of Nathan Walker, the Flyers may have pulled off back-to-back shutout performances.
The excellent play-driving hasn’t ceased either. In the Flyers’ last four games, they’ve held a 56.90 5-on-5 Corsi share with Sanheim and Ristolainen on the ice, alongside an outstanding 63.48 Expected Goals For percentage. They’re spending over 15 minutes of ice time together per game in York’s absence, and that heavy usage has been earned.
It’s unclear when York will be healthy enough to return to the lineup. Flyers general manager Danny Briere suggested he could be out of action for at least two weeks. But if he requires additional time to fully recover, it would be counterproductive to rush him back.
After all, Sanheim and Ristolainen seem to be holding down the fort just fine.
Statistics courtesy of NHL.com and Natural Stat Trick.
