After the Philadelphia Flyers dropped a crucial game against the New York Islanders Monday night, head coach Rick Tocchet was not trying to be careful or gentle with his words. He was asked how Trevor Zegras has been performing as of late and he let it rip.
The Flyers came into Monday night’s game as a high-pressure situation. If the were able to secure a win in regulation, they would suddenly find themselves back in the tightly contested playoff race with some solid footing as we head into the final three months of the season. But with one, terrible, brutal, and ugly 4-0 shutout loss, the Flyers are four points out of a playoff spot. With the only true path available to them being jumping over the Islanders for the third spot in the Metropolitan division, it was an opportunity available for the Flyers and they blew it.
And unfortunately, part of this underperforming — or regression to the mean — lays at the feet of the top offensive contributor not doing a whole lot.
In the 13 games since Dec. 30, Zegras has scored four goals and seven points as the team has gone on a brutal 4-7-2 stretch. It’s not even just the stat line but watching Zegras in January compared to how he started the season or even just over a month ago, looks like a player that has been sapped of all his energy. Muggsy Bogues in Space Jam type of stuff.
Flyers coach Rick Tocchet highly critical of Trevor Zegras as of late
In the middle of Monday’s game, Rick Tocchet swapped Zegras and Matvei Michkov in the lineup. The young Russian phenom has been gradually putting more and more effort on the ice and it has been so much better to watch him as of late. So, he gets the promotion as Zegras gets demoted to a line with Noah Cates and Bobby Brink.
Tocchet was asked about the switch after the game and he simply went on about how Zegras has not been good enough.
“Yeah, it’s been slipping. Not just tonight but I think a bunch of games,” Tocchet said during his post-game media availability Monday. “It looks like he’s not pushing the pace — he’s sort of waiting around. It’s a bunch of guys our second guy — we call it second quick — was nowhere to be found. First guy goes in and you need your second guy to go in there and look for a puck or a body, and we’re late. Trevor has been like that for a while now. So, he’s got to start to step up and push the pace.”
The tactical explanation is appreciated, but it is what we’re also all seeing on the ice. The Flyers overall have been less active in retrieving pucks or even just supporting someone on the rush or simply entering the zone with possession — and it has been highlighted with Zegras as the main contributor on this team not doing anything different.
Zegras came in energized for the first few months of being a Flyer. Finally escaping the shackles of the Anaheim Ducks and being reunited with his off-ice buddies in the orange and black, the 24-year-old forward immediately became the team’s leading scorer and has held that title virtually through the entire season so far.
Now, things might have just settled more into his season-wide average with the hills and valleys of what he can bring on the ice. Hopefully, it is just a matter of his coach telling him that he needs to pick it up and put a little more effort in on every play, and not some detrimental fatigue settling in.
Flyers will need to shake off the loss quickly as they visit the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday for the first half of a back-to-back before they go down to Boston for a game against the Bruins on Thursday.
