Philadelphia Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet said he was “excited” to see Tyson Foerster make his preseason debut against the Boston Bruins Monday night. Tocchet’s excitement was warranted, and he wasn’t left disappointed after a strong performance from the 23-year-old.
After starting training camp wearing a non-contact jersey as he recovered from an offseason elbow procedure, Foerster was cleared for full contact last Tuesday, but was held out of the Flyers’ three ensuing preseason games. He finally drew into the lineup at TD Garden, though, and made quite an impression on the Flyers’ new bench boss.
“He’s a really good hockey player,” Tocchet told media postgame. “There’s just people that are just good hockey players. Knocks pucks down, he’s strong on the puck. He makes good puck decisions. He’s a really good hockey player.”
It didn’t take Foerster long to get on the scoresheet. In the middle frame, he set up Noah Cates with a quick feed in the low slot after some strong work on the forecheck.
Foerster got the play started by gaining the red line and firing the puck deep into the Boston zone. Some good hustle by Bobby Brink forced Jeremy Swayman to attempt an ill-advised pass and turn the puck over behind the net. Foerster then gathered the loose change, danced around Bruins defenseman Billy Sweezey, and connected with Cates for the score. Just textbook forechecking.
It wasn’t just Foerster who caught Tocchet’s attention, though. It was his entire line.
“There’s a lot of chemistry. You can tell the way they play. They’re connected. When you’re connected as a group, as a line, they kind of feed off each other, like that goal,” said Tocchet.
The line of Foerster, Cates, and Brink was the Flyers’ best trio of forwards last season. Most of the Flyers’ forward lines under John Tortorella were mixed and matched throughout the season, but the Foerster line largely remained intact thanks to its consistently reliable two-way play.
Per Natural Stat Trick, in 570 minutes of 5-on-5 ice time together, the Foerster line produced 30 goals and thrived at driving play, logging a 50.05 Corsi For percentage and 56.60 Goals For percentage, all despite only starting 37.62 of its shifts in the offensive zone.
Tocchet’s early approval of Foerster should come as no surprise. After Foerster drew high praise from the likes of Sidney Crosby, who played under Tocchet during the Pittsburgh Penguins’ run to back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017, the new Flyers bench boss came into the preseason with lofty expectations for Foerster.
It’s only one preseason game, but it’s clear Tocchet has already developed a soft spot for one of the Flyers’ top goal scorers.
