This past Thursday’s performance against the Toronto Maple Leafs went as expected, with the Philadelphia Flyers being heavily outshot and heavily outplayed, and then they made things interesting by “playing hard” but couldn’t complete the comeback.
It was a valiant effort, especially from the makeshift top line that John Tortorella pieced together in the third period with Morgan Frost, Travis Konecny, and Joel Farabee. The trio combined for 2 goals in 83 seconds midway through the third period and were inches away from actually completing the comeback had Farabee been able to deposit a Travis Sanheim setup into the yawning cage.
The most notable forward in the game and probably the last few weeks has been Morgan Frost, and you would think that his head coach would be wary of the changes in his game. However, postgame, Tortorella said that Frost played “brutal” – an interesting take on youngster’s performance.
The Toronto Maple Leafs were by and far the better team, they possessed the better skill players, they dominated the first 50 minutes, and it showed on the scoreboard but it wasn’t until the very end of the second period. Carter Hart did all he could to keep the Maple Leafs at bay, who peppered him with 11 shots in the first period and then 15 in the second, while the Flyers had 3 and 5, respectively. The Flyers almost got away with their incessant penalties, especially late in the second period that not only drew the ire of the head coach, but essentially got the Leafs back on the board.
Farabee took a holding minor with 5:47 remaining in the second period and even though the Leafs didn’t score on the power play, they kept possession of the puck and scored 3 seconds after the expiration. Then Rasmus Ristolainen was whistled down a holding minor as well with only 50 seconds left and the Maple Leafs’ 5-forward power play unit made quick work of their 4th opportunity as they scored the go-ahead goal 13 seconds later.
The Leafs opened the third period with another goal, this time 33 seconds in, to give them an unassailable 3-1 lead with 3 goals in a span of 3:43. The Flyers at this point in time looked dead in the water and were being outshot 28-8 against a Maple Leafs team that outshot and outplayed the Tampa Bay Lightning similarly in their previous game. After the Flyers failed to convert on a 5-on-3 advantage, William Nylander made it 4-1 and seemingly iced the game. However, hometown product Frost had other ideas as he spearheaded a frantic final 8 minutes alongside Konecny and Farabee.
Even after Farabee’s open-net miss that would’ve tied the game, the Flyers had a 6-on-4 advantage with Carter Hart pulled and Timothy Liljegren called for an interference minor. Unfortunately, the Flyers couldn’t control the puck and Farabee was called for a roughing penalty that flabbergasted the Orange and White. When you check the replays, T.J. Brodie essentially flopped as Farabee didn’t make contact, nullifying a glorious opportunity to tie the game late.
No Flyer had a great game, but some had a decent effort and Frost was amongst that group and to single him out might’ve been a product of the question that was posed. The question was directly about Frost and Tortorella said he was brutal for most of the game, he needed offence so he put the trio on the ice together, and then they created chances in the end, but doubled down by saying he didn’t like his game for the most part.
Frost played 18:52, recorded a goal, had an assist taken away on the third goal, fired 3 shots on goal, was a +2, even won 10 faceoffs, and in terms of analytics he was one of two players – Owen Tippett – who had a better CF (Corsi For) than CA (Corsi Against) at a 13:7 ratio. After Thursday’s game, he extended his goal streak to 3 games, he had 4 goals and 3 assists in 6 games, and he has been the pivot down the middle of the two most successful lines in the past 2 weeks – first with Tippett and James van Riemsdyk and now with Konecny and Farabee.
It’s understandable that Tortorella might’ve been upset about the penalty that Frost was called for in the second period, but his penalties weren’t costly as opposed to Farabee’s first minor which ended in a goal 3 seconds after it was killed, or Ristolainen’s minor which ended up being a huge momentum killer, and even Farabee’s second minor which nullified their power play at the end of the game.
No one played a great game, especially in the first 2.5 periods, but the Maple Leafs were also a team that entered the matinee on a 16-3-4 run since the calendar flipped to November. They’ve been defensively staunch even without their top defensemen in the lineup, their goaltending has held up more than anyone anticipated, and then you have a lethal quartet of offensive weapons in Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares, and William Nylander. Chances were hard to come by for an offensively challenged team like the Flyers and Morgan Frost is finally coming out of his shell after years of his previous head coaches trying to change his game and turn him into a 200-foot player.
If Frost turned the puck over, was out of position, took costly penalties, and was on the ice for several goals against then the “brutal” tag could’ve been justified. Noah Cates didn’t really have a good game with his CF/CA ratio being 6:11, Kevin Hayes had an assist on the power play goal to start the game but wasn’t all too visible the rest of the way, Nicolas Deslauriers was a -2 in under 7 minutes of ice time, and at one point in the game Tortorella juggled the defensive pairings and had Ristolainen with Justin Braun, which helps nobody. In a season that is supposed to be the measuring stick for the future and beyond, letting your offensive weapons do their thing should be the MO moving forward.
A little over 24 hours later, the Flyers headed to Raleigh to face the Carolina Hurricanes and dropped another nail-biter, 6-5. In that game, Frost collected an assist, was a plus 1, took 2 shots on goal, but took a minor penalty that ended up leading to a goal. Tortorella kept playing him throughout the game though as he finished with 16:01, which was the 5th most ice time for a forward, and nothing was said pregame or postgame about his prior comments. Maybe it’s water under the bridge, maybe it was misconstrued, maybe they’re still dealing with it internally, but Frost had another decent performance in a game where the Flyers looked dead in the water for the first 45-50 minutes.
Frost is what he is, and that is a playmaking, offensive-minded, drive-pushing although undersized centre, which is something the Flyers have lacked over the last 5+ years. Outside of Konecny, Farabee, and Hayes, the Flyers need players to be motivated, driven, and confident with the puck on their stick, something that Frost has seemingly shown in the last couple weeks.
Maybe this is just another tactic in Tortorella’s quiver, a motivational tool of sorts to see how Frost will come back after being called out. It apparently worked wonders for Cam York, Konecny hasn’t looked back since he was benched in October, and Wade Allison looked sharper after being benched alongside Frost before his injury.
Maybe we’re missing something that the coaching staff saw or maybe it’s another tough love approach. Whatever it is, it’s definitely not the first time it has happened and it definitely won’t be the last time it happens either. Seemingly, in Tortorella we trust as he has brought on a sense of accountability and responsibility for a team that never had it for close to a decade.
Nevertheless, it was an interesting comment towards a player who recently said that he’s probably playing his best hockey of his career.
