The Philadelphia Flyers have had to deal with the brunt of injuries from the get-go, even before the season started, and it has been a helping hand as to why they have struggled so mightily. It’s not an excuse I would like to use because I think even if they were healthy, they would’ve struggled a little bit just based off some extremely clear fundamental issues from top to bottom. However, when you lose your top centre, arguably your best defenseman, your second line centre, and a top-6 winger for an extended amount of time, it’s going to hamper your abilities to win games. They have had secondary injuries as well as Derick Brassard, Nate Thompson, and Wade Allison have also missed an extended amount of time, on top of COVID protocols that ended the iron-man streaks of Claude Giroux and Ivan Provorov.
The two biggest injuries fell to Sean Couturier and Ryan Ellis and their impacts were felt instantly. Couturier had a blazing start to the season, scoring at a point per game pace after 12 games, however his play completely and evidently tailed off before he was finally sidelined with an injury. He played through it for a lot of games and it left many wondering what was wrong with their first line pivot. Once the injury news came to the forefront, his downward spiral in on-ice play made sense.
The biggest difference between Couturier and Ellis is that we’ve seen Couturier grow from his draft day to a top-20 centre in the NHL. We’ve seen what he’s capable of doing, we’ve seen his impact on and off the ice, and we know how important of a player he is to have penciled in your lineup. With Ellis, we only know about his importance based on his past with the Nashville Predators; we know he’s great, he’s arguably a top-20 defenseman when healthy, but we only saw him play 4 games in a Flyers uniform this year.
However, somehow within those four games, we noticed his impact instantly. It’s a very small sample size, but the way they looked defensively, and even offensively, was miles different than their 2020-21 form. His name being penciled in the lineup allowed the Flyers to ice 3 good to decent defense pairings. The Flyers brought him over from Nashville to pair up with Ivan Provorov, Rasmus Ristolainen was brought in to pair up with Travis Sanheim on the second pair, and Keith Yandle and Justin Braun were tasked to eat up the remaining minutes.
On paper and on the ice, those four games showed us the value of having a top-pair defenseman in the lineup. Provorov looked like the Provorov of 2019-20 when he had Matt Niskanen, Justin Braun was able to back up the oft-aggressive Yandle, and Ristolainen-Sanheim just needed a little bit of time to gel and find their chemistry. Everything was intact, everything was ready to get rolling, the only thing that could ruin it would be an injury to someone in the top four, especially in the top two.
The oft-injured Ellis tried playing through an injury he suffered in the pre-season, which is why he only lasted the first 3 games. He tried coming back to the lineup way too soon a little later and only lasted one more game. He recorded an assist in a loss to Dallas and looked really good but he’s been on the mend since. He has yet to receive surgery on a lower-body injury that he and the Flyers believe doesn’t require any further medical intervention.
The trickle down effect was as real as ever and the Flyers could only hold off the breaking of the dam for another month or so. Braun was promoted to the top pairing to re-kindle his chemistry with Provorov from the year prior and Yandle was left in the dust with whoever was playing that night, which for the most part was Nick Seeler. Yandle’s play deteriorated the quickest out of everyone as he was on the downturn before coming to Philadelphia. He went from 5 assists in 3 games with Braun as his opening-night partner to going almost 25 games without recording a point. His power play abilities were thrown out the window and his 5 on 5 play was atrociously bad, especially when paired with the supposed-7th defenseman.
Braun is a good, dependable, defensively-minded, bottom pair defenseman at this point in his career, and even though he has the ability to play all over the lineup, it became apparent in November-December that the added pressure, ice-time, and role increase was too much for him to handle. He hasn’t been terrible, he’s been okay since, but after a few weeks of good hockey it started becoming a little problematic and obviously not what the Flyers wanted or expected after their big offseason. His play was more noticeable because Provorov’s downward spiral continued. The top pair was no longer the reliable duo that the Flyers needed and as they continued to struggle, Ristolainen-Sanheim finally figured each other out and have arguably been the best pair this year.
Taking Couturier out of the lineup is as bad as taking out Ellis. Couturier plays all situations, he’s out there 5 on 5, 4 on 4, 3 on 3, power play, penalty kill, and with the net empty. He became the de-facto number one centre on the team once the Flyers put Claude Giroux on the wing. Giroux still takes a lot of face-offs but Couturier is still entrenched as the number one centre as his face-off numbers are very impressive nonetheless.
When he was struggling and playing hurt, it was felt almost immediately on and off the ice. The team was crumbling, there was no end in sight, the losing streaks started piling up, and the goals weren’t coming. The special teams were also a nightmare, a role he has taken upon himself to be the go-to-man on both power play and penalty kill. With Kevin Hayes already out at the time, the Flyers were becoming frighteningly thin at the centre position, let alone at forward altogether.
With the Flyers finally announcing that Couturier was placed on IR with an injury, the lineup had to be re-shuffled again and a slew of AHL players had to fill in several empty roster spots. The Flyers could never recover from Couturier’s injury, Ellis’ injury, and even Hayes’ injury from the pre-season. Other players kept coming in and out of the lineup like Joel Farabee and Derick Brassard. Wade Allison and Nate Thompson were out long term with an indefinite time-line, while Travis Konecny, Travis Sanheim, Giroux, and Provorov were placed in COVID protocols. The roster kept undergoing changes at both forward and defense positions.
It’s tough to pinpoint which injury was the most impactful or which player will have the greatest impact upon return but it depends on your train of thought. If you believe that defense is king and that defense wins championships, then losing Ryan Ellis was the most impactful because of the trickle-down effect that crumbled the Flyers’ defensive corps. Having to play Braun 20+ minutes, having to play Yandle 15+ minutes with an AHL-calibre partner, and having to rely or hope that Provorov would break out of his funk was disastrous in the end. Ellis coming back would solidify the top pair, giving the Flyers two good defensemen to eat up 23-25 minutes a game. It would alleviate added pressure for Ristolainen and Sanheim and let them freely play their aggressive games and it would have given the team a reliable defensive minded-offensive minded bottom pair that would eat up the rest of the minutes and help on special teams.
If you’re of the mind that offense is supreme and the need for a 200-foot centre that plays in all situations is more important, then Couturier’s absence hurt the most. The Flyers had to rely on Derick Brassard (whenever in the lineup), Scott Laughton, and Claude Giroux to eat up the top-6 centre minutes. It didn’t help that Hayes was out, came back, and then went on the mend again and it also didn’t help that Morgan Frost was struggling to find his game at the NHL level. The power play had to rely on other veterans who were struggling mightily and the penalty kill had to rely on bottom 6 players who couldn’t get the job done.
Before Thursday’s game against the Nashville Predators, the Flyers offense ranked 31st in goals per game, 18th in shots per game, 30th on the power play, and 31st in shooting percentage. Their defense ranked 25th in goals allowed per game, 29th in shots on goal allowed per game, and 26th on the penalty kill. In their entirety, the Flyers were 28th out of 32 teams, were tied with the Ottawa Senators in points for the 28th spot and had the Arizona Coyotes (44 points), Seattle Kraken (42 points), and the last place Montreal Canadiens (40 points) trailing behind them. Their impact has been felt mightily and it’s really hard to really fixate on one over the other.
However you cut it, both players are vitally important for the present and the future and their return is of the utmost importance. The Flyers are planning on re-tooling yet again, insiders have predicted an aggressive re-tool and re-model of the team and especially the defence, and with several question marks still needing a resolution with the trade deadline only a few days away, the roster for 2022-23 remains a puzzle.
What we do know is that both players factor in greatly, as both are signed through at least the next 5 years, both are the teams best players at their position, and their leadership is going to be instrumental. That is especially important whether Giroux remains a Flyer, or gets dealt and maybe comes back in the summer, or not.
