Bobby Brink has finally earned John Tortorella’s trust: ‘He’s growing and deserves the ice time’
Brink, who last season was in and out of Tortorella’s doghouse, has already posted a career-high 32 points.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Maybe all Bobby Brink needed was some time. Maybe he just needed some grace, too.
Because on Monday, Brink played the most minutes of any forward in the Flyers’ 2-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. He skated 37 seconds more than Travis Konecny and 35 more than Tyson Foerster.
His 21 minutes, 37 seconds was a career-high in his 133 NHL games.
“It was nice getting those minutes,” Brink told reporters in Tampa Bay on Wednesday. “I appreciate it. Every guy would rather be out there than sitting on the bench watching. So, it’s a good feeling and I’m glad he can trust me like that.”
The “he” is coach John Tortorella, who used Brink at all strengths on Monday, including 68 seconds on the penalty kill. Brink has a total of 69 seconds skating when the Flyers are shorthanded this season.
“He’s growing and deserves the ice time that he got and is getting,” Tortorella said on Wednesday.
It’s taken some time for Tortorella to find confidence in Brink’s game. Last season he went off after the Flyers’ win against the Vancouver Canucks when asked about Brink standing up to Nikita Zadorov, who is nine inches taller.
“Brink has got to learn how to check,” Tortorella said. “He’s driving me crazy, he is. I love the kid but he doesn’t know how to check his [expletive]. He has got to learn that part of the game. I don’t care who he stood up to. He’s got to learn that part of the game and we’re going to spend some time teaching him, that’s for sure.”
The tide started to turn as the season wore on, despite healthy scratches and demotions to Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League. Brink told The Inquirer in May that he thought he improved on “board battles and being in the right positions at the right time and playing within the structure. I think learning to make plays at the NHL level and what works and what doesn’t.”
That has been shown tenfold this season as the 23-year-old winger has put up a career-high 32 points (10 goals, 22 assists) in 66 games. And in December, almost a year after Tortorella went off, the bench boss gave the forward some praise.
“He didn’t know how to spell checking last year. He was on the wrong side of pucks. Now he’s on the right side of pucks, checking, and he’s getting sticks on pucks and then he’s in behind the net making plays offensively,” he said on Dec. 13, the day before Brink finally got to play a game in his home state of Minnesota; Brink was a healthy scratch there in 2023-24.
“It’s nice to see his growth on and off the ice,” captain Sean Couturier told The Inquirer on Thursday. “He’s going be a big part of our team in the future. Just got to keep growing, keep maturing, and embrace that role.
“You can see he’s a guy that can make plays and probably has produced his whole life. It’s not always easy to adjust to the NHL when you’re producing less and you go through some tough stretches. But he seems to always keep a good mindset, good attitude, and fights through it and you see his confidence grow as the year went on.”
Brink, Noah Cates, and Foerster have skated together since late November, and the trio has connected and become a strength for the coaching staff and an example for the other lines. Playing against some of the top lines in the NHL, they out-chanced opponents with Cates and Brink having already posted career highs.
On Feb. 25, Brink had a goal and three assists; up until that game, he had never registered more than two points. Eight games later he was moved onto a line with Ryan Poehling and Olle Lycksell and became the driver, posting his second career multi-goal game on March 13 vs. the Lightning.
“I think every player plays well when they have good confidence. I think it’s the biggest part of this game, if you have confidence you’re feeling [it] out there, you look great,” defenseman Emil Andrae said. “He’s been really good and he’s been building that confidence over this season. You can see he has confidence in his game right now when he makes plays.
“He’s been very good for us this season so I love that he’s getting better.”
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Breakaways
Sam Ersson will start against the Washington Capitals (7 p.m., NBCSP). ... Tortorella was asked if he expects defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen back in the near future, and he said, “No.” The Flyers later announced late Thursday that Ristolainen is “week-to-week” with an upper-body injury.