New Flyers forward Kieffer Bellows starting to flash his ‘offensive instincts’ with key players out

Nearly a week and a half after the Flyers claimed forward Kieffer Bellows off of waivers from the New York Islanders on Oct. 27, he found himself in a familiar situation — watching games from the press box as a healthy scratch.

Bellows, 24, participated in three uneventful contests with the Flyers before coming out of the lineup for a four-game stretch. But because he had been thrown into game action immediately with hardly any practice time or film review, Bellows benefited from watching the Flyers play from the rafters.

“You notice kind of what [coach John Tortorella] wants out of the systems and what he wants out of guys in what zones and what situations and the plays that he wants made,” Bellows said. “Obviously, he wants us confident with the puck and making plays, but there’s a time and a place for it. And that’s something that you learn through watching the game or watching clips.”

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Now, as the Flyers deal with an onslaught of upper-body injuries, the latest to forwards Travis Konecny and Scott Laughton, Tortorella has called on Bellows to check back into the lineup. This time around, Bellows isn’t just a body filling a spot on the roster. He’s made a positive offensive impact in his last two games against the Calgary Flames and the Washington Capitals, generating scoring chances for himself and his fellow linemates on the Flyers fourth line, winger Nick Deslauriers and center Lukáš Sedlák.

While he hasn’t been able to capitalize on his chances, Bellows attributes his recent improvement with his increased confidence with the puck.

“Just going out there and just knowing that I have the skill set to make plays and create scoring chances for myself and other guys,” Bellows said. “I think that’s really what I’m focusing on. But being good defensively for Coach and sticking to the systems, but also want to get that puck knowing that I can make plays with it.”

Tortorella is taking notice, too. He was hesitant to evaluate Bellows after his first handful of games as a Flyer, but now Tortorella said he is starting to see his offensive potential. According to the Flyers’ stat tracking, Tortorella said Bellows led the team in scoring chances against the Capitals. Natural Stat Trick credits Bellows with seven scoring chances, three of them considered high-danger.

As the Capitals game wore on, Tortorella showed a willingness to put Bellows in more offensive positions, placing him on the Flyers’ power play in the third period.

“Watching the last two games, he has shown me that he does have some offensive instincts where I haven’t seen it in the prior games,” Tortorella said. “So great lesson for us in where you don’t want to make such a quick judgment on a guy that you really don’t know.”

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Bellows was the Islanders’ 19th overall pick in the 2016 draft and spent roughly four seasons trying to carve out a role for himself in the NHL. He played 68 NHL games in that span and registered 11 goals and 14 assists but struggled to stick full-time. Bellows played one game with the Islanders on Oct. 13 against the Florida Panthers, then became a healthy scratch for the Islanders’ next six games before he was waived.

Even though his time with the Islanders didn’t pan out, Bellows remarked that his experience playing for former Islanders coach Barry Trotz prepared him for Tortorella’s expectations.

“I think a big similarity with them is the defensive zone,” Bellows said. “I think it’s just where that’s the real main focus where Coach has talked about before: Good defense can lead to good offense. We create turnovers on the defensive side of the puck that will lead to offensive chances for us. And that was a big thing they preached in New York as well.”

Time will tell if Bellows will be a better fit in Tortorella’s system than he was on Long Island. For now, he’s focused on building off of each shift as he works to carve out a permanent role in the Flyers lineup.

Goalie Carter Hart (.920 save percentage, 6-4-4) will start in net against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night. The Flyers are looking to snap an eight-game losing streak, and Hart is aiming for his first win since Nov. 5 against the Ottawa Senators. ... Top-pairing defenseman Anthony DeAngelo has averaged 27 minutes, 58 seconds of ice time in his last five games. Tortorella noted that it’s too much, but certain defensemen are struggling, and the Flyers have relied on DeAngelo to pick up the slack. Assistant coach Brad Shaw prefers to have his best defensemen, DeAngelo and his partner Ivan Provorov, on the ice in critical situations. “I think it’s affected his game,” Tortorella said of DeAngelo. “I think he’s gotten a little sloppy. Because it’s just, it’s too much time.”