Cutter Gauthier brought out the best in the Flyers — and their fans. John Tortorella wants more.
The Flyers dominated from start to finish against the Ducks. Can the game be a spark moving forward?
Who knew the Flyers needed Cutter Gauthier after all?
The Anaheim Ducks forward, who told Flyers brass he didn’t want to suit up for the organization or be in Philadelphia, played his first game at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday night. His presence brought out a wire-to-wire, in-your-face, dominating 6-0 performance by the Flyers — and their fans.
“It helped that the crowd was into it tonight,” said forward Travis Konecny, who had four assists. “It was awesome. Great atmosphere. I mean, we just played hard. We’ve been playing hard and not getting results. It was good to get one tonight.”
Indeed. The building was absolutely rocking as fans made sure to give Gauthier their two cents, heckling him from warmups to the final buzzer. It was loud, it was fun, and from the rafters to the ice, the message was sent: Don’t mess with the Flyers.
» READ MORE: Flyers fans didn’t hold back against Cutter Gauthier, from expletive-filled chants to confiscated signs
The Orange and Black were coming off a 4-1 drubbing by the Dallas Stars, a Stanley Cup contender. It was their fourth straight loss and 12th in the last 17 games.
On that night, the fans’ ire was directed at their team as they watched countless odd-man rushes for the Stars and one-and-dones for the Flyers. They did get two cheers from the faithful — one when Morgan Frost scored, and the other when they finally got out of their zone, ending an almost 4-minute shift for the pairing of Rasmus Ristolainen and Egor Zamula.
Before that game, the Flyers had played well since the holiday break. Yes, they lost to NHL heavyweights in the Los Angeles Kings and Vegas Golden Knights, and twice to the Toronto Maple Leafs. However, they were in every game and competed at a high level.
But while they played more structurally sound in those games, they didn’t come with the same emotion shown on Saturday night.
“It was fun. You could feel the difference, and I think especially how flat we were last game, I think the crowd gave us a huge boost,” said Frost, who has goals in consecutive games for the second time this season.
From the opening shift by the reconnected line of Garnet Hathaway, Scott Laughton, and Ryan Poehling, who kept the Ducks hemmed in for almost a full minute, it was immediately evident this game was different than Thursday.
“I think starts are huge,” said former Duck Jamie Drysdale, a part of the Gauthier trade. “It builds momentum. And when you can get the crowd into it like that, they were going right from the get-go, [it] brought us a lot of energy.”
If the NHL released zone times per game, it would read heavily tilted in the Flyers offensive zone. When the puck did make it to the neutral zone, they came at the Ducks with an effective 2-1-2 forecheck to get it back. And if the puck was in the Flyers’ end, the Ducks were often smothered and closed out, leading to a transition up the ice.
Anaheim didn’t record a shot until almost four minutes in, and by then the Flyers had four shot attempts, three on goal. As coach John Tortorella said, his message was, “Let’s play the game the proper way, especially how bad we played the prior game.” Message received.
» READ MORE: Jamie Drysdale and the Flyers ‘welcome’ Cutter Gauthier to Philly with a 6-0 statement win
The biggest indicator of how things went between the scrums, the rabbit punches — one doled out by Laughton on Gauthier — and the 13 roughing minors combined, was where the shots on goal came from. According to Natural Stat Trick, across all strengths, the Flyers had nine high-danger chances, scoring on six, while the Ducks had three. Entering the night, the Flyers had the eighth fewest high-danger goals and the second-worst high danger goals for percentage in the NHL (42.70%).
“I just thought we played a hard game,” Tortorella said. “As I said after the last game, we haven’t played many bad games. I just wanted us to answer the right way.”
A coach who bases a lot of his decisions on feel opted to change up his lines, and it worked.
The Poehling line notched two goals, with Poehling flying by Radko Gudas and Hathaway scoring a gritty goal while falling down. Frost’s line had two, including a one-timer by Owen Tippett off a nifty saucer pass by Konecny. The Noah Cates line remained intact and had 13 shot attempts to six against. The only line not in the black was the trio of Sean Couturier, Matvei Michkov, and Olle Lycksell, who was playing his first game since Dec. 21.
“These games are important. Getting the win is big,” Konecny said. “And then also, when you get some production from different people, it kind of gets some guys going.”
What also got going was the power play. Drysdale, who arguably had his best game as a Flyer, blew the roof off the building with his tally in the first period, sparking “Jamie’s Better” chants from the crowd. And then it was Michkov, skating with the first unit after being with the second group earlier in the night and since the holiday break, getting on the board.
The Flyers power play went 2-for-4 and equaled its output in the last 13 games (two goals in 30 opportunities).
“I really wanted to score,” Michkov said through a team translator. “The atmosphere was awesome.”
As much as Tortorella wanted to diminish the Gauthier storyline postgame — and it was just one game — it was an emotional night across the board.
“I hope we can play in front of a crowd like that about something meaningful. Not the [stuff], whatever you guys [the media] are talking about,” he said. “I hope it means something to the organization as far as winning and losing. That’s when we want to see a crowd like that. ... I want it to be that we’re a team to be reckoned with in a playoff series, or whatever it may be. Not this [stuff].”
Now the question is, can the Flyers follow it up?
This was a Ducks team they should have beaten. Yes, they entered the night tied in points and wins, although the Ducks had more wins in regulation, but they are one of the worst teams in allowing shot attempts — the Flyers had 64 to their 44 — and expected goals for percentage, at 43.56% entering the night; the Flyers were at 51.35%.
As Tortorella said before the game against the Stars, “With players, they need to see the result to keep believing that it’s working.”
The real test will be on Monday when the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers visit (7 p.m., NBCSP).