Flyers’ Morgan Frost hopes playing ‘free’ will help him find his game after recent benchings

Morgan Frost fired the puck past goalie Ivan Fedotov during the Flyers’ morning skate and celebrated.

As he raised his hands in the air, he showed off the smile that the 25-year-old center typically has splashed on his face. The center’s body language also had a looseness to it as he skated for approximately a half-hour on Monday morning, ahead of the Flyers hosting the Vegas Golden Knights (7 p.m., NBCSP).

It was a much different Frost on the morning of his first healthy scratch of the season. Before the Flyers played the San Jose Sharks on Nov. 11, Frost stayed on the ice long after the morning skate. At one point he sat on the bench with his helmet off, staring at the empty ice, seemingly contemplating things. He hopped back on and shot some pucks for a bit.

» READ MORE: Flyers’ Matvei Michkov caps comeback with overtime winner against the Chicago Blackhawks

At the time, coach John Tortorella said Frost “hasn’t played well enough.” Frost had one goal and six points through the first 15 games, leading to being a healthy scratch for four of five games; he played against the Ottawa Senators when captain Sean Couturier was ruled out late with a lower-body injury.

He finally returned on Saturday in the Flyers’ 3-2 overtime win against the Chicago Blackhawks. Frost started to reveal his game one shift at a time and played with more and more confidence as he spun away from defenders and tried to set up his teammates. He finished with one shot on goal, getting robbed by Blackhawks goalie Petr Mrázek after a Travis Konecny centering pass bounced off a Blackhawkright to him in the slot as he crashed the net in the third period.

“I feel like before I was taken out, I was just so focused on the mistakes I was making in the game, and that’s all you think about,” Frost said after the win against Chicago. “I think I just tried to play free tonight. I probably made some mistakes, but at the same time, I feel like I was trying some stuff tonight that I haven’t been trying during the year. Maybe it’s not always going to work out, but if I don’t bring that creativity and try to do things like that I’m not really fulfilling my role completely.”

Tortorella thought he used his creativity to hold onto the puck in situations “where a lot of people would throw it away.” He hopes Frost gains more confidence in his game.

“Better [but] there’s more. Obviously, we need more,” Tortorella said on Monday about Frost’s game. “Had some really good plays, especially early in his defensive positioning, which is good, but I want the other part to come — the offense. [He] was involved in a couple of offensive plays, noticed him. I think coming back in, I thought he acquitted himself fairly well. He’s going to have to continue to play better.”

Frost has struggled out of the gate once again. Last season, just two games into the year, Tortorella benched Frost, his team’s second-line center and fourth-leading scorer the year before, for six games, beginning with the home opener.

The Toronto native has a strong support system in his teammates, family, and friends, and learned from his past benchings. His focus this time has been different.

“I think just trying not to do too much right away,” he said. “Honestly, I think right away when you get taken out of the lineup, it’s frustrating and it’s easy to get down on yourself.

“But I think, over the last couple of days, it’s honestly been kind of re-energizing mentally for me, and I feel like I’m in a really good spot mentally. ... So, I think just mentally taking a different approach to when I was going to get back in and, yeah, obviously grateful to be playing in this league, in general, so there’s no point in getting down about it.”

Tortorella said Saturday after the game that he thought Frost was “diligent defensively” and had a good stick against Chicago but wants to see him compete more to help his offense flourish. He has put him in a good position, skating primarily on a line with Owen Tippett and Matvei Michkov.

“He brings a lot of creativity. Obviously, the way he sees the ice and the way he’s able to get open and make plays in tight areas, it’s awesome,” Tippett said. “You’ve got to be ready whenever you’re around him and we’ve built some chemistry over the last couple years, and it’s always fun to play with him.”

Tippett thought Frost took strides in the last game and knows he will keep working on his game. After not getting power-play time on Saturday, Frost returned to the first unit during the morning skate; Tippett will play on the second unit.

The two forwards, who played more than 400 minutes together last season at five-on-five and had a 64.86% goals-for rate, according to Natural Stat Trick, help each other try to keep an even keel amid the up-and-down momentum of a game.

“I think the more you get frustrated, it can turn into not making the plays you want,” Tippett said. “I think something that we have done so well is we don’t get frustrated with each other. We know we’re trying to make the right play, and if it’s not the right play we’re not getting on each other.

» READ MORE: The language barrier makes coaching Matvei Michkov difficult for John Tortorella. Here’s how he’s adjusting.

“We just try to motivate each other and work together to try to get out of it. Obviously, we both want to be more offensive. And I think if we work together we can be very dangerous.”

How long the two work together is up to the bench boss — and general manager Danny Brière. A restricted free agent at the end of the season, Frost has seen his name pop up in trade rumors and NHL insider Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reported that the Blackhawks could be a good landing spot. But despite the ups and downs, Frost wants to stay in Philly.

“I love playing here,” he said. “I love the guys. So, obviously I have to play better and play my way into staying here. But that’s never changed for me, I love it here.”

Fedotov will start against Vegas. He is 3-1-0 in his last four starts after starting the season 0-3-0-. ... Defenseman Jamie Drysdale is still out with an upper-body injury but skated again in a contact jersey on Monday. ... Defenseman Helge Grans will remain in the lineup on Monday as the Flyers will use the same 18 skaters.

Around the rink is a new segment every Friday, highlighting the local ice, ball, and inline hockey scene. Submit entries with the subject: Around the Rink, to jspiegel@inquirer.com by noon on Nov. 29.