Owen Tippett has embraced being a power forward. Now, ‘he just needs something to go in for him’

SEATTLE ― The Flyers’ season may just be three games old, but you’ll never guess who leads the team in hits.

Garnet Hathaway, who was No. 2 in the league last year? Nope. How about bruiser Rasmus Ristolainen? Not him. The Nicks, Deslauriers and Seeler, haven‘t suited up yet so they’re out.

Meet Owen Tippett, the Flyers’ top hitter. Of his 12 hits, nine were in the team’s loss to the Calgary Flames on Saturday, a career high.

“I think any time you can kind of either get hit or make a hit, kind of first couple shifts in the game, it kind of gets you into the game right away,” he said following the team’s morning skate Thursday in Seattle.

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“Obviously, coming into a back-to-back, you want to be involved in the game and you want to have an impact. So I think it was just one of those games where I was able to catch guys and obviously, I don’t know if I’ll have many games with nine hits ... but I’m going to take it.”

Tippett has often been tapped with the term power forward. At 6-foot-1, 210 pounds, he has the body for it. He has the speed and the power moves to the net. But is he harkening back to the days of Eric Lindros or Wayne Simmonds?

“I think he plays better [when he’s physical],” coach John Tortorella said. “I’m always talking to him, because I think he’s a tough one, I’ve told you guys, he’s a tough one for me to read because he’s so introverted and so quiet. I’m not sure if he’s ready, but as I learn more and more about him, he’s ready, I think he gets even more ready because he can get there with doing a little bit of banging.

“I don’t want to turn him into a guy that’s leading the team in hits. There’s other things he needs to do for us here, but I think that helps him get involved. More importantly, I think he knows that helps him get involved.”

The other things are to score goals and use his speed. Entering Thursday‘s game against the Seattle Kraken (10 p.m., NBCSP), Tippett, who scored 28 goals last season and 27 the season before that, hasn‘t found the back of the net yet. But he has come close.

In the Flyers' overtime loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday, he turned defenseman Brett Kulak inside out before ripping one — off the post. It was one of his nine attempts, which included five shots on goal. For the record, Connor McDavid had just two shots.

“I thought the last game [he] generated a lot,” Tortorella said. “Tip is one of the guys that, whoever you play him with it really doesn‘t matter who, because he generates a lot on his own. He needs to score. I saw when he hits the post, I think he could have put us up 4-2 at that time, you can see that [he] wants to score. Generated a lot of offense. Still a work in progress, in understanding the defensive part. ... But I thought he took a step in the right direction the last game in moving his legs and generating offense.”

Using his legs is key for the Canadian winger, who was the league’s top speedster last season with a top speed of 24.21 miles per hour. This year, he has topped out at 21.20 but the season is just three games old. And, as he put it, it is situational and “you can’t take a guy wide every time you get” the puck.

But it‘s not just his ability to skate fast north-south that has impressed Tortorella, it‘s how he’s turning up the ice as a right-shot winger playing on the left boards. “His skating ability is so good,” Tortorella said before adding that “he just needs something to go in for him.”

That’s the crux. Tippett is getting chances but he’s not scoring. He misses the net quite a bit.

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Tippett has missed the net seven times this season, with five going wide. Last season he missed the net 113 times, 89 pucks going wide, with 59 shot attempts missing their mark before the All-Star break.

“Yeah, he misses the net a lot. I’m not sure if it’s because he’s gripping the stick. He just misses the net a lot,” Tortorella said. “It’s something we are constantly talking to him about, as far as we call it, missing in the net. But it’s just, you can’t be too fine as far as what you’re doing with it and that’s a roller coaster with him. And I’m not sure if that’ll ever go away.”

So, coach, could it be he misses the net because he’s playing on the off-wing?

“No, he did it on the right wing, too,” Tortorella said with a laugh.

Ivan Fedotov will start in goal against the Kraken. ... Seeler (lower body) participated in morning skate. Tortorella said he is still “day to day.” ... Flyers prospect Denver Barkey was named captain for the Ontario Hockey League’s London Knights. He is joined in the junior team’s leadership group by fellow Flyers prospect Oliver Bonk, who was named an alternate captain.