Flyers captain Sean Couturier is a healthy scratch again

RALEIGH, N.C. — Sean Couturier once again was a healthy scratch for the Flyers on Thursday night.

The team’s captain was a healthy scratch for the first time in his career in the Flyers’ 4-3 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday. After that game, when asked about Couturier, coach John Tortorella declined to answer any questions and at one point said: “As I told you, I’m putting the players out on the ice to win a particular game, and these were the 20 that we decided to go with.”

When questioned Thursday on whether Couturier would be back in the lineup and what the coach needs to see from the veteran center, Tortorella responded: “I’m not talking about Sean.”

Tortorella speaks before the team skates. When the Flyers hit the ice Thursday morning at PNC Arena before their matchup with the Carolina Hurricanes in the evening, Couturier was once again slotted onto a line with Cam Atkinson and Denis Gurianov.

All three players, who went fifth in rushes, were all healthy scratches on Tuesday. And as with the morning skate before Tuesday’s win, they stayed on after others left the ice in Raleigh, along with defenseman Marc Staal, who was also out against the Hurricanes.

“Obviously, it’s different and you want to have him around, but, yeah, it is what it is right now. It’s out of our control, and we’re focused on making a playoff push here,” Scott Laughton said. “We’re in a huge stretch of games, and, yeah, I’ll leave it at that.

“But you want to have him around and be around the boys. But, yeah, it’s not our decision and we go out and play and that’s what we’re paid to do.”

Couturier, 31, has struggled as of late, and he will be the first to tell you that. On Tuesday, he said, “I know I’ve been struggling, trying to work on my game.”

He ranks sixth on the team in points with 36 (11 goals, 25 assists) in 64 games this season. But after notching nine goals and 23 points in his first 32 games — when he averaged 19 minutes, 49 seconds of ice time, tops among the forwards — he had just two goals over the next 32.

In his last 15 games, Couturier has zero goals and four assists in 14:35 of average ice time and is an uncharacteristic minus-14.

“I’ve gotten the same answers as you guys, just need to see more. Still looking to find out what that is,” said Couturier, who is coming off two back surgeries and nearly two years off the ice. “But I’m trying every game. It’s not like I’m just sitting around or doing nothing, I think.

“Like I said yesterday, I felt the last couple of games with the limited ice time, where opportunities I’ve been getting, I’ve been doing all right.”

Heading into Thursday night, Owen Tippett was riding a four-game point streak. And so was Morgan Frost. It probably doesn’t hurt to have those two guys skating together on a line with the team’s top scorer, Travis Konecny.

“My linemates have been making some good space for me, and [I’m] trying to shoot the puck a little bit more,” Frost said after Tuesday’s win, in which he had a goal and an assist.

“I think that’s always been a thing with me,” Frost said. “I don’t have a very hard shot, but you’re never going to score if you don’t put it on net. So just trying to throw more pucks to the net, and when you’re playing with guys like Tip and TK, sometimes it can be easy to just want to pass to them the whole game.”

Tippett also added a goal and an assist against the Leafs, and was coming off a game when he had three assists. According to Natural Stat Trick, the linemates played 9:55 together against Toronto and had a team-high 0.51 expected goals for.

“We know where to support each other and when to come close and when to kind of stretch out for that open lane,” Tippett said. “Morgan and I have played together for a long time and we have that chemistry, and TK, he’s been on our line throughout the year and in years prior so, whenever we get to play together, we’re really excited. It’s always fun to play with those guys and I think we’re doing a good job, especially just reading off each other and building that chemistry.”

In the game, Tippett once again showcased his speed game as he burst through the Leafs defense to set up Konecny for a shot attempt.

“Yeah, it was wild because I actually, the way I read the play is that I had a breakaway because he was going to get squeezed off,” Konecny said. “So I thought he was going to pull up and hit me. And then, yeah, he ended up [going through], I was like, oh, wait, Tippett has a breakaway. So I started chasing him down.”

Konecny is a fast guy himself and tries to use his crossovers to build speed to keep up with his linemate, “otherwise you ain’t getting him.”

Tippett has the highest speed recorded this season, per NHL Edge, at 24.21 mph; Connor McDavid is at 24.05. And while he doesn’t necessarily spend the summer pushing cars to build leg strength, he spent a lot of time working on developing his speed game as a kid — and he may do a sled pull or two these days.

“Longer, more powerful strides,” Tippett said when asked about how he develops his speed. “I think I get a lot of power and speed off crossovers, too. … If I remember correctly, I think there were one or two crossovers to start [against the Leafs], so I kind of use that to get momentum, and after that just kind of get into long strides as quick as I can.”

Sam Ersson started in net for the Flyers against Toronto. … The Flyers are home Saturday against Boston (1 p.m., NBCSP) and Sunday against Florida (6 p.m., NBCSP+).