Surging Rasmus Ristolainen not focused on ‘things I can’t control’ ahead of Friday’s trade deadline
Ristolainen, who has been linked with a trade, has been playing some of his best hockey of his Flyers career lately.
Rasmus Ristolainen doesn’t have a clue what John Tortorella has been saying about him. The Flyers defenseman just hopes the coach says good things.
And he does.
“Most improved player since I started here,” Tortorella said Wednesday. It’s not the first time Tortorella has said that.
“My first year was a tough year for me with him,” Tortorella said back in January. “But since then, he’s been a pretty consistent player. Big, strong, right-handed defenseman. I think once he started moving his legs consistently, has turned into a really good player for us. And not just of late, he’s been a pretty good player for us for quite a while.”
There’s no doubt that Ristolainen, 30, has helped in the rebuilding of the Flyers’ blue line, but once again, because of his impressive play and being a right shot, his name is circulating in trade rumors. It doesn’t hurt that he is signed through 2026-27 at a somewhat friendly $5.1 million.
As Tortorella said last week, if you trade Ristolainen before the NHL trade deadline on Friday at 3 p.m. ET, the next day you say you need a big, right-handed defenseman. The Flyers need him and so do other teams.
“It’s one of those things I can’t really control,” Ristolainen said Monday. “So I don’t really bother my mind with it. I just come in every day and work hard.”
Among the Flyers’ three most-used defensive pairings, according to Natural Stat Trick, Ristolainen and partner Egor Zamula have played the fewest minutes together at five-on-five (389:13). However, they have the top Corsi For percentage (51.07%), Expected Goals For percentage (57.40%), and High-Danger Chances For percentage (56.59%) despite the fewest offensive-zone starts (37).
At 6-foot-4, 208 pounds, Ristolainen is a big force on the ice but has shown an ability to be a puck mover. He plays on the penalty kill and has recently been used on the top power play. Both are places he’s been before throughout his 771 NHL games, which included eight seasons with the Buffalo Sabres.
The only problem? He hasn’t played a single playoff game. Ristolainen would like to do that in Philly.
“I do believe in this locker room, I feel we’re a very, very tight group, and obviously, after the break, we’ve been playing some really good hockey and able to grab some wins and points,” he said. ”I believe we can keep going, and we can take it day by day and game by game and I believe we can make a push.”
Overtime issues
Tortorella blew his whistle Monday morning and called his players over to the bench. The next 30 seconds were filled with yelling from the bench boss, shouting things like “Don’t switch” and “Stay with your man.” The Flyers were practicing three-on-three hockey.
“Because we cover like [expletive]. Yes,” he responded when asked about it.
The Flyers have gone to overtime 18 times this season, with seven of those games going to a shootout. They are 4-3 in the skills competition and 6-5 in overtime, including losses to Utah and Pittsburgh in the last seven games. And if not for the block and glove swat by Noah Cates in front of an open net, they would have lost to the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday.
“We want to win in overtime, right?” Tortorella said. “They’re crucial points right now, but when you’re trying to win in overtime, sometimes you have to play defense. I think we’re just so inconsistent. ... I want us to be better at. At times I think we have the problem solved. Other times, I say ‘Holy [expletive], are we just not thinking?”
With 21 games left in the season and the Flyers four points back of the Eastern Conference’s second wild-card spot, time is dwindling. And there isn’t much time left for practice with the season ending in 45 days on April 17. Videos will be shown because the issue isn’t the offense, it’s the defense that has struggled.
“It’s trying to teach the players there’s still play away from the puck that’s important,” Tortorella said. “There’s a couple of our guys that, if they understand that, and maybe they don’t get rewarded with a scoring chance, but they play good defense, they have another round coming up in probably three shifts or two shifts maybe to go get another whack at it.
“We can’t cheat to bring offense to it, because then it’s in the back of our net and they don’t get back on the ice. So that’s what we’re trying to have them understand.
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“One of the mainstays of this team is our hardness away from the puck, checking away from the puck. That should not change when it’s three-on-three, just because there’s more open ice.
“I think if you’re harder defensively, you end up with more chances the other way. But to teach offensive guys — and that’s basically what I’m using out there — to teach them that with all this free ice and looking to go the other way, because there’s really no defenders back there, there’s not two defensemen back there, it’s hard. So crucial points, and we seem to always be involved in it.”
Breakaways
Winger Garnet Hathaway did not participate in practice. The Flyers forward suffered an upper-body injury on Thursday night in Pittsburgh when Boko Imama blindsided him with a hit.