Flyers enter matchup with St. Louis Blues looking to ‘prove that we belong’

ST. LOUIS ― Noah Cates said something interesting after the Flyers handed the New York Rangers their fifth straight loss.

Standing in the locker room after his line, with wingers Bobby Brink and Tyson Foerster, tilted the ice with 69.23% more shot attempts and had one goal, he said the quiet part out loud.

“I think it started in Carolina a couple [of] weeks ago, we’ve been building ever since then,” Cates said.

The “it” was finding their game and identity of shot-blocking, transitioning, winning 50-50 battles, supporting the puck at both ends of the ice, and playing defensively sound. It’s why the Flyers have put the 1-5-1 record to start the season in the rearview mirror and are now above .500 for the first time since an opening-night win in Vancouver. And why technically, they enter Sunday in a playoff spot thanks to a game in hand on the Boston Bruins.

Since that heartbreaking loss to the Carolina Hurricanes, the Flyers have gone 7-2-2, and across those 11 games, have averaged 3.00 goals while allowing 2.64 against. They’re finally outshooting opponents on average (30.7 to 28.5) and are winning despite the power play dropping to 10.7% and the penalty kill allowing a few more in (80%).

» READ MORE: Rasmus Ristolainen has been Mr. Consistent on the Flyers blue line: ‘When he moves his legs, he’s a really good player’

Through the first 13 games of the season, including that 6-4 last-minute loss to the Hurricanes, the Flyers allowed more goals on average (3.85) than scoring (2.62) while getting outshot. The only positives in the stats were the power play (20%) and the NHL’s third-best penalty kill (88.9%).

“We just wanted to get on our toes,” coach John Tortorella said after the Rangers win.

That is a phrase the bench boss uses often. It’s a hockey term that all coaches preach to their players. The Flyers did it successfully on Black Friday by attacking the Rangers from the moment the puck was dropped. It is why Foerster could out-race New York’s Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Adam Fox for the puck and why Brink could motor down the ice to score.

You may think it’s a motivational term but it does have a physical component. If you’re sitting on your heels in your skates, you can’t react quickly and with explosion. You won’t win those 50-50 battles, like the game in Nashville that the Flyers shockingly won in overtime. And you can’t close out guys and you can’t control play. If you’re on your toes, you can pick up your feet quickly.

It’s how the Flyers started against the Rangers and how they hope to start against the Blues on Saturday night in snowy St. Louis (7 p.m., NBCSP). The Flyers had 10 first-goals, tied for the ninth fewest in their first 13 games (4-8-1), while allowing 11 against. In the past 11 games (7-2-2), they have 11 in the first period, the seventh most in the NHL, while allowing six.

The Flyers need to come out strong against the Blues at Enterprise Arena. The guys in, well, blue, will be aiming to impress their new bench boss.

» READ MORE: How two 12-year-old girls, with an assist from the Flyers, managed to save their local ball hockey rink

Jim Montgomery, who played 13 games with the Flyers and won a Calder Cup with the Phantoms in 1998, was hired on Nov. 25. The Blues have won a pair of games on the road since, with wins against the Rangers and New Jersey Devils.

“It’s their first home game, so they’re going to be buzzing,” associate Brad Shaw said on Saturday. “We know that they’ll have some extra juice. So I guess the first 5, 10 minutes are maybe more important than normal. But over the course of the year, I think every team’s trying to prove something every game. We’re trying to prove that we belong. We’re trying to prove that we deserve the wins we’re getting and we’re hoping to earn more and more.”

After being a healthy scratch for four games, Egor Zamula will return to the Flyers lineup against the Blues. The defenseman last played Nov. 20 in the Flyers 4-1 loss to the Hurricanes, a game he had a plus-minus of minus-2. In 16 games this season, he is minus-9 with a goal and six points while averaging 16 minutes, 14 seconds of ice time.

“He offers poise on the puck, and he’s positionally really sound,” Shaw said. “He gets us out of jams because of his vision and his puck movement. So hoping that he can carry on that same sort of trend in his game.

“We’ve had a bit of a state of flux back there and sometimes, when a guy goes in and plays really well, like Helge Grans did for a good stretch of games, there’s no chance to get in. So sometimes you have to bide your time.

“This internal competition is great. I think the more guys you have knocking on the door, the better it pushes everybody. So I expected to see a really good Egor Zamula tonight.”

Grans made his NHL debut on Nov. 18 against the Colorado Avalanche, registering an assist. He has averaged more than 14 minutes and has a plus-minus of even in six games this season. Grans, 22, is a candidate to return to Lehigh Valley when Jamie Drysdale, who has been out since Nov. 11, is ready to come off injured reserve following an upper-body injury.

“It’s just we didn’t want him sitting there too long without playing a game,” Shaw said when asked if the switch was more to get Zamula in than to take Grans out. “You can cross that line where you start to get rusty instead of getting hungry, and we’d rather him come in, chomping at the bit and ready to go.”

» READ MORE: Flyers top division rival Rangers behind Travis Konecny’s two goals

With Ivan Fedotov getting the start in the win against the Rangers on Friday afternoon, Aleksei Kolosov will start on Saturday. He has won his past two games after starting the season with four straight losses. ... Friday’s game was the Flyers’ first sellout of the season at the Wells Fargo Center.

Around the rinks is a new segment every Friday, highlighting the local ice, ball, and inline hockey scene. Submit entries about your league, big moments, favorite players, etc., with the subject: Around the rinks, to jspiegel@inquirer.com by noon every Friday.