Flyers’ Sean Couturier good to go against the Buffalo Sabres, Ivan Fedotov starts in net

John Tortorella was unsure how his lineup would look for Saturday night‘s game against the Buffalo Sabres before the Flyers hit the ice for morning skate in Voorhees.

The biggest question mark was whether Sean Couturier, who missed Thursday’s 5-4 overtime win against the Ottawa Senators with a lower-body injury, was able to play.

“Going to find out about Coots,” the coach said. “If Coots can play, [Morgan Frost] will be out.”

After he ran through morning skate, including practicing with the first power-play unit, Couturier said he was good to go.

“It’s one of those things where I probably could have played. It’s kind of just trying to be smart, not linger this long term and make it become a bigger thing than it is,” he said. “That one night off, two, three days in a row treating it definitely helped it, and feels good now so I’m not worried.”

Had it been a postseason game, Couturier added that he would have played. Which is a good sign as the Flyers captain had been playing some of his best hockey leading into the game north of the border.

In the first 12 games of the season, he had three goals and six points while averaging 16 minutes, 13 seconds of ice time. The past four games, he has been visibly all over the ice and in front of the net, while posting two assists and averaging more than 22 minutes, including starting off a bunch of games and setting the tone.

And the Flyers could have used their No. 1 center against a Senators team that seemed to be running away with the game until the third period.

“I think we all know we didn’t play our best game but we found a way to win. That’s all that matters,” said Couturier, who was in Ottawa to watch it all unfold. “What I like is we stuck together through the ugly. Guys were still sacrificing their body, blocking shots, making sure they find a way to keep it out of our net. And you know, we capitalized on our chances when we needed to, and it made a big difference.”

The Nov. 14 game against the Senators, a young club also rebuilding, is probably one that will not be added to the season’s highlight reel. The Canadian club had 81 shot attempts to the Flyers’ 39.

» READ MORE: Flyers takeaways: The numbers behind an unlikely OT win over Ottawa

“What I do take from [the last game], like I said to [the media] after the game, it’s the National Hockey League,” Tortorella said. “We played two good shifts, at the beginning of the first period, don’t even touch the puck, really, until the third period. But what gave us a chance was the goaltending of Ivan [Fedotov] and I thought our will — we [stunk] — but our will of blocking shots, of ugliness, just trying to stay in the game, I think that’s what wins us the game.”

Thirty of those shot attempts by the Senators were blocked by the Orange and Black, with Garnet Hathaway and Ryan Poehling leading the way with six each.

“It’s why I just consider our room so good, they found an aspect of the game that they knew they had to do because we never had the puck,” Tortorella said. “They had to defend. We had some blown coverages defending, but then we saved the day with a block shot. Saved the day with another block shot. Fedotov a couple of great saves, and it kept us alive.”

On Oct. 25, the bench boss was calling his crease “a goaltending situation” — and not in a good way. “Ivan hasn’t played well enough,” he added. It was a fair assessment as Fedotov had a 5.35 goals-against average and .821 save percentage in three losses, including the game against the Seattle Kraken in which he was pulled.

Fedotov would serve as the backup to Sam Ersson the next day but then not dress again until Ersson was injured Nov. 2 against the Boston Bruins. Whether he would play another game was unclear. Then Aleksei Kolosov was injured in the team’s morning skate against the Tampa Bay Lighting, and in went Fedotov. Since then, he has a 2.32 goals-against average and .917 save percentage in two wins — the first two of his NHL career. He was set to start against the Sabres(7 p.m., NBCSP).

» READ MORE: Flyers mailbag: Are the Orange and Black finally turning a corner? What does the future hold for Morgan Frost?

“It’s nice to see him have some success, step up and bounce back from the start of the year,” Couturier said. “He’s been put in a tough spot, honestly. It’s never easy, I think, when there’s three goalies and you don’t know if you’re backing up, playing, sharing the net practice, and what I like is he’s kind of kept a good attitude and went along with his business. When his name was called, he was ready and showed up.”

Fedotov will now have a chance to keep the Flyers streak going. After a 1-5-1 start, they are 6-3-1 in the past 10 games, including a four-game point streak. The latest two points came from a far-from-perfect game, but they still got them and it can only help down the road of a long season.

“You get the points, you move on, but I know there’s a few games in my mind that stick out from last year that we lost and you think, ‘What if?’” forward Travis Konecny said. “That one play, that one mistake, it seems so magnified now when you come in and Torts is frustrated about a play that you made that led to a goal.

“But if you think about it, that goal may have cost you the season. You can’t think about it that way, but if you can treat every game that way, that this one backcheck that I didn’t fully commit to or I didn’t block that shot, in the grand scheme of things, could lead to the playoffs or not. So I think it’s important to think that way.”

Defenseman Erik Johnson was expected to be in the lineup and play his 1000th NHL game. Of his 999 games, 50 were with the Sabres last season. He also played 717 regular-season games, and won a Stanley Cup, with the Colorado Avalanche. The Flyers host the Avalanche on Monday (7 p.m., NBCSP+) when Johnson will be honored before the game. ... Flyers prospect Noah Powell notched his first goal for Ohio State with a pretty spin move and cut to the net in the Buckeyes’ 5-2 win against Lindenwood University.