Oct 26, 2024; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Flyers right wing Travis Konecny (11) reacts as teammates celebrate a goal from defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen (55) against the Minnesota Wild in the third period at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Ross-Imagn Images
Some days are a whirlwind of your own doing. Some are brought on you outside of your control.
The Flyers decided to make it the latter for themselves and everyone else around the team.
Consider:
1. Sean Couturier had not scored a goal in his previous 32 games then went out and registered his second career hat trick, and five points in a 7-5 win over the Minnesota Wild that snapped a six-game losing streak.
2. The Flyers scored seven goals in a game in which they had amassed all of six shots on goal in the first two periods. That's almost impossible. And yet...
3. The team announced that their most consistent defenseman, Cam York, was going to miss "at least" two weeks with an upper body injury that sure as heck looked like a left arm/shoulder injury suffered in Washington on Wednesday.
Here was the hit where Cam York was injured
I was 5 rows up right where he got hit and he looked real bad when he got up, and went right down the tunnel
Looked like shoulder or head injury to me pic.twitter.com/0ks7ZvbgHM
4. Rasmus Ristolainen took York's spot on the top pair with Travis Sanheim, played 25 huge minutes (best game by him in a long time) and scored the game-winning goal in the process.
5. The team also announced before the game that rookie Jett Luchanko was being returned to his junior team in Guelph (OHL) for the remainder of the season after a seven-game tryout (he played in four games and was a healthy scratch in three).
6. GM Danny Briere said the team wouldn't replace either York or Luchanko on the roster until after Saturday's game to ensure no further injuries, and since it looks like they made it through unscathed, they will make two recalls - but not necessarily position for position. (See No. 6).
7. According to team sources the Flyers will recall defenseman Emil Andrae and goalie Alexei Kolosov on Sunday. And the plan, as of this writing, is for both of them to play.
Phew... that's a lot.
Let's try to tackle them in capsule form, shall we?
Hockey is a funny sport sometimes. You can go 32 games without a goal and then all of the sudden do something you've only done once in 802 career games previously - score a hat trick.
Couturier was a beast for the Flyers on Saturday. In fact, his entire line was. Both he and Travis Konecny had five-point games. Matvei Michkov had a goal and an assist. Coach John Tortorella moved Konecny to left wing - something he hadn't done since he played 78 games on Claude Giroux's left wing early in his career.
Well, it worked. Coots was a force in the dirty areas in front of the net.
Two of his goals were like this:
Couturier snaps a 32 game goalless drought and gets his 500th point #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/xxUk8oyRpF
The third was an empty netter. He almost had a fourth, where it not for Ristolainen crashing the net. Speaking of...
Another move that worked for Tortorella was moving Risto to the top defensive pair with Travis Sanheim. The duo balled out. They played playoff-like minutes (25 and 27 minutes respectfully) and were legitimately excellent.
But the big play was Risto's game-winning goal, where he was not going to be denied:
COOTS??? RISTO???? NO IDEA. 6-5!!!!#LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/B3KkjjJ4UQ
Heck of an effort. The Flyers are going to need a lot of that from that duo to make up for the absence of York.
If you read On Pattison on the regular, you knew Luchanko wasn't long for the NHL this season. The Flyers simply wanted to reward their teenage prospect for an outstanding training camp by giving him a taste of the NHL.
He got to play against Connor McDavid - and played well. He looked like he belonged too.
Both Briere and Tortorella spoke highly of him and how this decision will be better for his development (he'll likely play for Team Canada in World Juniors at the holidays) and this will make him a better player five years from now - which will matter more than him playing through a rebuilding season.
According to multiple team sources, the Flyers will recall defenseman Emil Andrae and goalie Alexei Kolosov for Sunday's game against Montreal. The plan is for both to play, although something could change before game time that would change that.
It was uncertain who would come out on defense, but it's likely going to be either Egor Zamula or Erik Johnson.
As for Kolosov, the opportunity is wide open for him to stick in the NHL. Sam Ersson didn't have a great game against Minnesota. Ivan Fedotov doesn't look NHL-caliber.
The Flyers won't waive Fedotov yet, they will carry three goalies for the time being, but it won't be long before Fedotov hits the waiver wire and is sent down to the AHL to work on his game.
The thing is, don't expect Kolosov to go back down there. He's either going to stay with the Flyers or be loaned back to the KHL, but the guess here is, he stays for the rest of the season.
This is the opportunity he wanted and the Flyers are going to give it to him.
