March 20, 2024
Eric Hartline/USA TODAY Sports
Morgan Frost moved up to the first line Tuesday night against Toronto and made good with the opportunity.
Tuesday night was one game in isolation, but in the larger scope of the Flyers' season, quite possibly a make-or-break point.
Their play had been uneven since entering the month of March, the Capitals had suddenly pulled to within one point of them in a playoff race that they had stayed with for so long – still much to many's surprise – and getting another shot at a Toronto Maple Leafs team that had pummeled them a few days earlier at home, they would do so under the extremely daring call from head coach John Tortorellla to scratch captain Sean Couturier from the lineup.
So yeah, Tuesday night's game was huge and could very well stand as a defining moment in what has been such an unexpected season.
But the Philadelphia Flyers responded in a 4-3 win and a crucial two points taken over the Leafs at the Wells Fargo Center. Moreover, the guys the team really needed to step up did.
Cam York, Travis Sanheim, Owen Tippett, and Morgan Frost were all lining up on the ice Tuesday night for the opening faceoff, and were each major reasons why, even in the middle of a gauntlet stretch in the schedule, they now have a second to just breathe.
York and Sanheim, already the top and most versatile pairing on a banged-up and stretched thin defensive corps, took on heavy minutes once again – just over 26 each – and turned in maybe one of their strongest performances yet, keeping the puck moving up ice with calm and fluid efficiency while doing well enough to keep William Nylander, Auston Matthews and a high-powered Leafs offense mostly to outside, tough angle looks on Samuel Ersson in goal.
Sanheim, left on an island all by himself at the top of the right faceoff circle less than a minute into the second period, saw his lane and threaded a clean shot through traffic for his ninth goal on the year, a 2-0 Flyers lead, and a cross to the 40-point mark for the first time in. his career, all after jumping in on the attack and creating some notable chances for himself and his teammates in the opening frame.
Sanheim snipe 🎯 pic.twitter.com/5Ypl1LowOW
— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) March 20, 2024
York left of him, meanwhile, continued to look increasingly more confident with the puck on his stick, walking the line and dropping the puck off for the assist on the night's opening goal, and then later making a filthy move along the wall to free him from a Toronto checker and send him breaking toward the net, only getting kept a backhander off the crossbar away from a highlight-reel goal that would've been played back all week.
YORK ARE YOU KIDDING ME THAT WAS SO CLOSE#TORvsPHI #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/Lnz5pvWlHD
— Flyers Clips (@Flyers_Clips) March 19, 2024
Oh, and they got back to blocking shots down in their own end, lots of them – Sanheim jumped in front of five and York four, while the Flyers on the whole got in the way of a staggering 36 for the night.
"A lot of guys sacrificed their bodies tonight," Frost said postgame. "I thought a lot of guys stepped up. Ers played amazing. We probably gave them a few too many grade-A chances and I think we ought to do a better job locking it down there in the third period, but I think it doesn't matter how you get it done as long as you get the two points."
And Frost, with a look as the top-line center due to Couturier's scratching, helped the Flyers take care of that down the other way.
He was humming while centering Tippett and Travis Konecny Tuesday night, flying up the ice, activating rushes, and daring to try and shoot more. Late in the second, with all kinds of space and time overtop of the offensive zone seceded from the Leafs, Frost saw his look and just threw one on. The puck found its way. 3-0, Flyers.
"I think my linemates have been making some good space for me," Frost said. "And I'm trying to shoot the puck a little bit more. I think that's always been a thing with me. I don't have a very hard shot, but you're never gonna score if you don't put it on net. So just trying to throw more pucks to the net, and I think when you're playing with guys like Tipp and TK, sometimes it can be easy to just want to pass to them."
Especially, too, when Tippett came out skating with the kind of authority that he did.
He put the Flyers on the board seconds into Tuesday night, signaling right away that they were working with a lot more energy compared to a week prior, then he went on to skate all over – and in one case straight through Toronto – to find and create open looks and dangerous chances.
The Flyers are flying around and through the Leafs pic.twitter.com/iBRVQ5FVfV
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) March 20, 2024
Between Tippett and Frost, those are two key sources of offense that need to be going for the Flyers to have their best shot, and they look to finally be again on stretches of six points over the past four games for each after both had their bouts of inconsistency.
The Flyers are still going to need more, way more, especially with Carolina coming up on Thursday, and then the Bruins, Panthers, and Rangers still ahead. Konecny needs to get back on track – he hasn't scored in nearly a month now – Tyson Foerster needs to utilize that powerful shot of his more consistently down the stretch, and Couturier, when he returns to the lineup, is going to need to do so with a massive fire lit under him.
But for right now, key names, and relatively younger ones, stepped up big time for the Flyers in a game that they badly needed and in a playoff hunt that's only growing fiercer by the day.
In a home stretch of the season that won't be getting easier, and in a stage of it that few of the current Flyers have been in before, they bought themselves a second to breathe.
"It's huge, and that's why those guys deserve to be in the lineup," Tortorella said postgame. "They have played well and they get these opportunities. This is where we're at. We're playing these types of games middle to almost end of March, and we have guys who have to experience this for us to go through this process in building this team, to get through the pressure of it and understand the situational play and be involved in a game like this.
"There's gonna be more as we keep on going. It's huge as far as the process, as far as trying to get this team to be a consistent team trying to get into the playoffs."
But for now, just breathe.
"Overall, just from a team standpoint, I think we knew we needed to get back into the win column," Sanheim said. "We needed a much better effort than last time we played [Toronto]. I thought we came out with a ton of energy. You could see that early, and credit to the guys. That was a huge win."
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