February 14, 2024
Kyle Ross/USA TODAY Sports
Flyers center Morgan Frost moving in on a penalty shot Monday night against Arizona.
Morgan Frost stepped onto the ice Monday night and attacked.
He hustled after Arizona puck carriers, threw the body and finished checks, and with the puck, looked in control and drove play up the ice, to the point where one of two things would happen: Either the Flyers would generate a scoring chance, or a Coyote would get sent to the box trying to stop it.
In the Flyers' 5-3 win over the Coyotes Monday night at the Wells Fargo Center, an impressive come-from-behind effort for their fourth straight victory since returning from the All-Star break, Frost was great. It was maybe his best game all season, even, or at least as far as head coach John Tortorella can remember since he's stepped in behind the Philadelphia bench.
"It's probably one of the best games I've seen him play in a while," Tortorella said postgame Monday night. "I thought he tried to put the team on his back, and you could see that he felt it."
The whole arena could, and at this time of year, with the Flyers only moving further into a surprise playoff push, it was the exact kind of showing hoped for from Frost to prove that he can be the type of center Philadelphia needs to see this run through.
On the stat sheet Monday night, Frost had only a goal – a critical one, mind you, but not one that fully illustrated the scope of his play alone.
He was everywhere, recording 20:16 in ice time – the fourth-most among the Flyers forwards for the night – and using it to force Arizona into rushed decisions when they had possession while keeping them guessing or backing them into a corner when the positions were switched, as illustrated by this sequence captured by Flyers Clips on Twitter late into the first period:
Frost is so smooth man. I need him to use his backhander more, it's so good#ARIvsPHI #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/pSoAELVJ6g
— Flyers Clips (@Flyers_Clips) February 13, 2024
The Coyotes got their breaks, which kept them ahead for the majority of the night, but when the line of Frost, Joel Farabee, and Cam Atkinson were out there, they struggled to get the puck back and even more so when it came to fighting off offensive pressure.
Just shy of five minutes into the second period, with the Flyers trailing 1-0, Cam Atkinson took the puck along the wall and sprung Frost on a pass over the middle of the ice and straight toward the goal. Frost's speed split the defense, and Arizona's Michael Kesselring, flailing to stop the breakaway from behind, hooked him to take away the scoring chance.
The ref, however, awarded Frost with a penalty shot on the foul instead of the two-minute man advantage, and he made good on it. Tie game and momentum swung over to Philadelphia.
Here are Frost's 2 drawn penalties. 2 great plays by Atkinson as well#ARIvsPHI #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/eojPjefzMV
— Flyers Clips (@Flyers_Clips) February 13, 2024
Frost. Penalty shot. Tie game. pic.twitter.com/FJz1qaIGv9
— Nick Tricome (@itssnick) February 13, 2024
It took more from the Flyers after to fully climb back and then, finally, ahead, but Frost's line kept pressing and created several big chances pushing toward it, while Frost himself, in control of the puck and skating to enter the offensive zone late in the second, drew another penalty for tripping to put the Flyers on the power play. They couldn't do anything with it, like the other seven power-play chances, but they were dictating the pace of play by that point, with Frost being one of the Flyers skaters digging in at the forefront and re-establishing the tempo.
"The thing that is encouraging to me with Frosty is he's willing to play in the middle of the ice now," Tortorella said. "Last year, I just thought he needed to be more in the areas, where he just played too much on the outside. He's carrying the puck into the middle of the ice and making plays off of that.
"It's one of the better games I've seen him play since I've coached here."
And a stretch that's been increasingly building off what's looking more and more to have been a key turning point for Frost from early last month.
On the whole, the year was going rough for Frost already. The 24-year old, even after a solid finish to last season and a new two-year contract in the summer to stay put, had lost his footing under Tortorella again. He was benched and scratched repeatedly. His play showed flashes of promise, but not anything that was consistently notable about it other than it wasn't. Noah Cates' broken foot in late November forced Tortorella's hand into putting Frost back in the lineup regularly, but even so, on January 4 against the Blue Jackets, he scratched Frost again.
The next day, the two talked. Frost called the meeting, something he hadn't previously done, but a move that thrilled Tortorella and led to what the coach called a "good, honest conversation" about the state of Frost's situation.
"That's a huge step for me with Frosty, is him coming in and saying 'You know, this is what I think.' It's so important that players do that," Tortorella said at the time. "It creates a little bit of a path for him and I as we try to go through this."
The game after against Calgary, Frost was back in. The Flyers won, 3-2. They needed more offense, and he provided with a goal and then a game-tying assist on the power play.
We'll never know what that conversation between Frost and Tortorella was fully about, not for years at least, but here's where it led: In the 16 games since, Frost has 15 points (four goals, 11 assists) and a plus-3 rating while playing an increasingly stronger and more aggressive offensive style that is fitting a whole lot better into the Philadelphia top six, and during that span, the Flyers have gone 10-6-0 even with that five-game losing streak to stay well within the playoff hunt.
The Flyers already have responsible two-way centermen up and down the lineup with Sean Couturier, Scott Laughton, Ryan Poehling, and Noah Cates (if he is ever moved back inside). Out of Frost, they need a playmaker who can drive offense, and he's been taking the reins on that more and more over the past month ever since that conversation with Tortorella.
On Monday night, he attacked Arizona from the jump and outright showed that he can be the one up the middle to generate offensive chance after offensive chance.
"I can maybe make some riskier plays and some more skill plays," Frost said postgame Monday. "But when I'm doing that, I think that's when I'm at my best. It's never always gonna be perfect. There are always gonna be some mistakes in there, but I think when I'm playing with that confidence and kinda doing my thing, I think that's when I'm most effective."
And make the Flyers, a team that has caught so many off guard already, possibly that much more dangerous.
*H/T to Flyers Clips on the captures from Monday night.
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