March 14, 2025
Kyle Ross/Imagn Images
Bobby Brink had a big two-goal night in the Flyers' badly needed win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday.
Bobby Brink went to the box for a hook along the wall with the Flyers down one.
It was his second penalty of the night, and all within one period, but he more than made up for it with his second goal of the night just over a couple of minutes later.
Brink jumped out of the box and onto the Flyers' backcheck with the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning controlling the puck in their zone. Captian Sean Couturier stripped it away in the corner and looked up to see Brink across the rink, open and already taking a stride up the other way.
The pass reached Brink and sprung him through the neutral zone, the Lightning skaters were all caught on their heels, and the winger blew right by and straight to the net where he beat goaltender Jonas Johansson with a quick backhand move to sound the horn and tie the Flyers back up with Tampa at 2-2.
Brink was everywhere on Thursday night at the Wells Fargo Center, and constantly aggressive in his game. It cost him a bit penalty-wise, sure, but in the end, it had him scoring two crucial goals that helped push the Flyers to a badly needed 4-3 win after the shootout to finally snap a five-game losing streak in what had quickly spiraled into a nightmare of a seven-game homestand.
They needed that, and on the scoresheet, Brink needed that, too.
"I think sometimes when the pucks are going in, you just look better out there," Brink said from the locker room postgame.
"Bobby's been playing good, period," head coach John Tortorella added at the press conference podium. "He just hasn't finished. He hasn't scored, and finds a way tonight to score."
Two goals for Bobby Brink ✌️
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) March 14, 2025
Officially on hatty watch 🎩 pic.twitter.com/ETAKtQRByP
Entering Thursday, Brink had just eight goals and 21 assists through 63 games on the season, and was in a stretch of having just two points (both assists) across seven games ever since he put up four (1 goal, 3 assists) in the 6-1 thrashing of the Pittsburgh Penguins back on February 25.
But he did settle in as the regular right winger on the line with Noah Cates at center and Tyson Foerster on the left, which has been the Flyers' most consistent and hounding trio since coming back from the 4 Nations break a few weeks ago. The results, stat-wise, just hadn't been showing for Brink.
So of course, they did as soon he got dropped down to a line with Olle Lycksell and Ryan Poehling, in a move that Tortorella admitted afterward was in an attempt to try and get star winger Travis Konecny going again on what's been a better-performing unit.
Great pass ➡️ Great finish
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) March 13, 2025
The Flyers tie it up 🤝 pic.twitter.com/E1n1Rg0L4t
Instead, Konecny is still in a funk that extended into a 10-game goal-less drought and a shootout attempt that rang off all three bars and out on Thursday night, while Brink's new line was buzzing all over the ice and stood as one of the biggest reasons why the Flyers were able to, at minimum, keep pace with Tampa into overtime and then the shootout.
The Brink-Poehling-Lycksell line, per Natural Stat Trick, skated with an expected goals for percentage of 92.56 at even strength against the Lightning, while Brink on his own skated at an xGF percentage clip of 87.88 in 13:18 of 5-on-5 ice time.
And of the devil of it is in the details.
Late in the second period, Brink chased after a chip of the puck off the boards that sailed through the neutral zone and into Tampa's own, beating Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh in the race after it into the left-side corner.
McDonagh is 6'2" and 219 pounds. Brink is only 5'9" and 170. Still, Brink turned in and used his body to shield the puck away from the veteran defenseman, which created an opening for him to throw a pass up to Lycksell, who was barreling down along the wall.
The Lightning skaters catching up drifted to the puck, which left Poehling open all alone in front of the net and scoring on a nifty move the second Lycksell got him the feed.
The Flyers took a 3-2 lead, and all on a sequence that started with Brink winning a crucial battle down low, in a matchup where he should have been at a disadvantage.
Maybe he would've been a year ago, but not now. Definitely not on Thursday night.
Patience pays off for Ryan Poehling! 👏 pic.twitter.com/Y1IKl3YVOC
— NHL (@NHL) March 14, 2025
"He has taken a huge step in development," Tortorella said. "And the part, for me, is how hard he plays away from the puck."
"He works so hard away from the puck and that helps his offense," Tortorella continued about Brink, acknowledging how strong of a fit he has been with Cates and Foerster before pulling him off that line and how his goal total hasn't quite matched up to his actual play. "Yeah, and you do, you look at his eight goals coming in, into tonight's game, but he ends up with a ton of chances during the year. He just hasn't finished. Take him off that line, he scores two.
"Not a big guy, always concerned, and I think we have to get bigger as a team, but he's taken a huge step in his development as far as what it is to be a pro, first of all, how he carries himself, and how well he's played consistently throughout the year."
So maybe it's all starting to add up now for the 23-year-old, who is still only in his third NHL season and his second full one since signing out of college in 2022.
The Flyers, once again, look all but set to just run out the schedule with whatever little victories they can take before the end, and a strong finish to the year from Brink could be one of them to carry forward into the next as they push their rebuild plans along.
"He's just way more consistent, you know?" Poehling said of Brink postgame. "He does the little things right, which is super important for a guy like that. I mean, he has top-end skill, some of the best I've seen, so for him to kind of do the little things, it's teaching other skill guys that 'Hey, this is how you get more ice time,' and on top of it, it's helping his game a lot and creating more offensive chances, too. He's a great guy, and I couldn't be happier for him."
MORE: What might Nikita Grebenkin bring to the table as a 'future Flyer?'
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