Tag Archives: Sean Couturier

December 12, 2011 · 4:45 pm

Flyers Testing Depth Once More with Injury to Giroux

What’s one more injury for the Flyers?

Through 28 games, the Flyers have built their Atlantic Division-leading success on the back of their depth. Role players, rookies and everyone in between has been asked to grab a bigger role, play above themselves, and by brushing off the rush of constant adversity, have been able to thrive in doing so with a surprising 18-7-3 record.

On Tuesday night, as they visit the Verizon Center to take on the Washington Capitals, the remaining healthy Flyers need to reach down one more time and come away with their best character performance yet — one without leading scorer, catalyst and top-line center Claude Giroux, who is considered questionable with a potential head injury.

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October 19, 2011 · 2:16 pm

Crowded Lineup with Schenn is Good Problem for Flyers

The news of Brayden Schenn’s recall from the AHL’s Adirondack Phantoms on Wednesday, sent a shockwave of excitement and confusion through the Flyers’ faithful, who have become smitten with the current make of their squad, fourth-liners and all.

Coming off a dominating 7-2 win over the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday and running their overall record to 4-0-1, the fun-to-watch Flyers have abruptly shuffled their lineup, sending the impressive Zac Rinaldo and Harry Zolnierczyk down to the Phantoms and inserting Schenn, a high-profile center, into the pivot-heavy fray.

But regardless of where Schenn plays, the minutes he receives, the line combinations it causes or whether the decision to tinker with the roster was the correct one, there is something to note here that shouldn’t get lost in the roster shuffle.

What a nice problem to have.

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September 28, 2011 · 4:57 pm

Cap Problems Once Again Forcing Holmgren’s Hand

Well, that didn’t take long.

Painted into the salary cap corner thanks to the eye-opening play of Matt Read and Sean Couturier and the five-game stays-on-the-cap suspension of enforcer Jody Shelley, the Flyers and general manager Paul Holmgren are in a roster jam.

Ratcheted up against the cap wall the Flyers were playing with fire to begin with, even without injuries or suspensions to start the preseason. And even before the season starts with the high salary of Brayden Schenn, the injury to Andreas Nodl and the weighing suspension to Shelley, they are paying for their financial decisions.

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June 24, 2011 · 10:52 pm

Selecting Couturier was Right Choice for Flyers

It was unexpected and certainly not a selection of need, but with the eighth pick in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft in Minnesota on Friday, the Flyers choose the best player available in center Sean Couturier.

And despite the surprise, it was the correct decision.

With Chris Pronger, turning 37 in October, and Kimmo Timonen, 36, hitting the twilight of their careers, it would have made sense for general manager Paul Holmgren to re-stock his team’s defensive cabinet and pull the trigger on 6-foot-4 blueliner Dougie Hamilton or 5-10 defensive waterbug Ryan Murphy. In fact, many experts believed that the two talented rear guards to be the best players available when the Flyers hit the podium to make their selection.

But when Winnipeg reached off the board to grab Mark Scheifele with the seventh pick, suddenly, and to their pleasant surprise, the Flyers had a top-five forward talent in Couturier fall right into their lap. Throw in the fact that when selecting in the top 10, avoiding need and grabbing the best player available is really the only choice, making the decision to steal Couturier was the right one.

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