The Flyers Are Soft. Couturier and Seeler Said It, and the Film Backs Them Up.

The Flyers lost 5-2 to the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night. They’re 3-8-4 with three straight losses. After the game, two veterans said out loud what everyone watching has been seeing. Sean Couturier told NHL.com, “At times this year, we’re soft, I would say,” and said the team loses battles too easily. Nick Seeler talked about compete levels and playing for the crest. “It’s not about getting points. It’s not about me, me, me,” he said.

They’re right. And I don’t care who it is. Every guy on this team needs to go throw a hit on his first shift and get physically into the game. Letting the game come to you and starting slow every night is unacceptable.

Here’s what I’m seeing: the Flyers’ hit problem is who, not how many

Everyone’s going to point at hits first. On the season, the Flyers are hitting about as much as they did during the post-Olympic run. The problem is where the hits come from. On Wednesday, InStat had the Flyers at 10 hits. Eleven of 18 skaters didn’t throw one. Five of six defensemen didn’t throw one. Alex Bump had four by himself.

This is how the Flyers D-core is built

Travis Sanheim, Jamie Drysdale and Cam York lead the Flyers defense in ice time this season. Last season, among 190 NHL defensemen with 800 or more minutes, they ranked in the 20th, 2nd and 19th percentile in hits per 60. Nick Seeler (84th) is the only regular who finishes. This season, Sanheim has six hits in 13 games and Drysdale has five.

Finishing your hits as a defenseman matters every single time you can. It may not seem like much on one shift. But over time, forwards learn a hit is coming. They get rid of the puck half a second faster, and that’s when mistakes happen. When nobody on your back end finishes, the other team’s forecheckers figure it out fast.

To be clear, it’s okay if you don’t hit. Look at Lane Hutson. He was in the 16th percentile in hits per 60 last season, right there with Sanheim and York. But he comes out with the puck. He was in the 74th percentile in loose puck recoveries per 60 and the 77th in breakouts, and he gave the puck away in his own zone less often than any of the Flyers’ top three. Sanheim and Drysdale were in the 13th and 19th percentile in recoveries. All three were in the 35th percentile or lower in breakouts.

So if you’re not going to finish the hit, you better come out of every battle with the puck like Hutson does. Right now the Flyers’ top three aren’t doing either one consistently.

The price-paying numbers have dropped off too

Over the last three games against Columbus, Anaheim and Washington, the Flyers have blocked 9.7 shots a game. Their season average is 15.7. Against Anaheim it was five.

This isn’t the team that came back from the Olympic break

That group won 18 of its last 26 regular-season games. Here’s the difference per game:

Porter Martone has to get back to being a menace

At Michigan State and last spring, Porter Martone’s identity was clear. He was going to be a pain to play against every night. His hits are actually up a little, from 3.9 per 60 last season to 4.4 this year. But his shots on goal per 60 have dropped from 9.7 to 4.4. His puck battles per 60 have dropped from 30.4 to 8.8, and in the offensive zone from 16.7 to 5.8. He’s not in the scrums anymore. He’s producing with Matvei Michkov, and that’s real. But to take the next step, he has to bring that intensity back. On Wednesday he had zero hits and two shots in 13:56. I made a similar case earlier this month.

We’ve already seen what it looks like. In the Seattle game on Oct. 13, Trevor Zegras went at Philipp Grubauer twice in the second period. It was the best game he’s played this year, and he scored the tying goal in the third. Marchand, Konecny, Tkachuk, Hartnell. Those guys were at their best when they were in the other team’s face, mucking it up. If that’s what it takes every night to get yourself going, so be it.

The Flyers have no secondary scoring

The Flyers came into Wednesday last in the NHL at 1.93 goals per game. Through Oct. 24, Michkov, Zegras and Martone had 14 of the team’s 24 goals. Couturier’s goal on Wednesday was his first of the season. Getting Konecny and Tippett back will help. But great teams have scoring depth, or at least a fourth line with an identity. Think of the Islanders with Matt Martin, Casey Cizikas and Cal Clutterbuck.

The Flyers had that identity and traded it away

They moved Nic Deslauriers to Carolina at the deadline for a conditional seventh-round pick. They moved Garnet Hathaway to Florida in June for a fifth and a fourth, and kept half his cap hit to do it. Neither guy scored much. You can’t tell me they weren’t valuable. They were older vets who demanded respect and had no problem calling guys out in that locker room. Deslauriers dropped the gloves 33 times in the regular season as a Flyer.

Now the guys in those roles are too easy to play against. For as much as we’ve preached about culture, this isn’t how it was supposed to be built if we’re taking this many steps backwards. If Michkov or Zegras gets run, I want a guy like Hathaway jumping over the boards the next shift and running that guy. That’s part of this organization’s identity. It’s the Flyer way. You can hit them, but you’d better be ready to get hit next. It’s psychological warfare. If a guy knows throwing that hit means he’s going to have to fight, some guys shy away from it.

The Play Before the Play, Episode 2: Flyers vs. Capitals film breakdown

Clip 1 (0:11): Aliaksei Protas, 16:47 of the 2nd, 3-1 Washington

Everyone sees Protas tip Matt Roy’s point shot. But it starts with Sanheim wrapping the puck up the boards blind, and it turns into a turnover. Most defensemen have the green light to pinch on every wrap now because it’s so hard for the winger to win that battle. Get your eyes up before you throw it there.

Clip 2 (1:15): Alex Tuch, 1:50 of the 1st, 1-0 Washington

This one starts with Tyson Foerster’s dump-in. I’m fine with dumping it in if that’s your only option. It’s always better than turning it over in the neutral zone. But there has to be awareness. Foerster chips it down, and it becomes a 1-on-3. If he recognizes it, or Couturier calls for it, it should be a hard wrap into the zone. Then Couturier is more likely to win that puck in what might be a 1-on-1, or he just gets it clean, since all three Capitals were on one side of the ice.

Then Michkov and Martone don’t see Tuch coming down into the slot. I know the box plus one isn’t man-on-man. But no D-zone structure tells you to let a guy walk down the middle of the slot. That’s not a coaching issue. That’s defensive IQ and puck watching. Two guys who weren’t awake.

Missed episode one? Here’s where Columbus’s three first-period goals really started.

Here’s what I’d like to see moving forward

Everyone throws a hit on his first shift. Defensemen finish every check they can. Wraps happen with eyes up, and dumps happen with a purpose. And somebody in that room has to be willing to stand up for Michkov and Zegras. The talent isn’t the problem right now. The compete is.

Every player’s InStat numbers live on the Broad St Breakout player cards. Tell me which goal you want broken down next on X @BroadStBreakout or Instagram @broadstbreakout.