I am in the process of guest-authoring the second of three chapters in conjunction with Jay Greenberg's 50th Anniversary History of the Philadelphia Flyers. I am covering the 2010-11 through the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season. Currently, I'm editing my draft on the portion of the 2012-13 season in which then-rookie Flyers center Sean Couturier put together a five-game goal scoring streak shortly before the All-Star break.
In re-reading the section, and going back to watch the videos of his goals, I am struck by a comment Couturier made looking back at it: basically, that he wasn't overthinking things or consciously trying to bring out the offensive part of his game as well as being assigned defensive shutdown duties. As a rookie, albeit an unusually mature one despite being a teenager, he was just playing the game.
Whenever people say Couturier has "bad hands", I think back to his goal streak. He was scoring one sniper's goal after another. All but the final goal of the streak -- which was a nicely conceived shorthanded give-and-go with Matt Read but a bit lucky it went in, as Couturier partially flubbed it -- were what would be deemed goal-scorer's goals that he top-shelved over goaltenders. In fact, he was deadly either from the right or left circles near the hash marks. Here were the goal-streak goals are sequentially.
What's the point of these clips from four years ago? It's that there's nothing wrong with Couturier's hands, and that's he is capable of being dangerous in transitional odd-man chances or off the line rush. He has always been capable of developing at least into a 20-goal scorer even with his heavy defensive burdens.
What Couturier actually was lacking for a few years there was the mindset of a scorer when he got into the offensive zone. Even in practice, it was a noticeable difference let alone in game situations. At one point during the Peter Laviolette era, Couturier used to be able to almost casually put shots under the crossbar and into the top corners with regularity at practice. Then, for a few years, it became more like "clang, clang, clang" off the crossbar/post, shooting right into the goalie's chest or tattooing the glass behind the net.
This past season, Couturier finally started to recover a little bit more of the "just let it fly" mentality he had during that now long-ago offensive streak. He had a stretch of 16 points in 16 games at one juncture -- although most of the points were via assist, but there were some really nice setups he was making to teammates in addition to scoring a few of his own. His playmaking confidence was way up again and his shooting confidence was back on the upswing as well.
Injuries got in Couturier's way several times this past season, and undoubtedly interrupted what was becoming the best offensive groove of his career. If there's one thing I'd like to see from him come next season, it's to feel loose offensively and look to be more of a shooter. That most certainly goes for his time on the second power play unit as well as at even strength.
Couturier has added muscle and years of experience since that goal run as a rookie. There's no reason why, even with his defensive responsibilities, he can't put together some offensive runs (hopefully with a few more goals mixed in) like he did in 2015-16. The key will be not to let the inevitable ebbs turn into 15-20 game droughts without a goal.
The Flyers need more goal-scoring from a variety of sources, both internally and externally and both in the short-term and long-term. Especially as the organization's developing young defensemen graduate to the NHL and the team hopefully comes to spend much more time attacking and less time defending, there should be more chances for Couturier to show off the offensive skills that have mostly been seen in flashes and mini-streaks during his offensive career to date.
The hands are there. The confidence is finally catching up.
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