Morgan Frost may not be aware of it, but he is at a crossroads in his young career.

In recent games, he is putting up offense. He has a goal in three straight, including in Thursday’s 4-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was originally credited with an assist on Joel Farabee’s goal as well, but that one was taken away from him upon review. He now has seven points in the last six games, and many are thinking he’s finally turning the corner. It would be a good thing for the Flyers if he did, since he only has 13 points this season in 33 games played, which can hardly be considered productive.

But he’s being given every opportunity to show he belongs, to show he can be a consistent player and be relied upon to provide offense. To show why the Flyers traded Brayden Schenn  for the first round draft picks that they used to select Frost and Farabee. And most importantly, under coach John Tortorella, to prove he should be part of the long-term plan during this rebuild-that-should-not-be-named.

Torts even said it following Frost’s goal against Columbus on Tuesday:

“This is a big time for his career. He has a chance to show or not show. He’s going to get the opportunity throughout the rest of this year and I think he’s trying to seize it here.”

Then comes the game against the Maple Leafs and Frost scores this pretty goal in the third period to cut the score to 4-2:

It was special for Frost because he grew up inside Scotia Bank Arena, where his dad was the long-time public address announcer and host of the Leafs’ postgame radio talk show.

In two games in the arena as a member of the Flyers, Frost has scored in both. It had to feel rewarding to score again against the team who grew up not just rooting for, but with, inside that arena.

Scoring in three straight games can boost confidence. Maybe enough to start to feel comfortable in a role. Frost even said it himself after the game:

“I’m probably playing my best hockey right now… It’s probably the best I’ve played in my pro career. Hopefully I can keep it going.”

If you go by just the scoresheet, as many do, it’s hard to disagree with him. Averaging more than one point per game for six games, while it’s a small sample, it certainly can be viewed at as a positive. At least on he surface.

But coaches don’t just look at a player’s performance on a macro level. They don’t just take a 1,000-foot view and let that assessment rule the day. They can’t afford to be so limited.

Instead, they have to dive deeper, look at the totality of a player’s game and effort from night to night, and then make a judgment there, regardless if they have positive counting stats or not.

So there it was, the same game about which Frost said he felt he was playing his best hockey. that Tortorella said this about him:

“I thought he was brutal for most of the game. I was just trying to find some offense… I don’t think his game was anywhere near where it should be for most of the game.”

OOF!

And this isn’t a situation where Torts is just being a hard ass coach who can’t be pleased. The Flyers lost the game. They were throttled by Toronto for 51-and-a-half minutes until they decided to try to overcome a three-goal deficit in the back end of the third period against one of the best teams in the game.

He’s right – you can’t just show up when the game is all about offense. You have to be there playing the right way when things are a little bit tougher. When defense is required. When you have to have the desire to hunt pucks and win 50/50 battles to get them and control them and keep them away from your opponents.

You have to play team defense. You have to have a strong stick, you have to deny passing lanes. You have to take away time and space. You have to communicate in transition.

There’s a lot more to hockey then making a pass that leads to a goal, scoring the goal, or just being on the ice when it happens.

And right now, Frost’s game isn’t where Torts wants it to be. In fact, prior to having his big “breakout” game where he had a goal and three assists in an overtime loss to Arizona on Dec. 11, Frost had the identical total offensive output (1-3-4) in his previous 26 games.

That’s certainly not going to cut it if you aren’t playing the way the coach wants yo to play in other areas of the ice.

In other words, if you are a highly-skilled offensive player, any coach, even one as tough and demanding as Torts, will give you enough rope to make mistakes.

He’s talked a lot about Travis Konecny in this way:

“You see how I use him, so I trust him. I’m always looking for him. He does some crazy stuff at times. We need to work with situational play with him, but you’ve got to be really careful of how – he’s just a reaction type player – you got to be really careful how you coach him because I need to let him go. Teach him a couple things along the way, but I need to let him go because that’s when he’s at his best… He’s a bundle of energy and I love that about him. With a bundle of energy, there’s going to be some crazy stuff that happens. I don’t want to overcoach him. When we get to being a team that is competing in big games, playoffs and all that, when we get there as a team, hopefully at that time, he’ll lead the way as far as situational play. He’s still a pretty young man in this game. I’m hoping he leads the way as far as understanding some of those things when you’re in those key type of situations.”

But if you aren’t producing with any kind of consistency – then you won’t have as much leeway with the coach.

While one can argue that Frost is being more productive lately, it’s one thing to put up points against the Arizonas and Columbuses of the world, or to score when all seems lost late in a game against a good team like Toronto. It’s something different to be a difference-maker at key times in bigger games. Perhaps, more importantly, being a player who WANTS to be that kind of player night in and night out.

Recently, I was asked by someone to compare Frost’s first 100 or so games in the NHL to those of Danny Briere.

And if you just look at the counting stats, there are similarities. Through 110 games, Frost has 36 points (14 goals, 22 assists) while Briere had 29 points (10 goals, 19 assists). They were both 23-years-old at the time.

The following season, Briere broke out to score 32 goals and 60 points – in the pre-lockout NHL that consisted of the lowest-scoring era of the NHL’s post-expansion history, that was pretty impressive for a smaller-statured player.

The argument would be, if comparing the two, Frost, who wears Briere’s No. 48, could have a similar breakout next season, or even starting around now for the rest of this season.

There is one difference between Briere and Frost that can’t be measured. Briere had a fierce will to be better than everyone because he was told at every step of the way that he wasn’t good enough or he was too small to be a difference -maker.

Danny was all about proving people wrong and beating the odds.

Conversely, Frost has grown up in a more entitled time where he’s been told at every step of the way how good he is and how great he can be. That’s not Morgan’s fault that it has been that way, but until he’s run into Torts as a coach, he’s never had to dig as deep as Danny did to find the motivation necessary to prove people wrong.

He’s going to be given the chance to do that now. Even if Torts is like a drill sergeant, Frost is being given more than half a season to prove it. Take the criticisms and let them fuel him to be better rather than get to his head. Frost has to prove that he’s mentally tough,, that he’s willing to play hockey in a different way than maybe he ever has, and to want to be a difference-maker night in and night out.

If that happens, then the Flyers will have a key cog in their rebuild wheel.

And if it doesn’t, Torts won’t consider him part of the long-term answer he’s looking for.

Ironically enough, Frost has 48 more games this season to fall on one side or the other.

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