While it’s nice to be told you’re doing a good job once in a while, Morgan Frost doesn’t necessarily need the feedback.

Nor is he getting it.

Ever since his sit-down-and-air-it-all-out meeting with coach John Tortorella, Frost has been one of the Flyers’ best players. He’s averaging almost one point per game (15 points in 16 games since) and he’s noticeable when he’s on the ice – driving the play, creating offensive chances, and really helping the team build momentum.

He’s playing with confidence, and most importantly he’s skating. That sounds simple, but it’s not. It’s easy to be out there, gliding on the ice, or skating around the periphery of the play, but it’s another thing to get to difficult areas of the ice. That requires another level of skating. It requires a willingness to go places where you know you’re going to put yourself in harm’s way. You are going to get banged around, hit with sticks, pucks, shots, checks, etc., but where you will have a better chance to score a goal, or set up a teammate for one.

That’s been the biggest improvement in Frost’s game. Not that anyone has told him that.

He was asked point blank after the Flyers’ 5-3 win over the Arizona Coyotes Monday, their fourth consecutive victory, if anyone from the organization has been giving him positive feedback.

“No, maybe from you guys a little bit,” he said, referring to the media. “No, I think when I am (skating) I can kind of assess myself that way. That’s when I know I am playing my best.”

He’s been playing his best, and it reached a new height against an Arizona team who Frost traditionally plays well against, for some strange reason.

He scored a penalty shot goal, and although it was one of the slowest penalty shot attempts on record, it wasn’t even the best part of his game.

(Side note: I was talking to Sam Ersson after the game. I asked him as a goalie if he faced a guy who took as long as Frost to shoot on a penalty shot, if that would be unnerving. He said he honestly doesn’t watch penalty shots, or shootout shots when the Flyers take them because he likes to use that time to center himself and re-focus, and just wait for the crowd’s reaction to know what happened. But then he admitted, “I wasn’t looking but I did start to think that it was taking longer than usual.” OK.. back to the story… )

That goal may have been his only point of the night, but the rest of his time on the ice he was sensational, creating chances all game long. Every time he was on the ice, there was something brewing in the Flyers offensive end.

Aside from the goal, Morgan Frost:

  • created three power plays by drawing penalties
  • had multiple scoring chances for himself
  • set up his linemates for at least two high-percentage scoring chances
  • was credited with three hits, showing a physical element to his game that hasn’t really surfaced until these last 16 games
  • had a takeaway
  • played 20:09 of ice time – the most ice time he’s had in a game since April, 2023

Tortorella may not want to tell Frost directly how well he’s played, and how his skating and confidence have been such a difference-maker for him, but he has no problem doing it indirectly, even if it took two attempts by the media to get him to say something positive about Frost:

“It’s probably one of the best games I’ve seen him play in a while,” Tortorella said. “He tried to put the team on his back, and you could see that he felt it. The thing that is encouraging to me with Frosty is he’s willing to play in the middle of the ice now. Last year I felt he needed to be more in (these) areas and I felt he played too much to the outside. He’s carrying the puck into the middle of the ice and making plays off of that. It was one of the better games I’ve seen him play since I’ve coached here.”

The Flyers are starting to get rewarded for showing their patience with Frost, who has been a bit of an enigma in his time with the big club. He’s always had those flashes of dynamic skill and vision, but they would often be muted by a hesitance to his play.

Does his consistency need to last longer than 16 games? Of course. But the one thing that’s different this time than any previous stretch of games when he’s been productive is that he had the gumption to challenge his coach and then answer the bell after that meeting, and he’s doing this in meaningful games where the Flyers are trying to stun the hockey world and make the playoffs in a season where many expected them to be among the bottom five teams in the sport.

Because of that, you can be more optimistic about his future as a player in this league, than maybe ever before.