The last time Sean Couturier scored a goal, the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers were getting ready to play Super Bowl 58 in Las Vegas. It’s been a while, as Aaron Lewis once said.

Mind you, Coots would be named the Flyers’ 20th captain in franchise history just a few days later, a move that made sense considered his seniority and contribution over the years. Some thought it might serve as a boost of sorts for the 31 year old, playing his first full season since recovering from back surgery that caused him to miss the entirety of the 2022-2023 campaign.

So here we are on March 19th, and Coots has 0 goals and 3 assists in the 14 games since being named captain. He only played 11 minutes in the Boston loss and now there’s scuttlebutt that he might get the John Tortorella scratch treatment as a result of declining play, which, if we’re being honest, hasn’t been horrible. He’s not making bad mistakes and bad decisions out there, he just looks like a guy with an empty gas tank who can’t impact the game in any sort of meaningful way.

“A number of guys need to play better,” said Torts after Monday’s practice. “It’s the old chicken or the egg, give me more ice time and I’ll show ya. I’ve given people plenty of ice time, and the people that I have slotted and given more minutes as we’ve gone through here, I think deserve it. There’s no special answer I can give you. You’ve got to play better. I don’t care if it’s 10 minutes, I don’t care if it’s 17 or 18 minutes. Don’t care if it’s seven minutes. You have to give me something to hang my hat on to keep on trying to earn more ice time. I’m coaching 20 guys, not just one, or two or three, it’s all of them. Those are the decisions I have to make.”

From an optics standpoint, it seems unfathomable that you’d bench the guy you named captain a little more than a month ago, but the production, or lack thereof, is what it is.

“Definitely I think searching myself a little bit right now,” Coots said Monday. “I think with the limited ice time opportunities I’m getting, the last couple of games I thought I’ve been better. Obviously the team success hasn’t, so it’s tough right now. But I’m just going to keep trying to work on my game, and find myself and find a role I guess.”

 

Here’s Anthony’s take on the matter:

Unless John Tortorella is playing four-dimensional chess with everyone, and suddenly changes his mind before puck drop, when the Flyers take the ice tonight for a rematch with a Toronto Maple Leafs team who obliterated them last week, the team will look a lot like last season’s version of the Flyers:

No Sean Couturier. No Cam Atkinson.

The difference is, last season, they were injured and couldn’t play. This time, there are no injuries. They are being held out of the lineup because coach John Tortorella is trying to make the playoffs and feels that, for tonight’s game, the 12 forwards who give the Flyers the best chance of winning do not include their captain and another veteran forward.

Atkinson has been pretty bad most of the season, so that one doesn’t come as a surprise. But Coots hasn’t been a healthy scratch – maybe ever – in his Flyers career.

If nothing else, it shows Torts is an equal opportunity offender. It’s not just the Bobby Brinks and Morgan Frosts of the world that take up temporary residence in his chateau bow-wow.

And scratching the captain is definitely a message being sent – not just to Couturier, who is a warrior who has the will to play but his body just isn’t responding at the moment after missing nearly two years of game action and being pushed to the max earlier in the season to get the Flyers to the point they are at now – but to the entire team.

It should be a wake-up call. But is the team talented enough at the current moment – down three defensemen with a rookie goalie an AHL backup and star players like Travis Konecny playing through injury – to really have it make a difference?

It’s in that vein, where the team is shorthanded as it is and you are playing meaningful games in late March trying to make the playoffs, where taking valuable veterans – including your newly-minted team captain, out of the lineup might do more harm than good.

There’s no doubt this is a coaching gamble by Torts. And it’s equally understandable as to why he’s trying it as it is befuddling that he would do it at such a critical juncture of the season.

Look, Coots hasn’t been himself. That’s been well-documented. He had been relegated to fourth line duty for a reason. But you mean to tell me that having guys like Nic Deslauriers, Olle Lycksell, and Noah Cates in the lineup ahead of Coots makes the team better at the moment? That’s not a knock on any of those guys. They all have good roles to fill with this team and deserve some playing time as well. But ahead of Couturier? That’s where you lose me.

I’d rather 10 mediocre minutes from Coots knowing the possibility exists that he can win a key faceoff or make a smart little pass, or defend a playmaking center with his veteran savvy and strong stick, coupled with the leadership in the locker room he provides rather than having him sit upstairs with us in the press box.

I usually defend Torts on decisions like this, and maybe he’ll be proven to be right on this one, but unless Coots is hurt and really can’t go, which doesn’t seem to be the case, I think this is a risk not worth taking at such a crucial stage in the season.

EDIT – this is confirmed: