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Trevor Zegras Says Phone Celebration was a Nod to How Fast Anaheim Hung Up on Him After Trade Call
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What a game, man. Flyers 5, Dirty Ducks 2. Anaheim deserved to get their asses handed to them after throwing cheap shots all night long.
It’s hard to recall the last time a Flyers game had that much juice. Not just in the buildup, with Quitter Gauthier in town, but during the game and after it as well. Quitter scored first on a busted penalty kill sequence, then Trevor Zegras outdid him with a couple of tight-angle snipes and hit the hanging up the phone celebration:
Perfect celebration. Zegras is such a breath of fresh air. Not only does he have the chill demeanor and casual surfer look of Jeff Spicoli, but he scored two ridiculous goals from ridiculous angles. Who else on the roster is doing that, even going back five years? Rookie year Michkov, perhaps, or 2023 TK? Maybe, but who knows?
Regardless, the Flyers haven’t had a skilled sniper in what feels like an eternity. Zegras has 41 points and is outside of the top 30, but he’s 24 years old, playing for a rebuilding team, and we’d probably all agree that his best is yet to come. This was a kid who posted 61 and 65 points at age 20 and 21, so it was always there, the talent, it was just about getting him out of Anaheim and into a new setting.
The Zegras/Gauthier storyline was fun. The game was fun. Flyers hockey has been enjoyable this season. They’re really embarking on one of those seasons where expectations remain relatively low, but you’re excited with the turning of the corner and the glimpses of what this team may be. It feels like a 2016-2017 Sixers season, or even the tail-end of the 2021 Eagles season, when the Birds went on a streak and you started to think, “hey maybe we’ve got something in Jalen Hurts and DeVonta Smith.” And we all know how that turned out.
Philly is a better sports town when Flyers hockey is relevant. There’s an entire Millennial and Gen X generation that grew up with the Legion of Doom and the great teams of the 1980s before that, and Gen Z has really been robbed of meaningful hockey outside of the improbable run to the 2010 finals. The boomers are the only ones alive who remember the Stanley Cup teams, but maybe that changes before we get to 2030.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com