Flyers' Couturier 'all good' with Tortorella after scratches
Philadelphia Flyers captain Sean Couturier doesn't seem to be harboring any resentment toward head coach John Tortorella after watching two games from the press box.
"It's all good. It's always been good, honestly," the forward said Saturday when asked about his relationship with Tortorella, per The Athletic's Kevin Kurz. "At the time, it just ... it's tough to hear that (you're getting scratched). You want to help in any way you can at this time of the year."
Couturier returned to the lineup for Philadelphia's 3-2 victory over the Boston Bruins after being scratched for Tuesday's win against the Toronto Maple Leafs and Thursday's overtime loss to the Carolina Hurricanes.
Though he didn't get on the scoresheet, the Flyers outshot the Bruins 6-4 and dictated 71.4% of the scoring chances with Couturier on the ice at five-on-five, per Natural Stat Trick.
When asked what he thought of Couturier's performance, Tortorella responded succinctly: "Coots played well."
Tortorella has sidestepped questions about his decision to scratch Couturier. The veteran's agent, Erik Lupien, recently expressed frustration over a perceived lack of communication between his client and Tortorella, but Couturier didn't want to get into it.
"It's behind me now," he said. "I don't want to really talk about it, I just want to help the team in any way I can. It all worked out well - we got three out of four points, now five out of six. I thought, as a team, we all responded really well."
Couturier drew another positive from his stint on the sidelines.
"I definitely felt fresh," he said with a laugh. "I had a week to kind of just recover, refocus, recharge the battery."
The 31-year-old has chipped in with 36 points in 65 games this season while seeing 18:30 of ice time per contest after missing nearly two years with a back injury. However, Couturier's average playing time has dipped below 15 minutes since he was named captain Feb. 14.
Flyers star Travis Konecny was impressed by the way Couturier dealt with this particular bump.
"He handled it great," Konecny said. "There's no doubt in my mind that when he was out of the lineup, he wanted nothing more than us to get those two points every night. He's our leader.
"You just know that he wants the same thing - nothing more than to make the playoffs."
The Flyers will take on the Florida Panthers on Sunday at 6 p.m. ET.