With the Philadelphia Flyers boasting an NHL roster with several burgeoning prospects trying to make their immediate impact, the veterans and the more seasoned young players needed to be on high alert in the first week of the regular season.
With Sean Couturier and Cam Atkinson making their returns to the lineup and being slotted into all situations again, ice-time, responsibility, and opportunities might’ve been scarce for some of the top-6 players from the 2022-23 team.
With that being said, John Tortorella’s mantra of playing hard, making the right plays, and being a responsible 200-foot player remained intact and with that came the first healthy scratch of the Flyers 2023-24 season – based on performance.
Bobby Brink, Tyson Foerster, Emil Andrae, and Egor Zamula made the club outright out of training and with Rasmus Ristolainen sidelined on IR, it gave the latter two options a chance to play meaningful NHL games. All 4 have alternated in and out of the lineup, so their healthy scratch labels weren’t as noteworthy as that of Morgan Frost. I think if you polled Flyers fans and media members as to who they thought would be the first player to receive that healthy scratch, Frost might have been at the top of that list.\
Frost was only scratched once last season but there had been too many occasions where the slick playmaking centre was caught flat-footed in the defensive zone, wasn’t back-checking, or made lackadaisical offensive plays.
Nevertheless, Frost is a big piece of the Flyers’ rebuild moving forward and he’s every bit as important as players like Couturier, Atkinson, Joel Farabee, Owen Tippett, and Travis Konecny, which makes the healthy scratch in the home opener all the more disappointing. Frost had a breakout season last year, where he scored 19 goals and 46 points in 81 games, while averaging 16:21 TOI. What was even more impressive was how he finished the season as he accumulated 16 goals and 40 points in his final 54 games, which paced the club. 18 of his 19 goals came while playing even-strength hockey, he averaged 17:17 TOI in that final stretch, and he looked to have all the makings of what the Flyers expected out of him when they drafted him in the first round of the 2017 NHL Entry Draft.
To start the 2023-24 season, Couturier took back his mantle as the top-line centre with Farabee and Brink on his wings, Frost was on the second line with Atkinson and Tippett on his wings, and Noah Cates was the third line centre with Konecny and Scott Laughton on his wings. Frost was a non-factor in their 4-2 victory against the Blue Jackets on October 12th, with just a third period shot on goal, 1 hit and 1 blocked shot, and was minus-1 in 12:43 TOI.
In their 5-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Saturday, Frost was held without a point again, had an even-rating, one shot on goal, and played 15:12 TOI. He was slightly more visible against Ottawa, but he remained a non-factor to start the season compared to everyone else around him. With Brink and Foerster interchanging to begin the season, it was only a matter of time until Tortorella felt the need to keep them both in the lineup in lieu of someone in the top-9.
While he didn’t make a comment on Tuesday, it was extremely noticeable from his facial expression when he was introduced by PA announcer Lou Nolan that he was extremely disappointed. Could this be John Tortorella being John Tortorella, or is there merit behind the move?
However, on Wednesday Frost spoke about the benching, how he understood the decision, and how to move forward.
“It sucks, obviously you don’t want to be standing on the bench for the introductions,” Frost said Wednesday following practice. “It’s way too early in the year for me to let it bother me too much. When I start feeling that way, even off the ice, I think that affects my game on the ice. I’m just going to try to stay positive and keep cheering the boys on with a smile on my face.
“I didn’t play good the first two games, I think it’s as simple as that,” Frost said. “There are guys pushing for spots here. You look at guys like Tyson and Bobby, I think they’ve played very well. I understand it. I need to play better.
“It’s only two games, I don’t think that’s my whole season, so I’m not going to get too worked up about it. I was happy to see the boys win last night. I’m going to stay positive.”
Last season Tortorella dropped the swift hammer of justice onto Kevin Hayes, Tony DeAngelo, Rasmus Ristolainen, Morgan Frost, and Travis Sanheim – all of whom were made healthy scratches. Travis Konecny, Owen Tippett, and Joel Farabee were never made healthy scratches, but they rode the pine mid-game – as did Hayes, Sanheim, Frost, and DeAngelo.
Hayes took it personally and DeAngelo ameliorated in patches but didn’t quite understand why he sat out the final stretch of the season. Ristolainen, Frost, and Sanheim never returned to the press box and seemingly learned their lesson the first time. Same can be said about Konecny, Tippett, and Farabee with the former two being the most productive players throughout the season.
Frost was made a healthy scratch against his boyhood team, the Toronto Maple Leafs, in the same barn that he had frequented so many times as a child with his father being the Leafs’ PA announcer from 1999 to 2016. It was a gut-wrenching feeling as it was a homecoming of sorts for the youngster, but Tortorella made it known that it had nothing to do with personal reasons and everything to do with his play on the ice. After scoring 2 goals in the season opener, Frost recorded 1 assist in the next 8 games and had TOI of 7:43, 11:41, and 12:24 before sitting in the press box against Toronto.
In the 4 games the proceeded, Frost saw 10:04, 10:01, 8:37, and 10:43 with just 2 shots on goal and was still without a point to his name since the third game of the season. His ice time started to slowly increase as he picked up the pace, and while he only recorded a goal and one assist in a 12-game stretch before he exploded for what became his final stretch run of the season, he averaged 16:53 ATOI.
Tortorella’s tough love approach worked, Frost became more confident as a playmaker, a centreman, and a top-6 forward and it showed not only on the scoreboard but also in his demeanour. After being held to just 77 games in a 3-year span with just 7 goals and 23 points to his name, Frost broke out in a big way. He earned himself a nice 2-year contract this summer with an annual cap hit of 2.1 million, a modest boost from his $800,000 he was playing on in 2022-23.
Tortorella backed his decision on the basis that Frost didn’t play bad but instead others played a lot better:
“I’m not going to debate it publicly, I’m not going to fill your papers, Frosty just needs to play better,” Tortorella said Wednesday. “I’ll give you this – Frosty I don’t think has played poorly, other people have just played better, so that’s a good thing.”
When asked if he (Frost) thought the leash was too short, considering it had only been 2 games, Frost remained cavalier in response:
“That’s a tough one to answer,” Frost said. “That’s something you’d have to ask Torts. I don’t think he really cares about what I did last year, to be honest. It sucks, it’s two games, sometimes it’s tough to start a season right away. But at this level, you need to do that. I didn’t play good the first two games and it is what it is.
I don’t think it’s the biggest deal in the world that he was in the press box on Tuesday, but it continues to show that Tortorella means business. Every spot in the lineup and every game on the docket is not set in stone no matter your standing in the club, locker room, or on CapFriendly’s salary chart. Tortorella said before the season started that he was going to interchange Brink and Foerster and sometimes that will be at the behest of some veterans.
Frost should be a mainstay moving forward and should take this recent healthy scratch the same way he took it last year – as a lesson. He turned things around last year after being in the doghouse and with a more balanced attack in 2023-24, Frost should benefit mightily especially if he’s skating on a line with Atkinson and Tippett, while being the focal point of the Flyers’ 2nd power play unit.
“I’ve had a ton of bumps in my road,” Frost said. “I’ll be ready to go when I’m back in.”
However, as we draw closer to puck drop against the vaunted Edmonton Oilers, Tortorella confirmed that Frost will be withheld from the Flyers lineup for a second consecutive game.
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