It’s essentially a rite of passage at this point to get scratched by John Tortorella, who has shown in his three seasons as the Philadelphia Flyers’ coach that he’s willing to sit both young players and veterans alike. So when impressive rookie defenseman Emil Andrae came out for Thursday’s game against the Red Wings, a 4-1 Flyers win, and stayed out for Saturday’s 4-1 loss in Minnesota, no splashy headlines were required.
“I just don’t think Emil has played well for a little while,” Tortorella said earlier in the week. “It’s been a little bit of a struggle with the puck, it’s been a struggle without the puck. We’ve got to be careful when we’re developing a guy like that.”
To be clear, Andrae is healthy. Yes, he got trucked by Columbus’ Mathieu Olivier on Tuesday on what looked like a blow to the head, but he’s been a regular and full participant in practice since. Further, when asked to confirm his health status on Friday, the 23-year-old said: “All good. I put myself in a bad spot there (on the hit), but I got up, and I’m good.”
As for getting scratched after playing mostly effective hockey on the second defense pair since he was recalled from the Phantoms in late October, Andrae said: “You can’t be too high and you can’t be too low. Just trying to work on my game, watch some tape. … I think I’ve been defending pretty good, but there’s some details in my game that can be a lot better.”
The Flyers blue line is crowded now that everyone is healthy again. That includes Jamie Drysdale, who played in his fourth straight game on Saturday after recovering from an upper-body injury, and Egor Zamula, who has taken Andrae’s spot in the lineup alongside Rasmus Ristolainen for the past two games.
It’s one of those good problems to have, but finding playing time for all of the young players that the Flyers are trying to develop is particularly difficult when it’s defensemen. Tortorella indicated as much this week, saying that it’s tougher for them than forwards to sit out at length and return without a hitch, so he doesn’t want any of the blueliners to be out all that long.
In other words, Andrae’s scratching probably has as much to do with Zamula as it does him, as prior to Thursday, Zamula was out for six of the previous nine games. Tortorella is hoping that the 24-year-old Russian, who signed a two-year, $3.4 million contract extension in the offseason, can learn to play faster and process the speed of the game better than he has to this point in his career. He can’t very well do that from the press box.
Perhaps Andrae will return on Wednesday when the Flyers visit the Red Wings, as Zamula had a couple difficult moments in the loss to the Wild, including trying to chase down Matt Boldy on a breakaway in the second period that he converted to give Minnesota a 2-0 lead.
But it’s Drysdale that’s bound to be in focus more than Andrae and Zamula, if only because he’s the former sixth overall pick that was part of that blockbuster deal in which the Flyers surrendered Cutter Gauthier to the Anaheim Ducks. The way Andrae was playing while Drysdale was recovering led to speculation that maybe Drysdale would end up as the eventual odd man out, replaced by a player that is of similar size and has comparable attributes.
Drysdale has calmed down that online chatter, though, at least for now.
In the last four games at five-on-five, Drysdale has been on the ice for seven Flyers goals and none against. His 72.2 expected-goals share (per Natural Stat Trick) is the best mark on the team among players that have suited up for all four games, his 57.2 shot-attempt share is sixth on the club, and he has a team-high four takeaways.
Tortorella and Drysdale both mentioned that he’s been watching some tape of a former pupil of the coach: Dan Boyle, whose diminutive size kept him from getting drafted when the league still collectively scoffed at smaller defensemen, but who developed into the prototypical rover that won a Stanley Cup with the Lightning in 2004 and was a stud for many years with the San Jose Sharks, too.
One word that Tortorella has mentioned a few times when it comes to Drysdale, and that Boyle did well, is “surfing.” Essentially, it’s “all under the header of checking forward,” Tortorella said. “When you don’t have the puck, instead of a defenseman coming off the blue line and just accepting the rush, we want you surfing forward.”
Drysdale described it — and we’re paraphrasing here, because it’s a lot of technical mumbo jumbo — as when he’s the weak side defenseman, taking a route that cuts off passing options for the puck carrier.
In one sequence on Saturday, he did it to perfection. Drysdale was lurking in the offensive zone between the circles with the puck in the corner, and when it was rimmed behind the net to the weak side, he was able to win a foot race and take possession, ultimately leading to about half a minute more of offensive zone time and eventually a good scoring chance by Owen Tippett on a backhand.
Playing that way also takes a certain mindset, and that’s something that Drysdale was struggling with before his injury. He just wasn’t decisive enough. Tortorella has apparently stressed to Drysdale that he wants him to take chances in order to help the team generate offense, and it’s a message he welcomes.
“Absolutely,” Drysdale said. “He’s kind of reinforced that and has said that a few times to me. As a D-man, I think that’s kind of what you want to hear. It’s really nice hearing and it’s reassuring. I think just allows your mind to get in the headspace that, alright, I can get up as much as I can and as much as I want.”
It also means he’s going to have to live with the odd mistake from time to time, and get over them. Mental toughness, in other words.
“Mistakes are going to happen. That’s how goals are scored every night. I think it’s not dwelling on it, first and foremost,” Drysdale said.
“I know I need to make more plays, and I think I’m capable of that. That’s what we’re trying to do.”
(Photo of Jamie Drysdale: Kyle Ross / Imagn Images)
