The Flyers were predicted to finish near the bottom of the league but are punching far above their weight. The secret? Good old-fashioned grit.
The Flyers have long leaned on grittiness from Bobby Clarke , Dave Schultz , Nick Seeler , and Ed Van Impe .At 6-foot-3, 197 pounds, with a quiet demeanor and a smile as wide as his home state of Minnesota, he doesn’t necessarily strike fear into the heart of anyone. But when he adds 22 pounds of hockey gear and laces up his skates, he is someone you do not want to mess with.“I have heard that before, yeah,” the blueliner said with a grin when asked about his gritty style of play.
“I think gritty is a mindset. I think it’s something that the Flyers today have to play with to be successful. I think this year have seen it quite a bit, that when we’re successful, we’re gritty,” Seeler said.; despite missing the last 10 games, he’s still tied for second with the Dallas Stars’ Chris Tanev. In 63 games this season, Seeler has thrown 112 hits and ranks eighth among blueliners with 78 penalty minutes — including four five-minute majors and one 10-minute misconduct.
“As I’ve said, we’re trying to build a team here to identify with the city and the city to identify with us,” Tortorella said recently when asked to describe Flyers hockey. “That’s hard work. That’s determination. That’s no-nonsense, willingness, all those contribute to being the right pro.”In each of Tortorella’s two seasons at the helm, the Flyers have ranked No. 2 in grittiness among NHL teams.
As a team, through Tuesday’s games, the Flyers ranked first in shots blocked , sixth in penalty minutes , seventh in hits , ninth in majors , and tied for sixth in misconducts . For clarity on how good the Flyers are when it comes to eating shots, the team in second, the Vegas Golden Knights, have 1,345 — 57 fewer blocked shots in one less game.
“I’d say never giving up really, hard to play against. Just kind of in the battle whenever there’s a battle. Gritty,” added winger Garnet Hathaway, who checks in at No. 14 overall on our Gritty Meter. “ the whole legacy of the Flyers organization really,” said Hathaway, who took it as a compliment when he was called gritty by this reporter and teammate Travis Konecny. “The players that came before us. I think the standard that was set in terms of effort, in terms of compete level, and playing with that passion, that comes from the fans. It has been in our organization’s history since we started.
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