{"id":293090,"date":"2025-11-15T11:27:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T11:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/293090\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T11:27:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T11:27:12","slug":"rick-tocchet-reunites-flyers-familiar-lines-in-st-louis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/293090\/","title":{"rendered":"Rick Tocchet reunites Flyers\u2019 familiar lines in St. Louis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tyson Foerster returned to the lineup for Wednesday night\u2019s game against the Edmonton Oilers, and Philadelphia Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet put him back together with his usual linemates of Noah Cates and Bobby Brink.<\/p>\n

However, Tocchet decided to mix up the other lines for that one rather than try to build on the chemistry that some of the other forwards have built. That didn\u2019t turn out so well as the Flyers went long stretches without much offensive pressure against Edmonton, and Tocchet eventually put the lines in a blender in the third period.<\/p>\n

Ahead of a weekend back-to-back in St. Louis and Dallas, it looks like Tocchet is going back to some familiar combinations on Friday night.<\/p>\n

Another lineup shakeup for the Flyers<\/p>\n

Here were the Flyers\u2019 lines from their morning skate in St. Louis, per The Inquirer\u2019s Jackie Spiegel<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Matvei Michkov \u2013 Sean Couturier \u2013 Travis Konecny
Owen Tippett \u2013 Christian Dvorak \u2013 Trevor Zegras
Tyson Foerster \u2013 Noah Cates \u2013 Bobby Brink
Garnet Hathaway \u2013 Rodrigo Abols \u2013 Nic Deslauriers<\/p>\n

Spiegel noted that the lines are in no order whatsoever, and I also wonder if the positioning of a few of the wingers could be swapped. Zegras primarily played on the left side with Dvorak and Tippett, and Hathaway has been stapled into the lineup as the fourth-line right winger rather than left winger.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, it\u2019s good to see Tocchet go back to the lines that showed some chemistry in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

Foerster, Cates, and Brink have played 126 minutes together at 5-on-5, earning 52.7% of the expected goals share while typically playing against the opposition\u2019s top players. It\u2019s been the Flyers\u2019 best line for nearly a full year now, and one of the best lines in hockey for stretches as well.<\/p>\n

Tippett has gone into a drought, which Tocchet talked about earlier this week, and specifically pointed out that most of his time has been with Dvorak and Zegras. He then moved Tippett away from those two, and he ended up with just one shot attempt against Edmonton.<\/p>\n

This line has potential with Zegras as the playmaker, Tippett as the shooter, and Dvorak as the two-way presence in the middle. They have 59% of the expected goals share in 79 minutes at 5-on-5.<\/p>\n

Michkov has moved around the lineup all season, but with a three-game goal streak intact, he\u2019s up on the top line with Couturier and Konecny. This was a combination that saw success last season, but has played just 38 minutes together so far this year.<\/p>\n

With Michkov and Konecny both on scoring streaks, it makes sense to put them back together to see what magic they can create. Maybe it\u2019s simply a result of reuniting the Zegras \u2013 Dvorak \u2013 Tippett line, but it\u2019s not a bad idea either way.<\/p>\n

The one issue with these lines is the inclusion of Deslauriers. I wrote on Wednesday that playing Deslauriers against the Oilers is a brutal mistake<\/a>, and all of those points remain heading into St. Louis. I sure hope he won\u2019t be playing in both halves of the back-to-back, but playing him in the first half opens up the possibility of needing to dress him in Dallas if there\u2019s an injury to a forward.<\/p>\n

Nikita Grebenkin has shown some snarl, speed, and even offensive contributions in his limited ice time. It doesn\u2019t make sense to scratch him for Deslauriers.<\/p>\n

All in all, though, it\u2019s good to see the top three lines back together. The Flyers have an important back-to-back this weekend before four days off next week.<\/p>\n

Stats via MoneyPuck<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tyson Foerster returned to the lineup for Wednesday night\u2019s game against the Edmonton Oilers, and Philadelphia Flyers head…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-293090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}