VOORHEES, N.J. — John Tortorella was always an honest coach in Philadelphia, a quality many respected and appreciated.
So nobody should fault Sean Couturier for being an honest player Friday at his end-of-the-season press conference.
The Flyers' captain was asked about his relationship with the former head coach — a marriage that rarely seemed on the same page — and what was needed in the next head coach.
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SIGN UP HERE "As long as we're all in together, pushing in the same direction together," Couturier said. "That's the main goal, is to win. We're all in this together. I just felt at times I was getting pushed aside. I didn't know the reason or maybe wouldn't agree with the explanations that were given to me."
Last season, Couturier was left confounded and frustrated when he was benched for two games in the heat of a playoff race, just five weeks after he was named captain.
This season, it's fair to wonder if the coach-captain dynamic ever improved. Couturier's role continued to fluctuate. As an established center on a center-needy team, he played fourth-line left winger in the Flyers' home opener. He learned of the position switch "right before the game."
In January, Couturier played only 13:07 minutes per game. Coming out of the 4 Nations Face-Off break in February, he put up a three-point, plus-5 performance while playing just 12:39 minutes. The next game, he played 13:51 minutes.
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"I think if you look at the minutes and stuff, it tells you how I was maybe being pushed aside," Couturier said. "That's what I mean, it is what it is. Didn't agree with the way I was getting pushed aside, but I was just trying to not be a distraction, keep my mouth shut, put in the extra effort to try to get back to where I should be.
"A lot of it is on me, too, at times I needed to play better. It's behind us now, moving forward, whoever's here, we'll be buying in and doing whatever we can to get back in the winning column and getting back to the playoffs."
Couturier finished strong down the stretch and pieced together a quietly good season. He had 45 points (15 goals, 30 assists), a plus-1 rating and a 56.1 faceoff win percentage in 17:18 minutes per game. Over the team's final 25 games, he had 20 points (seven goals, 13 assists). Matvei Michkov was the only Flyer to score more in that stretch with 27 points.
For the 32-year-old Couturier, it wasn't his Selke Trophy production from 2019-20. But for someone who had overcome two back surgeries in 2022 and was banged up last season, Couturier's overall body of work was positive.
"It has been impressive to watch him inch his way back real close to where he was when he was in the Selke voting and all that," interim head coach Brad Shaw said Friday. "Obviously has he gone through a real tough surgery in between then, so I'm not sure how close he gets, but I've been really impressed with the drive he has to try to get back there and to provide that example for the rest of the young guys."
Couturier is now the city's longest-tenured athlete, a run that goes back to October 2011. Next season, he'll be in Year 4 of his eight-year, $62 million contract. The deal has a full no-move clause that turns into a limited no-move clause come the final year. He hopes to finish his career in Philadelphia and go on playoff runs again.
"I don't have as many years as there used to be," Couturier said. "I don't want to say that the clock's ticking, but I want to win before I'm done playing. Hopefully we can turn this around quick and get back into contention mode and where this organization deserves to be."
The Flyers finished this rebuilding season tied with the Bruins for the Eastern Conference's worst record. Tortorella was fired with nine games left, so the Flyers' first order of business this offseason will be naming a head coach.
"As much as this year has been tough, the one thing I'm proud of or I can say that's good about this group is no one has pointed fingers," Couturier said. "Guys still played hard for each other and wanted the best out of each other, so that's the thing I think that we need to keep building on moving forward."