{"id":572986,"date":"2026-05-12T10:09:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T10:09:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/572986\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T10:09:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T10:09:17","slug":"playoff-resurgence-couturier-proved-his-worth-won-the-city-back-with-postseaon-performance-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/572986\/","title":{"rendered":"Playoff Resurgence: Couturier Proved His Worth, Won the City Back with Postseaon Performance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Of all players on the Philadelphia Flyers, Sean Couturier has taken a good amount of heat over the last two seasons. Coming into the league at 18 years old, the future captain of the Flyers showed promise, but did not really hit his stride until his 7th season in the league. <\/p>\n

By the 2017-18 season, Couturier had established himself as one of the league\u2019s best two-way players. His offense took off that year, being given a more offensive role with the team. Couturier had back-to-back seasons with 76 points, both with 30+ goals. <\/p>\n

In 2019-20, Couturier had 59 points in 69 games and also earned himself a Selke Trophy. <\/p>\n

His excellent stretch earned the centerman an 8-year deal with $7.75 million annually, signed in 2022. Since then, a back injury derailed a promising track, and things went sideways for him. After 22 months of recovery, Couturier finally returned to the ice, but he has not been the same since. <\/p>\n

In the year of his return, 2023-24, Couturier tallied 11 goals and 38 points, followed by 15 goals and 45 points the next season. This year, his 12 goals and 36 points were his lowest since returning. <\/p>\n

Couturier became subject to criticism, largely because of his high salary. He was eventually moved to the 4th line for roughly the final month of the regular season, where he started to thrive. Then, the postseason hit. <\/p>\n

It was like a playoff resurgence for the Flyers\u2019 captain. <\/p>\n

Read More: James: My Favorite Prospects For the Flyers in the 2026 NHL Draft<\/a><\/p>\n

Sean Couturier\u2019s playoff resurgence for the Flyers<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a far cry to say that Sean Couturier was the Flyers\u2019 best skater throughout the postseason. He looked like the player that Flyers fans had known before. While his goal and 4 points were 7th on the team in postseason scoring, his impact went far beyond that. <\/p>\n

Sean Couturier was absolutely everywhere. He was one of the team\u2019s most reliable penalty killers. He also earned himself power-play time with Noah Cates\u2019 injury and led the team with physicality and intensity. It\u2019s something that many expect from a captain, but from Couturier, it was encouraging to see. <\/p>\n

Couturier also led the team with his 67% win rate at the faceoff dot. <\/p>\n

The Flyers\u2019 captain seemed comfortable in his 4th-line role, building strong chemistry in the hybrid-center role with fellow veteran Luke Glendening.<\/p>\n

The player who was heavily criticized as recently as this season was showered with \u201cCOOTS\u201d cheers as he left the ice one final time in the 2025-26 season. It had become clear that he had won the city back with his incredible postseason. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s gonna even make him hungrier,\u201d said head coach Rick Tocchet on Couturier receiving that reaction from the crowd. \u201cI can feel that he\u2019s already talking about how he\u2019s going to come back even stronger. And that\u2019s what you want to hear from your captain.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about Couturier\u2019s resurgence in the playoffs, Travis Konecny said, \u201cI\u2019m not surprised at all.\u201d Konecny has seen Couturier do it before. He knew he was capable. \u201cHe\u2019s our captain for a reason. I just knew, like when we got into the playoffs, you could tell in the last 10 games when we were pushing to get in, like his line was just dominating and really leading us. We were leaning on them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sean Couturier played a key role in the playoff success and will continue to do so moving forward.<\/p>\n

Read More: Back on the Map: Flyers\u2019 Improbable Playoff Run Comes to an End, Fans Rally Behind Their Team<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Of all players on the Philadelphia Flyers, Sean Couturier has taken a good amount of heat over the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":572987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5112],"tags":[20557,1468,5,4,1467,56,5205,5812],"class_list":["post-572986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia-flyers","tag-2026-stanley-cup-playoffs","tag-flyers","tag-hockey","tag-nhl","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-flyers","tag-philadelphiaflyers","tag-sean-couturier"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116561062365623389","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}