Philadelphia Flyers: Ivan Provorov hasn’t missed a beat

Unsurprisingly, Ivan Provoro looked like his normal self when the Flyers took to the ice for their first game in over four months.

Despite being just 23-years-old, it already feels like Ivan Provorv has been in this league for years. He has four years under his belt but you would have no idea of that by looking at the way he plays game in and game out. The Flyers defenseman was not eased back into game shape when the team took to the ice on Tuesday.

If anything, it helped that he had been able to skate throughout the entire league’s pause. He was back with his billet family in Wilkes-Barre and was able to keep his legs under him while he was there. He was fortunate as many players did not have that luxury. Most Flyers didn’t skate for the first time until they were back in Philadelphia during Phase 2.

All of that helped Provorov wrack up a team-high 25-plus minute in the Flyers overtime victory against the Penguins on Tuesday. That was over three minutes more than his partner Matt Niskanen. Travis Sanheim was the only other player to touch over 20 minutes.

That continues to show how much the Flyers plan to lean on Provorov during the playoffs. There will be no easing into games for him. And even though Sidney Crosby was potentially fighting through an undisclosed injury, Provorov was part of the reason he was kept in check throughout the game.

Crosby did not fire off a single shot during his 19 minutes of ice time. He was credited with just one takeaway and finished 62% at the faceoff dot. That is certainly not a normal Crosby performance.

And even if his defensive partner has only seen him up close this season, he knows what the Flyers have. Niskanen considers Provorov to be one of the best defensemen in the game. And he will be doing his best to keep up with the young defender.

And the fact that Egor Zamula already looks up to Provorov is an impressive sign. Not a bad player to get advice from. With Zamula trying to be one of the next Flyers star defensemen, having Provorov in his corner is the best route to take.

And even if he isn’t considered one of the best 20 defensemen in the league right now, we all know that he is the best one of the Flyers have right now.