Philadelphia Flyers: Sean Couturier dominates Bruins top players

Sean Couturier looked strong for the Flyers and dominated against the top performers on the Boston Bruins.

It doesn’t need to be said again, but Sean Couturier is one of the best two-way centers in the game. He proved that once again in the Flyers matchup against the Boston Bruins on Sunday. While going up against another Selke finalist, Couturier proved he is able to handle his own against the best in the game.

It did not matter who Boston put up against Couturier in this game, he dominated just about everyone on the ice. And Natural Stat Trick lets us know just how everyone fared against him during 5v5 play. Torey Krug was the only player on the Bruins player who was able to control Couturier while he was on the ice. The Bruins out-chanced the Flyers 5-2 when the two players were matched up. That boils down to a 28.57 CF% for Couturier when he was faced off against Krug. David Pastrnak was the next closest as he got Couturier down to a 45.45 CF%

Otherwise, Couturier was above 50% for everyone else that he faced during the game. That included the rest of the Bruins top line in Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand. Now when you take a look at how those players fared against Couturier, the numbers are outstanding. Well, for the Flyers forward they are.

Marchand comes in at just a 25 CF% against Couturier. Bergeron and Pastrnak come in at a slightly better 28.57 CF%. The moral of the story here? Couturier dominated when he went head-to-head with these players.

No surprise, his numbers are even better during the brief times he was matched up against other players. He saw time against every Bruins player that was in the lineup. Of course, a large chunk of his time was seen against Boston’s top-line.

And while Couturier didn’t factor in on the offense, his ability to help shut down such a powerful trio was an all-important reason as to why the Flyers came away victorious in this one. None of Marchand, Bergeron, or Pastrnak had a point in this game. The Bruins only goal came from Chris Wagner who ended up banking it in off of Robert Hagg.

While plus/minus isn’t a highly looked upon stat, it can show us that the trio above also happened to be on the ice for quite a few of the Flyers goals. Pastrnak was unlucky in that he finished the game as a -3 while Bergeron and Marchand finished -2. We won’t harp on this stat, but it is unusual to see those three finish in the minus category.

As a quick reference point, the three combined for three points in the Bruins shutout of the Flyers at the end of the season. Bergeron had a goal while the other two captured the assists. So it’s typical to see those three on the offensive side of things more often than not.

The top defensive pair in Zdeno Chara and Charlie McAvoy didn’t far so well against Couturier either. In over 10 and a half minutes, Chara finished the worst with a 23.81 CF%. That’s 16 chances against and just five chances for. McAvoy didn’t do much better, though, as he comes in at a 26.67 CF%. He was out-chanced 11-4.

If you needed any more proof that Couturier is one of the best, you certainly got it from the Flyers opening round-robin game. And it came against one of the best teams in the league. He will have another chance to prove that as the team will face off against the Capitals and Lightning before they head to the first round of the playoffs.