Sky is the Limit for Owen Tippett

Owen Tippett is red hot.

In Monday night's match-up against the Blues, the Flyers found themselves tied at two late in the third stanza. A failed attempted zone entry by Travis Konecny that hit the linesman put the puck in a perfect spot for Tippett to carry it in himself. He would need no further help.

"Tip" made a heads-up play in waiting for Konecny to regain the blue line, danced around Blues' defender Justin Faulk, and delivered a beauty of a backhander over the goaltender's shoulder to put the Flyers on top. That goal ended up being the game winner.

In perhaps an effort to outdo himself, Tippett gave us one more to marvel at last night.

Brian Boucher remarked "shades of Denis Savard" on the broadcast. Admittedly, Savard was before my time, so my mind went straight to Evgeni Malkin.

No matter who or what it reminded you of, Tippett's spin-o-rama dazzler is hands-down the early favorite for goal of the year.

It came only hours after John Tortorella sang his praises in the pre-game presser.

"Just an unbelievable goal to win the game for us there to put us in the lead. He has a chance...man I don't know where it goes. He has an opportunity to be a really good player in this league."

The highlight reel tally was Tippett's second goal of the evening. His first came early in the second period right off a Sean Couturier face-off win. He ripped a top-shelf laser over Jake Oettinger's right shoulder to put the Flyers ahead by two. He is currently sitting at 18 goals on the season.

There's a sense though that he could have a lot more. Brian Boucher has not been shy on the TV broadcast about his feelings on Tippett's ceiling. He has expressed on multiple occasions that #74 can be a 40 goal scorer in this league if the dominoes start to fall.

One of the things the coaching staff is stressing with him is getting the puck on net more - Tippett is fifth in the league in missed shots with 79. On the matter, Tortorella said, "Well the thing that was encouraging in the last game is I think he had...10 shots and only 1 missed the net. Where usually it's a bunch missing the net."

In response, Tippett recently started trying out a new stick. Funnily enough, he's borrowing extras that teammate Travis Konecny had lying around, Kevin Kurz of the Athletic writes. So far, the switch is paying dividends.

Tortorella also remarked that he's trying to strike a balance between coaching Tippett on the deficiencies of his game while not stifling his dynamic offensive ability. His play away from the puck, Tortorella said, needs some work. Tippett's player card, courtesy of JFresh Hockey, shows there's definitely something lacking defensively.

Regardless, the numbers are trending up lately: Tippett has six goals in his last six games. He's on pace for 32 goals, which would top his previous career high of 27 (2022-2023). Oh, and if that wasn't enough, he has the honor of fastest skating speed so far this season (24.21 MPH).

That, combined with the theatrics of the last couple of games, has me wondering what the 24-year-old forward has in store for us next.