One single lineup decision loomed over the entirety of Tuesday night’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs for the Philadelphia Flyers. It was initially reported and then confirmed, that captain Sean Couturier would be a healthy scratch for pure performance reasons, becoming the first captain that was taken out of an NHL lineup in the last 10 years.
Well, the Couturier-less Flyers went on to claim a 4-3 victory against one of the best teams in the league with some of the best players in the world in the lineup. Somehow, some way, this Flyers team who are trying to dig their nails deep into their playoff spot for the last few weeks of the regular season, got some extremely precious points.