Flyers fans still don’t like Cutter Gauthier. Trevor Zegras has made it sting a little less.
Gauthier played his second game in Philadelphia since being traded nearly two years ago, and scored the opening goal amid the boos at Xfinity Mobile Arena. But Zegras shined against his former team.
Cutter who?
That was the message from Flyers fans for former top prospect Cutter Gauthier on Tuesday in his second career game in Philadelphia — at least on some of the pregame signs.
If fans had somewhat gotten over the whole ordeal in warmups, Tuesday’s game — a 5-2 Flyers win over the Anaheim Ducks — unfolded perfectly to hook them back in.
“The crowd was outstanding,” Flyers coach Rick Tocchet said. “I remember the days when I played, that’s a loud building tonight. They were awesome. I think they really gave our team some juice. Even when they scored the first goal, they didn’t let up.”
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Colin Meehan, a 19-year-old St. Joseph’s student, came armed with a sign he made with a picture of Jamie Drysdale and a picture of Gauthier to support the player the Flyers received in the trade out of Philly that Gauthier forced nearly two years ago.
Drysdale is having the best season of his young career, but Meehan still wondered pregame what could have been if Gauthier hadn’t asked out.
“Imagine if we had Trevor Zegras, [Matvei] Michkov, Cutter, [Travis] Konecny, we would have been unstoppable,” Meehan said. “I feel like we would have been first in the league.
“Jamie, he’s not a quitter,” Meehan added. “I’ll tell you that. He tried with the Ducks. The Ducks didn’t want him. We’ll happily take him.”
While Gauthier still got a healthy round of boos as the Ducks took the ice for warmups, most of the signs lining the glass weren’t about him at all. Many celebrated the addition of former Duck Trevor Zegras, who was playing his first game against his old team.
Gauthier did have a small group of supporters in the form of two Boston College students from Philadelphia who, for the second year in a row, made a sign supporting the player who’d brought their college hockey team to the national championship game.
“I think it’s a lot to put on someone who’s 21, 22 years old,” one of the students said. “It might be really loud in here and people are rooting against you, but there is someone in the building who’s rooting for you.”
» READ MORE: Flyers’ Bobby Brink, Jamie Drysdale exit Ducks game early with injuries
Compared to his first game here last year, the proceedings in warmups were civil. Instead of a raucous crowd shouting expletives the entire warmup, fans mostly stayed quiet after the Ducks had taken the ice.
When the puck dropped, though, fans started chanting “We want Cutter!” Once Gauthier was on the ice, he was greeted by a loud chorus of boos.
But Gauthier quieted the crowd by scoring the first goal of the game to give Anaheim an early lead, and he gave it back to the crowd.
Not to be outdone, Zegras scored against his former team to tie it at 1 later in the first, and then hung up the phone on the Ducks, which he said postgame was meant to mimic the length of the phone call he got when he found out he was getting traded.
Zegras scored his second goal of the game from the same spot a few minutes later, pumping up the already-juiced crowd even more.
“This is home for me,” Zegras said. “I love being here. These guys are amazing. I’m having a blast, but it’s always going to feel good playing them for sure.”
But the game took a more somber turn after Ross Johnston checked Drysdale behind the play. Drysdale was down on the ice for a long time and nearly left the game on a stretcher, but he ultimately stood up and left the ice on his skates with assistance. The crowd rang out with a supportive “Jamie’s better” chant.
Drysdale’s injury took some of the bite out of the crowd, but, as the game continued, Flyers fans got back in the hating spirit.
As the Flyers closed out their win, chants cursing Gauthier continued to ring out, and the team left the ice to a standing ovation from the sold-out crowd.
It wasn’t quite as raucous as a year ago, but the crowd still created a playoff-type atmosphere. Cam York said postgame that what’s important now is continuing to play meaningful games so that Xfinity Mobile Arena doesn’t get loud only once a year.
“Pretty crazy, great atmosphere, felt like a playoff game,” York said. “It was really cool, a little bit different when there’s so much noise during the play, but I think I’d probably rather have it that way.”