Three reasons why the Flyers’ fourth line is critical — and needs a nickname
The Flyers’ fourth line of Garnet Hathaway, Luke Glendening, and Sean Couturier will remain vital to the team's hoped-for march through the Stanley Cup playoffs.
There was the “Merlot Line” for the 2011 Boston Bruins, the “Grind Line” for the 1997 Detroit Red Wings, and “The Crash Line” for the 1995 New Jersey Devils.
Yes, the teams listed were all Stanley Cup winners, and yes, it is still just the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs for the Flyers, but there’s a reason why years later these lines, listed fourth on the depth chart, are still talked about.
They were difference makers as the grind — no pun intended — of the postseason rolled on. Three games in, the Flyers’ fourth line of Garnet Hathaway, Luke Glendening, and Sean Couturier is showing they can do the same as they wear opponents down, create time and space for the rest of the lineup, and add some offensive punch.
Maybe it’s time for a nickname?
Here are three reasons why the Flyers’ fourth line is playing a critical role as the team leads the Pittsburgh Penguins in its best-of-seven series, three games to none.
‘The Tone-Setters Line’
From establishing a baseline for how the team will play to scoring or getting the puck deep for a faceoff that the next line can attack, the Flyers’ fourth line has been given the tall task of starting each of the first three playoff games.
“We’re trying to do the right things and show how prepared we are for the game and help our team realize that we’re in the game, the game started, and this is how we have to play,” Hathaway said. “So, try to do the right small details that go a long way in a game, I think, and starting off with that, maybe keeping it simple to start and then building up.”
It has not been an easy task considering that in Games 1 and 3, they went up against future Hall of Famer Sidney Crosby and his linemates, but the trio brings a cool, calm demeanor thanks to a combined 2,558 regular-season games and 129 playoff games of experience. But, while they may be the Flyers’ three oldest skaters in the lineup — Glendening, 36, Hathaway, 34, Couturier, 33 — they are setting the precedent that has long been an underlying mantra for the team: bending but not breaking.
Across those three approximately 45-second shifts, the Flyers have gotten hemmed in a bit with five shot attempts and two shots on goal by the Penguins. They have not scored once, and the Flyers set the physical tone with three hits.
“You want to establish a game, your forecheck, your pressure. You want to control the momentum of the series and the game. I’ve got to give them credit, the last two games, it feels like they, to be expected, came out hard,“ said Couturier on Thursday of the Penguins. ”[They] had some strong starts, but I thought we responded well, and we played it well even though they were on us hard. We defended well when we needed, and eventually we established our game, I felt."
Flyers lead series 3-0
Game 1: Flyers 3, Penguins 2 | Sielski: Kids stand tall
Game 2: Flyers 3, Penguins 0 | Sielski: Stealing Pens' will
Game 3: Flyers 5, Penguins 2 | Sielski: Shades of glory days
Game 4: Penguins at Flyers, 8 p.m. Saturday, NBCSP/TBS/truTV/HBO MAX
*Game 5: Flyers at Penguins, Monday (Time TBD)
*Game 6: Penguins at Flyers, Wednesday (Time TBD)
*Game 7: Flyers at Penguins, May 2 (Time TBD)
*if necessary
Added Glendening: “I don’t think we’ve had the best starts every game. But I think we try to get out there and at least set the tone for the way we’ll play.”
According to Natural Stat Trick, when the line is on the ice, the Flyers have faced 30 shot attempts and 12 shots on goal, with 11 and four for the Orange and Black, respectively. They are often matched up, across the more than 24 minutes they’ve played, against the Penguins’ top line of Crosby, Bryan Rust, and Rickard Rakell. The Flyers hold a 1-0 goal advantage when Hathaway, Couturier, and Glendening are on the ice. They have been the epitome of bending but not breaking.
‘The Selfless Line’
There are several big-picture moments behind why the fourth line has become known for its selflessness. There is the captain, Couturier, taking what some would call a demotion down to the fourth line in stride. Hathaway, a veteran of 672 regular-season games, who, according to coach Rick Tocchet, “never cried or [complained] or pouted,” about being a healthy scratch for 16 games this season.
“Especially in the playoffs, I think if you look at the winning teams, usually, you always have guys, I feel like, down the depth chart that kind of make a difference in the long run,” Couturier said. “So we just try to play a responsible game. Bring some energy when we’re out there and, yeah, just try to create momentum. That’s kind of our main goal when we’re out there.”
The momentum they create leads to goals.
» READ MORE: Danny Brière has deftly rebuilt the Flyers into a playoff team in three years. Are even better days ahead?
In the second period of Game 2, approximately a minute before Porter Martone opened the scoring with the eventual game-winner, it was Hathaway hustling down the ice, eliminating an icing on the Flyers as he dipped around Pittsburgh defenseman Ryan Shea for the puck. The trio, with defensemen Cam York and Jamie Drysdale manning the points, got to work grinding down the Penguins’ five-man unit.
They pinned in forwards Thomas Novak, Anthony Mantha, and Evgeni Malkin, and Shea and his partner Connor Clifton for almost a minute, with the Flyers peeling off one by one as the puck was kept deep to get fresh legs on the ice. Although Travis Konecny’s pass to the point left the zone, the Penguins couldn’t get off the ice with the long change, and less than 20 seconds later, Martone scored.
“It was a big focal point of our meeting the next day. That was our first clip, the selflessness,” Tocchet said on Thursday. “They could have stayed on because they still had possession, and maybe a guy takes a crack [at it], might get a point, might get a goal. But they got fresh guys out there, and we get the goal. They didn’t get the assist, but they deserve assists..
“Probably a lot of people don’t really realize — they see Martone score the goal, which is great — but not too many people are going to think about, oh, man, that line, what they did was unselfish. That goes a long way.”
‘The Havoc Line’
There are several ways to create havoc.
There is pinning them in their own end, like the events leading up to Martone’s goal. There is bringing a physical, bone-crunching style — like their 30 combined hits with Hathaway’s 17 leading the charge — that forces opponents to play the puck tentatively or too quickly, creating turnovers.
There are the big blocks — Glendening leads the trio in that category with five — and there are the goals, like the empty-netter they combined on to seal Game 2. And there is getting under Pittsburgh’s skin, a la Hathaway’s stick twirl, which led to the first embellishment call on Crosby in his NHL career.
» READ MORE: Sidney Crosby got a penalty for embellishment. This Flyers fan from Fishtown gave him a look that spoke for everyone.
But there is also the way the fourth line drives to the net, sometimes getting into Penguins goalie Stuart Skinner’s face and sometimes screening him as their teammates shoot. The former helped the Flyers get on the board with Rasmus Ristolainen’s 2-1 tally in Game 3, and the latter was a key element to Nick Seeler’s eventual game-winner.
On Ristolainen’s tally, Couturier took the puck away in the neutral zone, and then hemmed the Penguins in with Hathaway, who had swapped with Martone three seconds before the goal, getting a shot on goal, and Couturier deflecting a Glendening shot attempt atop the crease. For Seeler’s goal, they were all on the ice as Couturier and Glendening wreaked havoc in front.
“The tone we need to set for our team includes physicality,” said Hathaway. “I’d say we take as much pride being physical as we do making a wall play in the D-zone or blocking a shot. ... Those are the details, the finer details, things that are just ingrained in ... all three of our identities that that’s what helps us a) keep each other accountable, but b) trying to set a good example for the lines that come.”