Five years ago, Jake Voracek called me a name and ripped my writing. Sean Couturier didn’t let me forget.
The Flyers captain answered me the same way Voracek did on the postgame podium. Then came that toothless smile.
PITTSBURGH — So I went to the Flyers Training Center on Thursday with one goal in mind: report and write a column about Sean Couturier. Yes, it’s the Flyers’ young core who has powered the team’s run to its first playoff appearance since the (COVID-extended) 2019-2020 season. But Couturier is the guy who has been there the longest and been through the most. I wanted to get his perspective on his career and this moment in it.
I hadn’t spoken to him in person in a while, though, and, well, let’s just say I have a little history with the Flyers.
Back in 2021, I was involved in a rather memorable postgame interaction with Jake Voracek, one of the Flyers’ stars at the time. No need to go into great detail about it. I wrote a column Jake didn’t like. I still stand by what I ended up writing. He ripped me. That’s life in the big city. That incident was five years ago, and all this time later, and as Nicolas Cage would say, kind of a lot’s happened since then.
I haven’t been around the Flyers in recent years as much as I once was, and I figured (hoped?) the whole thing was water under the bridge. After all, Couturier, Travis Konecny, and Travis Sanheim are the only players who were on the team then and are on the team now. But you never know.
Sitting in front of his locker after practice, Couturier chatted with Flyers radio voice Tim Saunders. When they finished their conversation, I approached Couturier.
“Hey, Sean,” I said. “I don’t know if you remember me. I’m Mike Sielski from The Inquirer. Was wondering if you had a few minutes to talk.”
He was still sitting down. He looked up at me.
» READ MORE: Sean Couturier has been at his best against the Penguins. The Flyers could use that version of him now. | Sielski
“It doesn’t matter what I say,” he said. “You’re just going to write f——g s—.”
Gulp.
It was, word for word, exactly what Voracek had said during that infamous press conference. My God, can these guys hold a grudge or what? For a half-second, I girded myself for a confrontation.
Then Couturier grinned a big, toothless, Bobby-Clarke-like grin. He extended his hand and burst out laughing.
He got me.
I exhaled and laughed and thanked him, and we had a good chat for a column. When I shared that anecdote Friday night with former Flyers broadcaster Steve Coates — we were on the same Philly-to-Pittsburgh flight for tonight’s Game 1 — he said, “Sean Couturier is a good man.”
A funny one, too.
Game 1: Flyers at Penguins, 8 p.m. Saturday, NBCSP/ESPN
Game 2: Flyers at Penguins, 7 p.m. Monday, NBCSP/ESPN
Game 3: Penguins at Flyers, 7 p.m. Wednesday, NBCSP/TNT/truTV/HBO MAX
Game 4: Penguins at Flyers, 8 p.m. April 25, NBCSP/TBS/truTV/HBO MAX
*Game 5: Flyers at Penguins, April 27 (Time TBD)
*Game 6: Penguins at Flyers, April 29 (Time TBD)
*Game 7: Flyers at Penguins, May 2 (Time TBD)
*if necessary
