Unsurprisingly, the Philadelphia Flyers may have finally stumbled on an answer to their defensive woes, even if it’s only temporary.
Continued struggles prompted the Flyers and head coach Rick Tocchet to make a change on defense, with Egor Zamula getting swapped out for Emil Andrae, who was only just called up from the AHL Lehigh Valley Phantoms, against the Florida Panthers on Monday night.
Andrae, 23, played just 10:22 – the second-lowest amount of ice time on the Flyers, against the Panthers, but that is, to a degree, a byproduct of needing to earn Tocchet’s trust.
With Andrae on the ice at 5-on-5, the Flyers actually out-attempted the back-to-back Stanley Cup champs by a 7-1 margin, according to Natural Stat Trick. Andrae’s astounding 87.5% Corsi share at 5-on-5 was tops on the Flyers by over 16%.
On paper, the heavy and physical Panthers were a nightmare matchup for the 5-foot-9 Swede, but instead, he stood tall in the limited minutes Tocchet gave him. First test passed.
Rick Tocchet Admits Matvei Michkov is Playing Catch-Up Due to Offseason Injury
While Philadelphia Flyers phenom Matvei Michkov hasn’t looked quite like himself to start his second season in the NHL, there is, at least, a reason for that, according to head coach Rick Tocchet.
“Yeah, that’s a tough situation for him to come into, first game coming up from the minors,” Tocchet said of Andrae after the game. “I thought he did a really nice job. Give the kid a lot of credit.”
Andrae’s placement in the lineup may not be permanent, as Cam York’s return from injury looms, and Rasmus Ristolainen is expected to eventually come back, but he was a lineup staple for the Flyers last year even when those two were healthy.
How Tocchet chooses to arrange his blueline in that scenario remains to be seen, but Adam Ginning and Noah Juulsen have continued to struggle to move the puck and make plays.
With Andrae, that’s not a concern, and that’s why he played against the Panthers. That gamble paid off in spades as the Flyers ran off with an impressive 5-2 win in their home opener in front of a raucous crowd.
The 23-year-old didn’t give Tocchet and the Flyers any reason to remove him from the lineup, so expect Andrae to continue to build on a very solid season debut at the NHL level.
