PHILADELPHIA — If you’re one of those who has trouble comprehending why the rebuilding Philadelphia Flyers have retained forward Scott Laughton over the years despite the many offers for future assets, try standing outside of the dressing room on a night like Thursday.
After becoming the first Flyers player to score four goals in a game in more than two decades in a 4-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings at Wells Fargo Center, Laughton was the final player to enter the double doors after a postgame TV hit. A raucous cheer erupted upon his arrival, only to die down and explode all over again. A team spokesman poked his head out to inform those waiting in the hallway that “it might be a while” before the dressing room was ready for the media, as Laughton received his several rounds of congratulations from teammates who have nothing but respect for their alternate captain.
“He’s probably the best teammate you can ask for,” captain Sean Couturier said. “He means so much to us.”
Travis Konecny, who set up Laughton’s second goal on a short-handed rush, said: “It couldn’t happen to a better guy. He’s somebody that does all the little things. He works hard every day for us.”
Laughton’s on-ice role is diminished a bit from last season. Thursday’s game was the 10th straight that he’s started as a winger on the fourth line. His average ice time of 14:20 this season is less than a minute than his average last season and is nearly four fewer minutes than just two seasons ago.
But Laughton, who has a respectable 14 points (seven goals, seven assists) in 30 games, has been identified by Flyers management as an important culture-setter. If he’s upset at all with playing less than he has in the recent past, no one would know it.
“He plays throughout the lineup in different roles, different situations,” Couturier said. “It’s not always easy. But he always has a great attitude and thinks about the team first and does whatever he can to help the team.”
Said coach John Tortorella: “For a Scotty Laughton, you’re always hoping good things happen for him. He’s worked so hard.”
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The scoresheet will say the latter two goals were into an empty net, making Laughton the Flyers’ first four-goal scorer since John LeClair against the Montreal Canadiens on Oct. 15, 2002. He sealed the Flyers’ second straight regulation win with 1:07 to go to make it 3-1 shortly after the Red Wings threatened to tie it and stayed out on the next shift, getting his fourth on a two-on-none with Garnet Hathaway, who clearly wanted to see Laughton cap off a historic evening by passing him the puck when he quite easily could have potted it himself.
Laughton’s first two goals were important, though. After a sloppy start by both teams through the first period, the Flyers took control in the second but still failed on multiple prime scoring chances. Cam Talbot denied Joel Farabee with a stellar blocker save on a two-on-one and kicked away a Couturier breakaway, and Noah Cates rang one off the crossbar.
The game was still scoreless past the midway point of regulation, Laughton got free on a breakaway off a Simon Edvinsson turnover, wound up and blasted a slapper past Talbot at 13:22 of the second to open the scoring.
“I’ve been waiting for my chance in the shootout and I was going to let one fly,” Laughton said with a smirk. “It’s been in my head for about two, three weeks now. I was thinking slapper the whole way down.”
His second goal put the Flyers up 2-0 as he finished off a short-handed rush with Konecny early in the third period and was special to him for a few reasons — first and foremost, it was the 100th of his career, and all of them have come in an orange and black sweater.
“Been in the league for a long time, and it’s hard to score goals in this league. To score a hundred is pretty cool to me, pretty special,” said Laughton, drafted by the Flyers in the first round in 2012. “I know it’s not much compared to some guys, but it feels pretty cool to get that, especially the way I did with T.K.”
That part of the Flyers’ game — the penalty kill — had been struggling mightily lately. In fact, entering Thursday’s game they had the second-worst penalty kill percentage in the league from Nov. 14 on (64.9 percent).
Laughton and Konecny were the most dangerous penalty-killing pair in the NHL last season, combining for eight short-handed goals (including a league-leading six from Konecny). In recent weeks, though, they were having trouble just keeping the opposing team from converting — so much so that Tortorella acknowledged he was thinking about breaking them up before Thursday’s game.
“We’ve kind of been struggling a little bit on it,” Laughton said, “so to play a little tighter on it and to get rewarded felt nice.”
There was another standout performance Thursday, too, as Aleksei Kolosov picked up the win with 25 saves. He was working on a shutout until late in the third when Ben Chiarot’s shot from a distance deflected off of Cates’ stick and over his shoulder, but Kolosov made arguably his best save in the NHL to date half a minute later when he somehow got a piece of his glove on Erik Gustafsson’s shot that looked destined to tie the score.
Thursday morning, Tortorella made it known that Kolosov is firmly the No. 2 goalie on the depth chart behind Sam Ersson, and Ivan Fedotov is the No. 3. Kolosov has allowed two or fewer goals in four of his last five starts.
“To get the scoring chances he got in the second half of the third period, and how he stood in there, he was really good,” Tortorella said. “That glove save …that’s a huge save.”
Still, the night belonged to Laughton, who became the first NHL player to score four goals in a game this season. On a team that prides itself on how tight it is, there’s probably no single player they’d all like to see do well more than the 30-year-old veteran.
And Laughton is appreciative of it, too.
“After the third one, looking down at the bench and seeing all the guys, it’s special,” he said. “I’ve let it be known that I love it here, I love everyone here and we have a lot of good young guys coming up here that are mixed with some older guys that fit in really well. If you’re a close-knit group, it goes a long way.”
(Photo: Emilee Chinn / Getty Images)
