PHILADELPHIA — The chants began early, and they quickly evolved.
“Cut-ter, Cut-ter,” sang the capacity crowd, as the puck was dropped.
“We want Cut-ter!” they continued as he sat on the bench, awaiting his first shift of the evening at Wells Fargo Center.
“(Expletive) you, Cut-ter!” then became the de facto shout during the player’s early appearances.
And, finally, there was a “Ja-mie’s bet-ter!” rallying cry, reaching peak volume after Jamie Drysdale, acquired for Ducks forward and 2022 Flyers first-round draft pick Cutter Gauthier a little more than a year ago after Gauthier cut off all communication with the club, slipped a power-play goal between John Gibson’s legs late in the first period, upping the Flyers’ lead to 2-0 in a game they would go on to win in a blowout, 6-0.
It’s appropriate, perhaps, that in this town, the most raucous, rowdy atmosphere in the building since the so-called New Era of Orange marketing campaign was launched a year and a half ago was motivated by hate. And it wasn’t just the crowd that was ready from the start. The Flyers themselves, losers of four straight coming in (0-3-1), seemed to have an extra charge from the fans that they’re desperately attempting to lure back on a more regular basis in order to make environs like Saturday more the norm than the exception.
“I’ve been here in the playoffs, so I’ve heard it. When the crowd gets behind us like that, it’s a pretty special thing,” said Travis Konecny, who posted four assists. “It was good to see that atmosphere tonight. I’m sure a lot of people are excited for the future of the Flyers.”
Gauthier, like the majority of his teammates, didn’t do much. In 13:19 of ice time, he had three shots on goal, the most dangerous of which came midway through in the third period when it was already 6-0, when he snuck a wrister through Samuel Ersson only to see it trickle just wide.
The home fans noticed him all game, though, not letting up until the final horn. Nearly every time Gauthier hopped over the boards, the boos immediately began — first coming from the seats nearest to the visitor’s bench before proliferating wave-like around the bowl.
And while he was a verbal target of the fans, Gauthier seemed to be a physical target for the Flyers in the second, in particular, as if the players dressed in orange and black figured they had a responsibility to give the 19,154 plus fans what they came for.
Konecny was the spearhead. Midway through regulation after a stoppage in play, the Flyers’ emotional leader found himself face to face with Gauthier, seemingly threatening him with a certain kind of violence that’s still permissible in the NHL (Konecny denied after the game that he challenged Gauthier to a fight).
On Gauthier’s next shift, it was Owen Tippett who ran him into the wall, and a few moments later Rasmus Ristolainen flattened him behind the Flyers’ net. Ristolainen got another knock on Gauthier with 4:33 to go in the second, hammering him into the corner boards with a check that the home fans loudly appreciated — and did so again in the third, when it was replayed on the jumbotron as the “check of the game.”
“Just how loud and supportive (they were), it brings just so much energy into the room,” Drysdale said. “Every guy on the team was talking about it. The crowd was unbelievable, and a big part of how we performed tonight.”
Asked if Saturday night was the most charged-up crowd that Morgan Frost has played in front of in his six years with the club, he said: “Got to be top three, if it’s not. It was fun. You could feel the difference. I think especially how flat we were last game (a 4-1 loss to Dallas on Thursday), I think the crowd gave us a huge boost just to start the night tonight and obviously we wanted to bounce back. It was fun out there.”
The Flyers were buoyed by two parts of their game that have been lacking much of the season: their goaltending and their power play. Ersson finished with 22 saves in recording his first shutout since Oct. 29 in Boston, while the power play struck twice in four opportunities for the first time since Oct. 23 against the Capitals in what was just their seventh game of the season.
Drysdale’s goal came when Konecny found him cutting to the net, and he registered a secondary assist on their third-period power-play goal by Matvei Michkov, who ended a personal five-game goal drought and has been fighting it offensively of late.
Drysdale, in fact, may have been more appreciative of the crowd than anyone in the home dressing room. A young player whose game still seems to rise and fall depending on his confidence, he admitted that hearing his name echo throughout the arena was “pretty special.”
“You hear the crowd going like that, it brings so much energy to myself and the whole team,” he said. “Unbelievable fans, and they were rocking tonight.”
From Gauthier’s standpoint, he acknowledged that the crowd was “super loud.” But, he didn’t offer it any credit for how the game played out.
“I don’t think that crept into anyone’s habits, or what they do on the ice,” he said.
It’s impossible to predict when the Flyers’ home will reach a similar decibel level again. The playoffs still don’t seem likely this season, and the Ducks don’t visit again until next season.
But, perhaps the experience of Saturday night can at least be stowed away in their memories, and even offer a bit of extra motivation when they need it — whether that’s months, or years away.
“I hope we can play in front of a crowd like that about something meaningful,” coach John Tortorella said. “That’s when we want to see a crowd like that. Not all this stuff you guys are talking about. I want it to be that we’re a team to be reckoned with in a playoff series, or whatever it may be.”
(Photo: Len Redkoles / NHLI via Getty Images)
