The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: Kevin Kurz on the Flyers' Push for the Playoffs, Martone Joining PHI, and more

Episode Date: March 31, 2026

Kevin Kurz joins to talk about the Philadelphia Flyers catching fire and the surge that has them turning heads around the NHL. Kurz also brings Porter Martone into the conversation, discussing what the highly touted prospect could bring to the Flyers organization moving forward. Plus, with Tortorella now officially heading to Vegas, Kurz provides context on what Golden Knights fans can expect from a Tortorella-coached team.It’s another packed episode of The Sheet with insight, analysis, and the latest stories from around the NHL.#NHL #VegasGoldenKnights #BruceCassidy #JohnTortorella #JeffMarek #GaryLawless #TheSheet #Hockey #NHLNewsLeave a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/TheSheetEmail us: [e-mail] TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼 Ninja: https://www.sharkninja.ca/ninja-crispi-pro-6-in-1-countertop-glass-air-fryer-rose-quartz/AS101CRS.html?utm_source=Meta&utm_medium=Paid+Social&utm_campaign=H1NinjaCrispi&utm_content=NinjaEN&dwvar_AS101CRS_color=cdb9b8Reach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@FNBarnBurner🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoffReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the meantime, always good to be joined by Kevin Kurz of the Athletic, talking about one of the hottest teams in the NHL, getting goal attending, getting scoring. They are the Philadelphia Flyers who find themselves tied with the Detroit Red Wings and Ottawa Senators, 86 points, chasing playoff spots here, both Wildcard and Metropolitan Division as well. Kevin, first of all, scale of 1 to 10, how surprised are you at the play of the Philadelphia Flyers in the last 10-11 games? Yeah, very surprised. I think going in the Olympic break, their January was so miserable. They came out. They lost the first game coming out of the break in Washington. And a lot of people kind of figured it was over. You know, defensively, I kind of expected them to play better than they had been in January because that was something that when you look at the way this season is gone,

they did pick that up pretty quickly the way they, you know, the way Rick Tuckett wanted to them to play in the defensive zone. That was a strength. That's why they got off to a pretty good start was mostly from their defensive play. That really fell off in January. They picked that back up while also getting, you know, offense from different players now and some players that really seem to be taking some steps forward. That's given them a real boost. So, you know, I didn't think talent-wise this team had enough to get back into it, but another proving me and a lot of other people wrong, at least at the moment. Okay, I'm going to say something where all of us understand what all of these words are,

but we've never heard them put together this way around the Philadelphia Flyers. They've been bailed out by their goaltending all season. Wow. That felt weird. That felt bizarre. Well, you know, Dan Vlodar has been as consistent a goalie, I think, in the NHL this season.

It's amazing. He doesn't have a single shutout yet, but you know you're always going to get just about every game. You're going to get a steady performance. from him. And, you know, we didn't know how he was going to hold up throughout the course of the year because this was the guy that came in. He had only started, I think, his previous season high was 29 starts in a single season. That was last season. I don't know what he's at now, but it's well beyond that. And he's maintained his play. And he's been the team MVP. I don't think anyone would

argue that. He's been their most valuable player. But, you know, Sam Erison was not playing well. a second straight season. You know, he was, he's really resurrected his game coming out of the Olympic break. And I think, you know, we, we've seen Erson play well in stretches in the past, but he had some of the worst numbers in the league at the Olympic break. And coming out of it, you know, 5 and 0, I think it's a 933 save percentage. He was great last night, made a just huge stop on the power play on Wyatt Johnston with 118 to go.

I think it was on a Dallas power play forcing overtime. letting Zegras winning it over time. So, you know, he is a pending restricted free agent. I think a lot of us had written him off and just assume that the flyers wouldn't qualify him. But if he keeps this up and has two or three more starts like this down the stretch, I wonder if the team's going to keep him around now. I've always wondered this about Erson because I remember talking to people at Lehigh when

he was when he was rocking there and like, oh, yeah, he's the goal of the future. This guy's so good. And then all of a sudden he got ushered into, we all know what happened with Carter Hart. and all of a sudden he's rushed into games that he probably wasn't ready for and a volume of games that he wasn't ready for Kevin. Like, can we make the point that was Sammy Erson? He was rushed and he should have spent more time at Lehigh.

Is that accurate? Absolutely. If you go back two years ago, when Carter Hart went away, suddenly Sam Erson was the guy. And two years ago, this team was in playoff position pretty much the whole season before the bottom dropped out. So it's kind of the opposite of what's happening this year. But they had Erson in there.

and John Torrell was the coach, he had no other reliable backups. You know, it was Cal Peterson, Felix Sandstrom. There was nobody that Torts could put in that he was going to get reliable goaltending from. So he had to overplay Erson. He knew it. Everyone knew it. But everyone also, I think, understood that there was no other goaltender that could give them wins at that stage. So I think that set him back. And then last year, frankly, it was more of the same.

Erson struggled, but then the two backups beneath him, Alexei Kolesoff and Ivan Fedotov, two goalies that should frankly just not have been in the NHL. So again, Tortorello was forced to ride Erson. He couldn't step up to the plate. So now that Vladar is pretty established as the number one, I don't know what Sam did over the break, but he must have done something right because he seemed to reset himself on the ice and off the ice both,

and we're seeing that. I do want to ask you, by the way, not right now I was talking about Flyers, but by the end, I do want to talk to you about John Tortorella and what Vegas is about to experience there. But let me ask you about Travis Kinecti. Like every team has that guy. For the longest time, it was, you know,

Ryan Nugent Hopkins in Edmonton. For the longest time, it was Matt Dumba in Minnesota. The guy that, you know, is always rumored to be traded. This guy's going. There's no way he's making it pass this week. He's not making it past this deadline. And here's Travis Kineckney, you know, almost a point of game guy on a resurgent Philadelphia.

a Flyers team. Do you have a thought or a perspective of a two you can share with us about Travis Kinectney and his spot on this team right now? Yeah, he is not going anywhere. So I kind of laugh when I see his name floated in trade speculation. You know, if you're around this guy every day and in the dressing room every day and talking to his teammates, I mean, he is the heartbeat of this team, full stop. He's the guy. You know, when Danny Breyer signed him to an eight-year contract's extension that by the way as a full no move clause for five more seasons after this one you know that that was a signal that he thinks Travis Kineckney is going to be one of the veteran guys is going to lead this team back to the playoffs and you just listen to the way Kinectney talks after games between games

you know there was a game they lost in Boston um before the break they just looked miserable and he just was you know just you could tell he was wearing the disappointment on his face I think they had just lost an overtime. And he's like, man, I just want to make the playoffs here. I mean, this guy wants to get in the playoffs so bad. And, you know, you talk to him about how long it's taken. And obviously, he's gone through a lot of the pain here in the midst of the rebuild. He'll say every time you ask him about the direction of the team, he's on board with the plan.

Danny and Keith Jones have been open with him about what their plan is, where they're going, where they expect to be. and he's fully on board. So, you know, the only situation I could see they ever moved Travis Kinectney is if Kinectney went to Danny Breyer and said, I've had enough get me out of here. That's certainly never been indicated, I think, publicly at all. I, you know, it hasn't happened. And I don't expect that to happen this offseason either. I think Kine is the guy that he wears the A for a reason.

And, you know, he's really the leader of this team in a few different ways. Port-a-Martone, headlined over the weekend, Michigan State, upset by Wisconsin. And Port-a-Martone signs with the Philadelphia Flyers, as was the plan, I'm assuming, all season long. At the end of this, he was coming out and joining the Philadelphia Flyers. You know, I look at the Flyers draft last year, and everybody is like six foot a million. Whether it's Porter-Martone or Jack Nesbitt or Matthew Guard, like everybody is like 6-3, 6-5, 6-6. is this a return to and Porter Martone kicks it all off here. The return of the large Philadelphia Flyers,

like the old Bobby Clark era, Philadelphia Flyers, although unlike the Bobby Clark era, this group can skate. Yeah, it's funny because the first guy they recalled this season from the Phantoms, their first real notable recall was Denver Barkie, who's like 5'8. I think he's listed at 5'10. I don't think he's 5'10. And he's been good in, you know, he's been good in, spurts and he's been really good lately, but, you know, that was clearly something they had to

address. They have a bunch of small players, you know, Kinek's not very big. They had Bobby Brink at the time. Matthew Meachoff is not very big. And Barky, like I mentioned. So size was definitely something they were focused on going into that draft, as you mentioned. So I think that's something they're trying to turn around, you know, even on the back end now, you know, you've got Cam York, Jamie Drysdale, Emil Andre, all playing. None of those guys is overly big. either. So we'll see where that goes. But, yeah, Martone is something that certainly he gives them a little bit more size. They recalled Alex Bump. He's a big guy. They're missing Tyson Forster, who was really their long big physical forward. I mean, that killed him, I think, a lot more than people realize. And you can tell

how much Rick Tocke misses them every time you ask about whether Tyson Forster could come back late in this season. So, you know, they're in the process of turning over everything, right? I mean, I think a lot of people forget that they traded some good players away in these first two years of Breyer's tenure. Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost, Scott Lawton, Sean Walker, I mean, these are good NHL players. And the Flyers got rid of them all and just in the name of trying to turn this thing over and find players that they think they can win with. Clearly, they think Martone is a guy they can win with, not just for his size, but also for his attitude. Absolutely. Are they, are they surprised they're at where they're at right now?

I think so, because even if you listen to Breyer coming out of the, after the trade deadline, I mean, he sort of suggested, like, listen, we are where we are. It's not just the point differential. It's how many teams we'd have to leapfrog to get back in the race. And obviously, they have a lot of work to do still if they're going to do that. But, you know, if you rewind, I guess it depends when you ask that question. If you rewind to the start of the season, they expected to be in the playoff race when it began. They added Vladar. They added Trevor Zegris. They didn't subtract anyone. They're trying to turn the corner. They're trying to get better than they were last year. And for the first, you know, six, seven, eight weeks or whatever it was, it looked like that's the

way they were going until they had this just god-awful January. So I think, you know, if you look back at, if you asked some of these guys, you know, management types, do you, did you expect the flyers to be where they are in the standings right now? I think a lot of them would say, you. yes, but it's just, it's a little bit of an odd path the way they got here. The Zegra's one is interesting too because I think that that was, and specifically him too, you know, that was the player that John Tortorella and Rocky Thompson wanted for the power play. Like they wanted that guy with that skill set, whether it's like a one-timer from the half, they wanted like someone offensive like him.

and I think that that was the guy specifically that both of them wanted and never got. Now, Rick Tocket got that guy. And are the Flyers surprised at how quickly and how consistently this has worked for them? That Trevor Zegra is like, I don't know that many people looked at Zegris when he first joined the Anaheim ducks and said, yeah, you know what, that guy looks like a flyer. But the more that you see him, like, it looks like a flyer. Yeah, you know, you can tell that him and Tuckett have a real good relationship, just the way they talk about each other.

Tuckett was very blunt when we asked him about Zegras pretty early in season. He said he sat down with him and had a discussion with him. Are you in this for social media clicks or are you in this to win hockey games? And Zegris's answer was to win hockey games and the way he's played and the way he's approached everything thus far suggests that's where he's at. So I think Zegris is very happy here. Every time I've talked to him about that, I don't think there's any questions. question he wants to get an extension done. I still expect that to happen. You know, I would be shocked

if it didn't. And, you know, I think he's also, what's also helped Zegris is that he already had some very good friends on this team when he walked in the room. Cam York, Drisdale, Jamie Drysdale, even Christian Dvorak he was friends with through, through Cole Field, his friendship with Coal Field in Montreal, where DeVorek was. So I think the fact that he came in and he had some instant friends right away. And then a coach that he, I think he came to quickly like and respect and Rick Tocke has helped his, helped his, you know, transition and his, frankly, his production. And, you know, now he's playing center, which we'll see if that lasts.

I mean, right now this team has a distinct need for centers. It's been trending in the right direction. But, you know, is Trevor Zegris a center on a top team? I think the jury's still out on that. Okay. I don't know how long you plan to talk to me, but I'm going to ask you your question. That may take a while.

What should we know about Matveh Meachikoff right now? Okay. Well, yeah. I mean, yeah. You've got to be so careful talking about this or you just get killed on social media. I know.

I know. I think it's been well established why he struggled early, why there was, you know, maybe Rick Tockech was reluctant to play him in certain situations. The way it was explained to me was that he came in so out of shape. They first had to focus on him, you know, getting his body fat down, getting, you know, more, frankly, losing weight. And, you know, because of that, he had to do that first. And then afterwards, they could focus more on the cardio and the hockey stuff and the strength that he needs.

in order to play his game. And we have seen him doing that a little bit more lately. You know, he's going to have to be a guy that uses his body, that his body position, wins board battles, plays the puck off his skates in order to set up his teammates for scoring chances. And that has been better lately. Everyone makes a big deal about this right or left wing thing. Frankly, I think Tocke was playing him on the left wing because he's trying to hide Mitch Koff because that's how ineffective he was throughout the first couple months of the season. But again, it's gotten better. I think he used the Olympic break the right way.

Everything Mietchkoff has said, it's still through an interpreter, but everything he said to us suggests that he knows he screwed up. He knows what he has to do this summer. He's going to work at it, and he's going to come back in in great shape from day one next season in order to have a big third year. And frankly, he has to. It's going to be the third year of his entry-level deal. If he wants to get paid coming out of this thing, he's going to have to have a better year than he did this year.

But, you know, the bottom line right now is he's playing better. He's getting some points. They've left him on the power play, which I think, frankly, he should have been on the power play all year just because that's where his bread and butter is. That's where he can get some maybe secondary assist to help build the confidence. He's stayed in the power play now, and it is trending in the right way. And they're going to need, they're going to need him if they're going to get back in this race to do more and do as much as he's been doing lately.

Do you think they could have handled this differently? And I'm going to sort of couch this in one specific way. Coming out of the 205 Lockout, there are a number of players that kind of let themselves go. And some teams protected players and some teams didn't. Like I think it was L.A. who really left like Roneck out to dry, St. Louis with Kachuk. But the Boston Bruins, like Sergey Sampsonoff showed up like out of shape.

Like he was, like there weren't any sharp corners on the, there's a lot of round, all right? There was a lot around. No sharp corners on Samsonoff. And I don't know if it was legit or not, but the public message was, you know, he developed, you know, intense migraines when he would work out in the summer. So he's got to,

he's going to take some time to get in shape while he deals with the migraine issue and then we'll worry about the conditioning. I don't know if that was true or not, but it gave the kid cover. Could the Philadelphia flyers, just considering how young and how sensitive a situation is, we all know about first round draft picks, it was there anything else?

I'm not saying they go to the extent like the Sergey Sampson off Boston ruins or we had migraines so he couldn't work out but is there anything that Philadelphia could have or should have done or do you think that everything was sort of handled appropriately? Well, I'm never going to complain

when coaches and management types are honest with the media about what's going on, right? As you know. Kevin, should we have been lied to? Yeah. Yeah, really. That's what I'm asking.

I think there were times that Tocit, especially in his messaging, seemed to be a little bit, it was a little bit too combative. And I think that that didn't help his case when it came to that. But, you know, all you had to do was watch the way Mietchkoff was playing, especially in October and November, to just say to yourself, what's going on here? This is not the guy we saw in the second half of last season when he had 63 points and led all rookies and goal.

It wasn't the same guy. So, you know, could they have had, I think they're trying to be, I think Tockeet and some others are trying to be a little bit more tactful with the way they answer questions about him now. But again, I give Meachkov a lot of credit here because, like I said, every time we've talked to him through an interpreter and asked him about this, he said, I can't take four months off from hockey. I understand what I have to do now.

He said he was going to work hard over the Olympic break. Every indication is he's done that. So, you know, maybe it was a little bit of, he had to grow up a little bit quickly in terms of what life is like in the NHL and how tough it can be. But, you know, again, to answer your question, I think there were times that Tocke could have been a little bit more tactful in the way he was speaking about Mitch Coff.

He was clearly getting, I remember one sequence when we're asking him questions. he was really getting a little bit annoyed over that. And I think, you know, he's coming from the outside. I don't think he realized how much the fan base looks to Mitzchkoff as, you know, a symbol of hope as to where this thing's going to go. Oh, yeah. And, you know, if this rebuild's going to work, Matt Vey Michikoff is still going to have to be a huge part of it. That's still the case. And I don't think that's changed.

But, you know, I think at this stage, we're not going to know, we're going to have a much better handle on what Matt Vey Michikov really is. in this time next year. Okay. Park Flyers, last question. What is Vegas in store for? Yeah. You know, it really didn't end well here in Philadelphia. So Tortoella getting another shot is a little bit,

I don't want to say surprising because it's Vegas and they do some weird stuff. But, you know, he wanted to coach again. I knew that right. I learned that right away as soon as he was let go from the Flyers, I knew he wanted to coach again. And I know he said that moving forward. Eight games left. I mean, you're going to get full throttle torts for eight games.

And he's got to be excited. I look at it from his perspective. You know, the problem with torts here is that, especially in the last two years, you know, the last two years he was here, he just, he couldn't handle the losing. He just could not handle, even though he would say all the right things leading up to the trade deadline, where everyone knew the flyers were going to subtract. He said, this is the process we're at. We can't fall along with players. But then when it actually came to the roster he was putting out on the ice,

and as the losses started them out, he was kind of losing his mind a little bit there, and ultimately that's what cost him here. So, you know, I loved covering John. I think it's going to be great theater to see, you know, him in Vegas and see how this all works out because he's going to come in there. I don't think any doubt, as everyone knows, with his guns of blazing here. Should be fascinating. Game one tonight of the Torts era against the Vancouver Connects.

We'll see what goes on there. Kevin, excellent as always. Thank you so much for sharing your expertise and insights. Always appreciate it, pal. You'd be good. Thanks for doing this. Yep, anytime. You too, Eric.

Take care.