The trio with Noah Cates centering Tyson Foerster and Bobby Brink has been the Flyers best line on a consistent basis over the last few weeks. Despite the team going 0-3-0 over the past week to drop to 14-15-4 on the 2023-24 season, this line has been one definite bright spot so far in a December slate that has produced a 2-5-1 record for the team as a whole.
What has the Cates line been doing right? First and foremost, all three members of the line have been forechecking effectively in the games played this month. The payoff has started to come offensively this week but the line members have played "connected" hockey all month: maintaining strong puck support, keeping their feet moving, not overstaying shifts and showing the same commitment to stay on the right side of the puck.
It was not for nothing that, amid wholesale line combination juggling by head coach John Tortorella during Wednesday's 6-4 road loss in Detroit, the one line that remained untouched was the Foerster-Cates-Brink line. Tortorella said as much after the game.
"That was our one line that was going throughout the game," Tortorella said, noting that the line was pushing play into the opponent's end of the ice and not forcing low-percentage plays during their shifts.
With tallies in back-to-back games against the Red Wings and Los Angeles Kings, Cates now has four goals and nine points on the season while posting a traditional +6 rating. After a very slow start from a production standpoint, the 25-year-old has four points (3g, 1a) in his last five games.
Although Tortorella has challenged Foerster to continue cleaning up some details of his game and cut back on some of the penalties he's taken -- 13 minors including one in Thursday's game against LA -- the demanding head coach has also said the 22-year-old has been trending in the right direction for several weeks.
From an offensive standpoint, Foerster's two-goal game against Los Angeles lifted his season goal total to eight and his point total to 14. In the LA game, one of his second period goals came moments after Foerster exited the penalty box. The second came a few seconds after the team's second power play unit pressured heavily late on a man advantage. He also had an even strength assist while playing with his regular linemates. Foerster has five points (2g, 3a) in the last five games.
Brink is a player of whom Tortorella has sometimes been critical over the last two seasons and has sometimes been scratched or bypassed in shift rotations. However, the coach has been pleased recently with the shifty and creative winger overall play in the last few weeks.
"He didn't know how to spell 'checking' last year," Tortorella said earlier this week. "He was on the wrong side of pucks. Now he's on the right side of pucks, checking.... he's making some plays."
Brink has four goals and 10 assists (fifth on the team in that category) on the season to date while dressing in 30 games. After being scratched in three games earlier this season, he's become a lineup mainstay. Brink has also become part of the top power play unit. For the month to date, the winger has two points (0g, 2a). He skated 17:01 of ice time, a season high, against the Kings.
Flyers Alumni 12 Days of Christmas
First created by the Flyers Alumni Association in 2019, the organization's annual "12 Days of Christmas" giving program during the holiday season has been one of its signature initiatives. Each calendar day for at least 12 days (usually more), the Alumni donate money and/or volunteer their time in the community.
Normally, the recipients are local small charities, community centers, schools or youth hockey programs. However, each year, there's at least one day devoted toward providing support to an individual or family in need. In 2024, the Alumni have lent assistance to four local families: two military families and two that are part of the Snider Hockey program.
Earlier this week, at the Flyers Training Center in Voorhes, Flyers Alumni president Brad Marsh and organization co-founder Joe Watson presented a $5,000 donation to Hope for Hallie.
founders Kevin and Chrissie Jackson created the charity in loving memory of their daughter Hallie. The organization, much like the Do It for Daron program that Flyers Alum Luke Richardson and wife Stephanie formed in Canada in 2011 in memory of their daughter, does yeoman work to raise awareness of mental health issues, fight the related stigmas and educate the public about depression and suicide.
“We lost our beautiful 16-year-old daughter, Hallie, to suicide back in 2019, just prior to COVID. We established Hope for Hallie in her name. We connect struggling youths to therapy and then pay for their treatment. The Flyers Alumni as a whole, and Joe in particular, have been simply incredible,” Kevin Jackson said.
Throughout the year, Hope for Hallie works to provide public education with information, access to potentially life-saving resources. It also is an outlet that connects families into a community support system.
Another key facet of 12 Days is for the Flyers Alumni to show support for causes and organizations that are meaningful to fellow Flyers Alumni, such as Flyers Hall of Famer Brian Propp's year-round work on behalf of stroke awareness and outreach to stroke survivors, Bill Clement's work with the Arc of Haywood County in North Carolina, and Andrew Alberts affiliation with the Agawam Youth Hockey program in Massachusetts.
On the Flyers Alumni's official website, there is an annual day-by-day journal of each of the "12 Days of Christmas" activities that year, with background information on recipient organizations. To follow the daily activities, click here.
