On a night of old-school hockey that harkened back to days of the Patrick Division, it was fitting that Flyers' center Sean Couturier provided the exclamation point on a throwback performance in Philly's wild 6-4 win over the Islanders Thursday night.
With his ever-present gap-toothed snarl, Couturier took a page out of the old Broad Street Bullies playbook by recording a Gordie Howe Hat Trick, scoring a goal, adding an assist and engaging in a fight with New York's Josh Bailey.
GIF Rewind: Sean Couturier’s Gordie Howe Hat Trick leads Flyers to thrilling fight-filled win - https://t.co/pUm8hIhsi0 pic.twitter.com/jtiG1ktSyV
— Sons of Penn (@SonsofPenn) January 5, 2018
Couturier, in the midst of a career year, opened the scoring at 8:38 of the first period with his team-leading 19th goal.
He then picked up his 19th assist on Travis Konecny's fifth goal at 13:56 of the second period to make it 5-2 Flyers with a perfect flip pass to the blue line. That ultimately became the game-winner when the Islanders scored twice in the third to make it 5-4 before Ivan Provorov's second of the night sealed the win for Philly.
In that third period, Couturier leveled New York's Anders Lee at center ice with a hit and Bailey took exception leading to the fight and capping Couturier's Gordie Howe Hat Trick.
There were two other fights in the game -- including one involving Konecny who missed the Gordie hatty by an assist -- and 66 penalty minutes were meted out by the officials.
The 25-year-old Couturier has seven points in his last five games. His 38 points are just one shy of tying his previous career-high, while his 19 goals are already more than he had in any of his seven previous seasons.
The fight Thursday was not only his first of the season, but his seven penalty minutes virtually doubled his entire output of the season to 15 PIM total.