The Thing About Travis Konecny Is That He's A Superstar
Kirk Irwin. Getty Images.It feels like just yesterday, but now that I'm actually doing the math it turns out that it's way closer to a decade ago than I would like to admit. But back in 2018, I penned a blog titled "Brad Marchand Is The Floor For Travis Konency's Potential, Not The Ceiling".
It was year 2 of Travis Konency's career. He was a 20+ goal scorer and becoming one of the biggest pains in the ass to play against in the league. Just a little shit stirrer who manages to get under your skin from the moment you look at his face. Now maybe I got a little carried away with the blog. Wouldn't be the first time that's happened. Maybe Travis Konecny's path didn't have him on a trajectory to become an even more evolved version of Brad Marchand (that player ended up being Matthew Tkachuk). But 7 years later, it's starting to look like Travis Konecny might just live up to those early Brad Marchand comparisons.
3 assists last night on Long Island. He had 4 assists on Saturday night while the Flyers and their fans were shoving Cutter Gauthier in a locker all night long.
53 points on the year so far and he's now on pace to come close to hitting the 100 point mark for the first time in his career.
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9th (full) season of his career. Had pretty consistently been a 50-60 point scorer up until that point. 2x All-Star. And now could hit the 100 point mark for the first time ever. That's right, folks. I'm talking about 2018-19 Brad Marchand.
Keep in mind that was at the age of 30 for Brad Marchand. Konecny is still just 27.
He's the heart and soul of this Flyers team. It's jarring on the occasional night that you don't notice him on the ice this season. He's seemingly everywhere all the time. In the middle of every scrum. Typically leaving the ice with his helmet askew after someone takes a run at him since they can't stand seeing him on the ice. Making plays happen left and right. You had people complaining about TK signing an 8-year extension this past summer, but this guy was born to be a Flyer for life. He plays the exact brand of hockey that this city thrives on, and he's going to end up looking like one of the most underpaid players in the league once the cap goes up. You get another couple of years of Konecny as the heart of this team and Michkov as the brains? Now we're talking.
Again, maybe I jumped the gun just a smidge in 2018. But Brad Marchand has arguably been one of the bigger faces of the league over the last 5-7 years. It's time for Travis Konecny to get in there as well. Maybe a few big moments in the Four Nations FaceOff should do the trick.
P.S. -- While we're talking about the Flyers against Islanders last night, let's just really quickly talk about that hit.
I gotta be totally honest here, guys. I don't think that hit was nearly as bad as a lot of Flyers fans seem to think right now. Don't get me wrong, the result of it was brutal. Tough blow for Poehling, who has been having a really nice stretch of games lately. But for starters, the initial point of contact on that hit is shoulder-to-shoulder. Now I know Tsyplakov ends up crushing Poehling in the head after brushing the shoulder, but initial point of contact tells you where the player was intending to hit a guy. So I don't think he went out of his way to go head hunting here. If anything, Poehling put himself in a god awful position here to get crushed. Cutting towards the slot with the puck on his stick and doesn't even attempt to protect himself at all. Did he think they turned checking off in the settings before the game?
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Big, nasty hit. But I don't think there was anything in there that was beyond just playing big boy hockey. Luckily the Flyers were able to lock in after that and get the win.