PHILADELPHIA — Best-on-best international tournaments featuring NHL players always provide some strange bedfellows.
The Philadelphia Flyers-Pittsburgh Penguins rivalry isn’t exactly what it was a few seasons ago, but it was still probably a bit odd at the 4 Nations Face-Off for Travis Sanheim, who played in his 30th career regular season game against the Penguins on Tuesday at Wells Fargo Center, to sit in the same dressing room and pull on the same sweater as Sidney Crosby, who he’s often been tasked with shutting down.
But that experience with Team Canada, which won gold, offered Sanheim the opportunity to witness Crosby, the team captain, behind the scenes. And, perhaps Sanheim even learned something from one of the game’s all-time greats.
“Every day he comes with the right attitude,” Sanheim said. “He loves the game. He wants to get better. He’s always working on his craft. How he is, how he handles the guys, his demeanor, his calmness — whether we’re winning or losing, how in the moment he is. You would never guess how the game is going, he just (continues) to play. There’s a reason he’s won as much as he has.”
Unsurprisingly, that assessment of Crosby wasn’t splashed across the jumbotron in South Philly on Tuesday night, as Flyers fans welcomed the Penguins’ three-time Stanley Cup champion and two-time Hart Trophy winner the same way they have for the past two decades — with a chorus of boos as he was introduced as part of the starting lineup. The Flyers then promptly pounded Crosby and the defensively incompetent Penguins, 6-1, for their third straight win and second straight dominant performance coming out of the break.
But Crosby was just as complimentary of Sanehim before the game, too. And, why shouldn’t he be? Sanheim played in three of the four games — including the championship game win over Team USA — posting one assist while averaging 17:22 of ice time. He was even on the ice to start overtime with partner Colton Parayko against the dangerous Auston Matthews-Brady Tkachuk-Dylan Larkin line in that final game, skating regular shifts before teammate Connor McDavid’s goal ended the tournament.
“He was great,” Crosby said of Sanheim. “Obviously, playing against him you understand that he’s a big body and got a good stick. But just the way he joins the play, the way he skates — seeing a guy in practice and skating with some of the fastest guys in the league … it’s impressive. He can get up and down the ice, and obviously he’s a great defender.”
Samheim admitted that he wasn’t quite sure going in whether he would be able to keep up. But he quickly learned that, yeah, he could.
“Sometimes you don’t really know, and then you get on the ice with those guys and they’re human, as well,” he said. “You just start playing and start to realize that you’re capable of playing at that level. I think it’s going to really help me, and I really hope that my game is going to continue to grow here with those experiences, and realizing the confidence that I should have and the abilities that I have.”
Sanheim looked as confident on Tuesday night against the Penguins as he did in the tournament. He and partner Cam York got the lion’s share of ice time against Crosby — as did the forward line of Noah Cates, Tyson Foerster and Bobby Brink. The result was one of Crosby’s worst games here as a visitor, as he had just two shots on goal and a minus-2 rating in what was a shockingly poor performance from the last-place Penguins.
The Cates line starred, combining for four goals — two from Cates — and 10 total points. Cates had an assist to go with his pair of tallies; Brink had one goal and three assists, and Foerster had one goal and two assists.
The line that coach John Tortorella has kept intact just about every game ever since they were put together on Nov. 25 against the Vegas Golden Knights has become the Flyers’ de facto shutdown line.
Against the Penguins, they found their offense again, too.
“All three of them know, (I) was going to check them against Crosby,” Tortorella said. “They see Crosby, I don’t even have to say who’s up, they know they’re going (on the ice). I think they’ve embraced that role, and I think they’ve all kind of bought into bringing another step and not only checking, but (creating) some offense off of it.”
Cates, in particular, needed to get on the scoresheet again. Although he played admirably on Saturday in the Flyers’ 6-3 over the Edmonton Oilers as he and his line held Connor McDavid scoreless, it was also his 10th straight without a point.
It seems as if the 4 Nations break helped the 26-year-old find the kind of spark that, earlier in the season, led to his compiling 17 points in a 19-game stretch in December/January.
Cates mentioned that, physically, he had “some things going on,” but the mental reset during the break was even more valuable.
“Even on the off days, you’re going in and just grinding away. To just kind of relax and put hockey aside for a little bit, you’re better off for it when you come back,” Cates said. “You’re fresh, you’re excited, you want to be at the rink, you want to do those little things to help your body feel its best and perform at your best.”
As for Brink, he had just one assist in his previous seven games before exploding for what is a new career high of four points (he never had more than two points in any of his previous 122 career games). After Cates scored at 18:55 of the second period to put the Flyers up 4-1 by crashing the net, that line stayed on the ice and generated a fifth goal exactly the same way: by getting to the blue paint, this time with Brink flicking in the loose puck to essentially seal the win.
Noah Cates and Bobby Brink score ten seconds apart, giving the Flyers a commanding 5-1 lead!#LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/GBmOXhvsYb
— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) February 26, 2025
The line “surged for us there at an important time in the second period,” Tortorella said. “Bobby Brink, it’s good to see him get rewarded. Hasn’t scored a bunch but has really worked at the other part of this game. They don’t do anything different, they just get rewarded tonight.”
If the Flyers are to somehow work their way back into the playoff race — and, at 26-26-7, that’s still quite a long shot — there’s no question that the Cates line is going to have to play an outsized role. Keeping guys like McDavid and Crosby off of the scoresheet in back-to-back wins, while finding their scoring touch again, suggests they’re embracing that kind of responsibility.
“They’ve kind of helped me come out of my shell a little bit and have that energy and that push,” Cates said of his linemates. “We’re playing hard for each other, (and) we’ll do anything for each other.”
(Photo: Eric Hartline / Imagn Images)
