'I'm Excited To Play With Him': Jamie Drysdale Speaks About New Defensive Partner In First Game Back From Injury
Defenseman Jamie Drysdale made his official return to the Philadelphia Flyers lineup against the New York Islanders, having not played a game since Feb. 25.
Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports - 'I'm Excited To Play With Him': Jamie Drysdale Speaks About New Defensive Partner In First Game Back From InjuryDefenseman Jamie Drysdale made his official return to the Philadelphia Flyers lineup against the New York Islanders, having not played a game since Feb. 25.
Since he last played, the Flyers experienced further losses to their defense in the forms of Nick Seeler sustaining a foot injury and Sean Walker getting traded to the Colorado Avalanche.
Now, however, both Seeler and Drysdale are back in the lineup, and it looks as though the team are trying the two out as a defensive pair for the first time since Drysdale's arrival to Philadelphia in January.
Although it's a new pairing, Drysdale sounded enthusiastic about having the chance to play with a veteran defenseman in Seeler.
"He's a heck of a player," he said. "I've never seen someone block so many shots in my life! I love the way he plays the game, so I'm excited to play with him and be paired."
Drysdale also revealed that the two even talked about the possibility of being paired up once they both came back from their respective injuries.
"We talked when he was out with his foot and whatnot, and we were laughing and saying, 'What if we played together?'" he said. "Because we haven't really played together. It was pretty funny seeing that on the board. I'm excited to play with him."
Having both Seeler and Drysdale back in the lineup provides a huge boost for the Flyers back line, as head coach John Tortorella stated that the top pairing of Cam York and Travis Sanheim has been "running on fumes" and that, with Drysdale now available, he'd even be taking York off of the powerplay in order to give him a rest due to him "getting a ton of ice time lately."
The idea of pairing young defenders with veteran ones is not a new concept for the Flyers, as they've been favoring the pairing of Cam York and Travis Sanheim, along with testing the waters of an Egor Zamula and Erik Johnson coupling.
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