The idea of chemistry in hockey is something that cannot be easily contributed to anything or quantified in any particular way. Some players just work better together than others and it might not even be a skill level thing; just a general and innate understanding of what the other dude is going to do with the puck, without the puck, on the forecheck, in all three zones — it’s just a thing.
For the Philadelphia Flyers’ newest top-pairing defenseman Ryan Ellis, he views chemistry as being best friends off the ice, and when talking about his new partner Ivan Provorov, he’s attempting to do exactly that.