In what was the worst performance of the season so far, the Flyers closed out their five game homestand with a sleepy 2-1 loss to the league-worst Calgary Flames at the Xfinity Mobile Center.
The basics
First period: No scoring
Second period: 2:15 – Jonathan Huberdeau (Yegor Sharangovich, Brayden Pachal)
Third period: 7:06 – Huberdeau (Joel Hanley, MacKenzie Weegar), 14:20 – Travis Konecny (Noah Cates)
SOG: 21 (CGY) – 18 (PHI)
Lines jumbled x2
With the absence of Tyson Foerster, the Flyers had to break up their most consistent line. Instead of merely finding a replacement for the Foerster-Cates-Brink line, Rick Tocchet decided to put the entire forward core in a blender. Notably, Trevor Zegras moved up to the top line with Sean Couturier and Travis Konecny, while Rodrigo Abols moved to a line with Christian Dvorak and Matvei Michkov. A strange top-6 for this game, as Tocchet moved fourth-liner Abols onto a line with the most skilled player on the team. Not to mention, moving Zegras to a line with Couturier put Zegras completely on the wing, instead of the hybrid position he’s been playing with Dvorak.
And, after only 9 shots on goal through two periods, Tocchet completely switched all the lines again.
Lines in a blender:
Zegras – Dvorak – Tippett
Grebenkin – Cates – Konecny
Michkov – Couturier – Brink
…to start the third.
— Charlie O'Connor (@charlieo_conn)
November 3, 2025
The line jumbling effort worked to a certain degree, as they managed another 9 shots on goal the rest of the way. Even with the late goal by Konecny, though, it was too little, too late for the Flyers to claw their way back into the game. In order for the Flyers to have any kind of success this season, they can’t just fall apart when Foerster-Cates-Brink are not on the ice together. There’s enough talented players on the roster to have more than 18 shots on goal against the worst team in the sport thus far, so there’s a lot to figure out as the Flyers head to Montreal on Tuesday.
Almost nothing happened in the first period
Tonight’s first period was an example of two tired teams, on the second night of a back-to-back, just playing out the strings for 20 minutes. There were tons of icings, lots of choppy neutral zone play, very little high danger scoring chances, and a total of .58 expected goals between the two sides (according to Natural Stat Trick). The closest anyone came to scoring was a Nick Seeler shot off the post at around the 3-minute mark. Dvorak also completely miffed on a shorthanded breakaway chance, and Aleksei Kolosov made one really strong save on the penalty kill. Other than that, that might have been the most boring period of hockey the Flyers have participated in so far this season.
An evaluation of Kolosov
Overall, a pretty solid first NHL start of the year for Kolosov, but man there was a rough goal allowed in the second period. He may have been screened on the first Huberdeau goal of the evening, but we’d imagine that Kolosov would like to have that shot from distance back.
Other than that, Kolosov stopped 19 of the 21 shots that came his way, as he was also beaten on a Huberdeau deflection early in the third period. He appeared pretty steady in net, and really wasn’t challenged with any crazy chances all night. For all that can be said about the Flyers’ anemic offense today, it’s not like the Flames were much better. According to Micah Blake McCurdy’s model, the Flames put up 1.7 expected goals to the Flyers 1.8 expected goals. So, Kolosov did almost exactly what you’d expect from him considering the volume and danger of the chances he faced, so there’s not a whole lot to complain about. When your goaltender only allows two goals, there’s no real excuse in losing the game, especially against a team that’s off to as rough of a start as Calgary is.
Please put pucks on net
The biggest contributor to the boringness of this game? Well, the Flyers putting almost no shots on net will do the trick. The Flyers had 6 shots on goal at the halfway point of this game, and finished with 9 after two periods. After picking up the pace in the third, the Flyers had a total of 18 shots on goal and 52 shots attempted by the final horn.
The lack of shots is a continuation of an early season trend where the Flyers offense has been particularly poor on a game-by-game basis. Prior to tonight, the Flyers sat at 31st in the league with only 24 shots on goal per game, and have only eclipsed 30 shots on goal twice this season. In terms of shot attempts, the Flyers were averaging 49.2 shot attempts per 60 minutes heading into tonight, according to Natural Stat Trick. These marks are unsustainable, and even though the Flyers are near the top of the league in goals against, the offense has to pick up the pace. Relying on the goaltending tandem is only going to get this team so far, and guys who are currently scoring (like Zegras) are inevitably going to go cold. Shot volume simply has to increase if there’s going to be any kind of sustainable success.
Konecny breaks through
Travis Konecny was having a rough one, even if he had been in and around a ton of chances in this game. In the second period, Konecny made a nice play in the neutral zone to get past a Calgary defender, and rushed in on goalie Dustin Wolf with a clear lane to shoot. Instead, Konecny made the suspect decision to pass behind him to Egor Zamula, and the chance was stopped relatively easily by Wolf. It was a puzzling decision from Konecny, a player who has made quite a few weird plays in the early goings of 2025-26.
Well, as the frustration with Konecny’s play was reaching a boiling point, Konecny managed to score the Flyers’ only goal in this game with about five minutes left in the third. Taking the puck immediately from the faceoff, Konecny beat Wolf clean with a wrister from the circle. The goal was his fourth of the season, and his sixth point in his last seven games. Even if it doesn’t feel like Konecny is at his best right now, he’s still managing to put up some points, and that’s a good sign for when the underlying process turns positive for the winger.
TK's got us right back in it.
#CGYvsPHI |
#LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/BVtjlf9UOm
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers)
November 3, 2025
What’s ahead
The Flyers next head to Montreal, who sits at the top of the Atlantic through its first 12 games. Considering the current form of the two teams, this is a rough time for the Flyers to make a trip to the Bell Centre. After that, the Flyers get a much easier matchup on the road versus the Predators, who the Orange and Black just dispatched on Thursday. We might be in for some really rough regression over the coming week, considering how poor the offensive statistics continue to be, and signs that the Flyers goaltending might be coming down to Earth a bit.
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