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[Philadelphia Flyers]

Noah Cates breakout means Flyers less concerned with Sean Couturier

When Sean Couturier signed his eight-year, $62 million dollar deal on Aug. 21, 2021, Chuck Fletcher was the Flyers general manager and Alain Vigneault was the head coach. That same summer, Noah Cates was entering his fourth and final year of U.S. college hockey at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, coming off a season that saw him only play 28 games and manage a meager five goals. The 2017 fifth-round Philadelphia draft pick and the then 28-year-old Couturier were miles apart financially, geographically, and where they were in their respective careers.

However, things have a way of changing. Danny Briere is now the Flyers general manager. Rick Tocchet is the new head coach, and both Couturier and Cates find themselves being key pieces down the middle of the Flyers’ roster. And while the duo are still at different stages of their careers, it appears that the Flyers might have served themselves quite well by keeping Noah Cates around. His four-year deal worth a $4 million Average Annual Value is a mere 15 games in prior to the Edmonton game Wednesday night. But already it appears that Briere might have gotten away with highway robbery for Philadelphia while also possibly making the Couturier contract that much more agreeable or easier to swallow. Yet before we dive in, let’s first look back in time, shall we?

The Couturier bullet​

The team dodged a major bullet or two the last few seasons with Couturier. After missing essentially two complete seasons due to back issues and surgeries, there was some concern that the Flyers captain would be a shell of himself if he ever returned to the ice. It was bad enough the Flyers were dealing then with Ryan Ellis and that disaster and news that Cam Atkinson wasn’t quite right either. Adding Couturier to Injured Reserve for the rest of the ’20s would have been almost farcical if it wasn’t so depressing envisioning.

Some challenging seasons ensued which weren’t alleviated one bit by head coach John Tortorella. After possibly riding his center too hard early, Tortorella then decided to cause a stir by scratching Couturier without much explanation given to the forward. Couturier really wasn’t playing well, but he certainly didn’t need Tortotella to add insult to the injury he was just getting over. Regardless, Couturier is now three years removed from wondering if his career was at a crossroads. Or over.

Although it’s probably clear Couturier isn’t going to reach the 76-point plateau he did during his prime (along with the Selke Trophy), it’s safe to say he’s not going to be a huge detriment in the lineup. At least not in the near future. And most likely not for the next four seasons (or a good portion of that term). The reasons? Well, there are a few. Couturier is not being called on to be the lone center on a team that is still needing a center or two to speed up the rebuild. He’s still holding his own on the faceoff circle (53.55 per cent), has 10 points through 15 games, and is providing guidance to his winger in Matvei Michkov despite what the rage-baiting intelligentsia might opine in 280 characters or less. Couturier has never been shy to showcase his defensive skills and his solid two-way play. But the Flyers are being quite wise, knowing Couturier can’t handle the workload of previous years. Rather than run him into the ground, they are easing his workload a bit, particularly against the biggest stars and the top lines from opposing teams.

Cue Noah Cates​

It’s here where Noah Cates enters the picture. And boy has he entered the picture! Cates, who signed his four-year, $16 million contract in early June, has provided a huge lift to the Flyers’ fortunes with his play. He is integral to the success of the line featuring himself, Tyson Foerster, and Bobby Brink (who were reunited against Edmonton last night). And through that line taking it to the best and biggest stars around, the Flyers are fortunate to have one of the better, cheaper, and highly underrated lines in all of hockey. Both Cates and Couturier have 10 points apiece so far, but Cates has been the guy who has often been tasked with dealing with the likes of Sidney Crosby, Mark Scheifele, Auston Matthews and others who are top-tier talents. Couturier is capable of doing the job, yet that would also probably empty his gas tank a lot quicker these days. After all, he’s less than a month from turning 33.

Granted, Cates isn’t quite Couturier on the faceoff dot. He’s lost 23 more faceoffs than he’s won so far this season and is hovering over 40 per cent (42.94). Last year was a career-high for him there (46.8 per cent), but he’s still needs to work at that more to be in the same conversation as Couturier or former Flyer Claude Giroux. Although that needs some improvement, Cates is eating up those tough, shadow-the-star minutes that were once allotted to Couturier. It’s not like Couturier is punching the clock or on cruise control during games. It’s just that everyone in the decision-making process is aware Couturier can’t carry the burden he once did. Call it load management or whatever you wish, it’s been fantastic that Cates has picked up the mantle. And in doing that he’s enabled Couturier to indirectly (or directly) look better 15 games into this season then he has at nearly any point post-surgery.

When Couturier was injured those two seasons, and when he hit the wall in his first season back, there were plenty of skeptics who saw the eight-year contract (which concludes at the end of the 2029-30 season) as an anchor that could not be moved. A buyout after this season would see Philadelphia still hit with a cap hit next year of $6,520,833 followed by three years of $6,770,833. Essentially you’d be buying out a player and still paying roughly over 80 per cent of his salary. Then an additional four seasons at just over half a million per season. So that idea was basically out the window from the start. As well, Couturier has a full No Movement Clause for the first seven years of the eight before a 10-team trade list kicks in during the 2029-30 season. The Flyers were either going to swim with the Couturier contract or they would be trying to sweep it under their own financial rug. So far, they’ve been fine with it. Couturier can be lauded for doing his part. But Noah Cates has also done a huge part in making the Couturier contract far less of a nightmare.

Switching paychecks​

The Flyers have a few things staring them in the face this offseason and some bigger questions. Who is available (or enticing, if anyone) in the class of 2026 when it comes to unrestricted free agents? What current restricted free agents (Trevor Zegras, Jamie Drysdale, Nikita Grebenkin, Egor Zamula, Emil Andrae and Brink) will be tougher to negotiate with than others? And who might need to go in order to make room for the likes of maybe Oliver Bonk, Porter Martone, or whoever else is knocking on the door? A rising salary cap should help Briere navigate those waters rather smoothly for the most part, particularly when all of the retained salaries and buyouts are off the books completely. One can’t also forget contracts for Foerster and Michkov will be on the table after next season.

Nonetheless, when it comes to Couturier and Cates, one would expect Couturier to hopefully not fall off a cliff in terms of his production and play. A gradual decline might be fine considering how his hockey IQ hasn’t diminished much since coming into the league. He might be a step slower, but he knows that already, enabling him to be positioned better despite not having the blazing speed he really never had to begin with. He should be good for a few seasons to come barring any major injury or a recurring back issue. At least that’s the hope. Meanwhile, Cates might be looking like one of the bigger bargains in the league in a season or two. Although he’s at the mercy of the Flyers with no control over trade or movement, Philadelphia would have to be clinically insane to part with Cates unless a superstar or stud blueliner was coming back.

On the whole, Couturier right now looks like a contract that might not provide the value in the seventh and eighth years. That’s shouldn’t come as a huge shock. That would be normal as he’ll be 37 during the final year of the deal. And with a rising cap ceiling, that current share of the total team cap (8.1 per cent) is forecasted to be under six percent near the end of his contract. But for the time being, Noah Cates is making his own contract look great while also sheltering Couturier from some heavy minutes and the spotlight that might come with that. If anything, Couturier’s value on the ice near the twilight of his career could be around $4 million. Meanwhile Cates might be playing at a pay scale that could see comparable players earning well over $7 million a season in 2027-28.

Couturier’s deal, as it goes on, might be seen as a problem. For now Noah Cates is making that contract seem far less of a burden. And for that kudos to Cates and, to a lesser extent, Danny Briere. It’s doubtful the National Hockey League Players Association would have Couturier swap paychecks with Cates in 2027-28 and 2028-29, but that’s essentially what Cates looks like he might be doing with his stellar, consistent play.

All stats courtesy of Natural Stat Trick and CapWages

Source

Source: https://www.broadstreethockey.com/p...couturiers-contract-that-much-more-agreeable/

 

[Philadelphia Flyers]

Ranking the Flyers’ nicknames: From Gart Angry to Forey

The Philadelphia Flyers may have lost on Thursday night, but the fans won as we were introduced to several of the players’ nicknames on the broadcast.

Some of the nicknames are self-explanatory, while others were improved by learning more about them.

Without any further ado, here is the official ranking of the Flyers’ team nicknames from Wednesday night’s broadcast.

7. Tyson Foerster as “Forey”​

This is as hockey player as it gets. A typical hockey nickname just takes the player’s last name, or a syllable of it, in this case, and adds the “ey” sound at the end.

It can be viewed as classic or boring, depending on who you ask, but I lean toward the latter side of things. How about “Trees” as a play on forest? Or TyFo, as some fans have called him. Even Tofu would be better than Forey.

6. Jamie Drysdale as “Jim”​

Zegras started calling Drysale “Jim” during their time in Anaheim together, and it’s carried over into Philadelphia. The two former Ducks have had a connection off the ice for years, and the Flyers are seeing that pay dividends on the ice as well.

Personally, I’ve taken to calling him “Jim Jam,” which would move him up the rankings, but just plain Jim it is.

5. Matvei Michkov as “Mike”​

This is a nickname that was confusing at first, but it’s stuck to the Russian phenom for nearly a year now.

Zegras has given out a few of the new nicknames, and it’s fitting that the guy the Flyers sent to Anaheim for the forward is the one who gave Michkov his. The team was watching the Mike Tyson fight together, and Ryan Poehling noticed that the young Russian has a thick neck just like the boxing legend.

There are plenty of nicknames that could come from either Matvei or Michkov, or a play on his initials, yet somehow “Mike” has stuck.

4. Trevor Zegras as “Ziggy”​

We’re getting less original as we move along, as Ziggy is an easy play on Zegras’s last name. But it fits the flashy Zegras so well.

He’s off to a hot start with the Flyers, leading the team with 16 points in as many games. He’s added some flash to the offense, and his nickname reflects that.

There have been a few Ziggys throughout history, and Zegras is looking to make a name for himself in Philadelphia.

3. Noah Cates as “Capes”​

Now, when this one popped up on the screen, I wasn’t initially a fan. I assumed it was hockey players doing the hockey player thing of changing a letter or a mispronunciation sticking as a new nickname.

But the explanation changed everything.

This isn’t simply a nickname based on Cates’ name, but rather on the recovery system that the center wears on the plane, which looks like a cape.

Zegras had also referred to Cates as “Caper” in other quotes, which might move him up above Taco on the nickname ranking.

2. Rick Tocchet as “Taco”​

Trevor Zegras gave his new head coach a new moniker in training camp, and it’s stuck.

“I think with a guy like (Zegras), his personality is great for a room. He smiles and I think he calls me ‘Taco’ now… I don’t know what he’s calling me,” Tocchet said back in September. “But I like the fact that he’s a good kid and he wants to learn. But, you know, there are certain parts of his game he knows he has to clean up and he’s willing to learn.”

It’s kind of crazy that Tocchet has spent his entire life around the NHL and had yet to be referred to as the Mexican dish. It’s a simple transformation from Tocchet to Taco, and the Flyers should be leaning fully into it with Taco Tuesday specials down at the rink on game nights.

1. Garnet Hathaway as “Gart Angry”​

There was a clear favorite on social media once this graphic was revealed on the broadcast. That, of course, is Garnet Hathaway’s nickname as “Gart Angry” or “Gart Mad” depending on the day.

Hathaway has been a fourth-line staple for the Flyers in recent years, and he’s certainly earned a reputation as someone who is hard to play against throughout his career.

The 34-year-old winger has played in all 16 games this season and is the only one to do so without recording a point. He’s been helping out with a team-high 58 hits, but perhaps a goal here or there could turn Gart Angry into Gart Happy.

---

Hopefully, we’ll be given more insight into the Flyers’ locker room and nicknames throughout the team as the season moves along. If not, I just might have to dish out some nicknames myself.

Source

Source: https://www.broadstreethockey.com/post/ranking-the-flyers-nicknames-from-gart-angry-to-forey/

 

[Philadelphia Flyers]

Flyers’ Matvei Michkov finding groove in midst of scoring streak

In an 82-game (soon to be 84-game) NHL season, a 13-game sample size is a largely insignificant blip on the radar in the grand scheme. But for the Philadelphia Flyers, a 13-game sample size was all it took for the club’s famously traumatized fan base to declare a state of emergency.

Matvei Michkov, the Flyers’ prized Russian winger and face of their rebuild, looked like a shell of himself to start the campaign. The 20-year-old, less than a year removed from logging 26 goals and 63 points as a rookie, managed to light the lamp just once in the Flyers’ first 13 games of the season.

Naturally, even some of the Flyers’ most aggressive supporters began to sound alarm bells, especially after word got out that Michkov entered training camp out of shape due to a summer of inactivity (largely thanks to an offseason ankle injury).

Michkov wasn’t scoring. He didn’t have his legs going. He just didn’t look like Michkov.

Well, that’s changing.

Matvei Michkov is starting to look like himself​

Now 16 games into the season, Michkov has found the back of the net in three consecutive games, and while it’s exciting to see his scoring numbers rise, it’s his overall play that’s really encouraging. He looks more spry. He looks more decisive. He looks more confident. And for the first time all season, he’s creating plays for himself.

Look no further than his goal against the Ottawa Senators Saturday afternoon as evidence of this.

Matvei Michkov scores a beauty to put the Flyers on the board pic.twitter.com/XKQUTf2gJJ

— TSN (@TSN_Sports) November 8, 2025

A case can be made that Michkov, despite his young age, is already the Flyers’ best player, so this gradual return to form comes as a colossal relief. Still, Michkov is averaging less than 15 minutes of ice time per night, which isn’t exactly a positive indication of a head coach’s faith in a player’s overall performance.

Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet also hasn’t had much of a choice, though. For much of the season’s early going, Michkov wasn’t just looking out of sorts — he was a legitimate liability at times.

Tocchet admitted that Michkov was “behind the eight ball” to start the season, but he has also acknowledged the progress he’s seen from the 2023 seventh overall pick. And with goals in three straight, Michkov is beginning to earn more of Tocchet’s trust.

In Wednesday night’s loss against the Edmonton Oilers, Michkov earned 16:05 of time on ice — the most ice time he’s seen in a game in nearly a month. Sixteen minutes still isn’t optimal for a player of Michkov’s caliber, but it’s at least a step in the right direction.

Given his hot hand, it’s hard to argue with the uptick in ice time.

Against Edmonton, Michkov scored the Flyers’ only goal of the night with a beauty on the power play that tied the game at one goal apiece late in the second period. It was Michkov at his best — finding open ice, identifying a shooting lane, and ripping the puck through with accuracy.

For a goal-scoring savant like Michkov, it should come as no surprise that his shooting has been a primary focus in practices as of late.

“[Michkov] has been working on that downhill shot. He shoots a million pucks,” Tocchet told the media after Wednesday night’s game.

“It was a great shot, but it was a great placement. And he works on that every day. Gotta give the kid credit. It was a hell of a goal.”

Three goals in three games for Michkov

: @Sportsnet or stream on Sportsnet+ https://t.co/4KjbdjVctF pic.twitter.com/uIR5II9r6T

— NHL (@NHL) November 13, 2025

Michkov isn’t just passing the eye test either. The numbers are also reflecting his upward trajectory.

Michkov impacting the game beyond just scoring​

In October, his 5-on-5 play-driving numbers left much to be desired, to say the least. But in November, he’s been playing like the offensive spark plug fans were expecting at the start of the campaign. Over the Flyers’ last six games, Michkov is leading the team (minimum 30 minutes of 5-on-5 ice time) with a 58.35 Expected Goals For percentage — a significant increase from his 50.31 xGF% over the first 10 games of the year. To boot, his less-than-desirable 46.46 5-on-5 Corsi For percentage from October has soared to a whopping 60.16 since November 1.

Michkov has been noticeable all season, but not always in a good way. Now, he’s impossible to miss for all the right reasons.

Granted, Michkov isn’t completely out of the woods yet. His play away from the puck is still very much a work in progress, although no one will ever be mistaking him for a Selke candidate. But for the time being, Michkov continues to build momentum offensively. And for a team that’s averaging just 2.17 goals per game since November 1 (29th in the NHL), they’ll take all the goals they can get.

Statistics courtesy of Natural Stat Trick and NHL.com.

Source

Source: https://www.broadstreethockey.com/p...ov-finding-groove-in-midst-of-scoring-streak/

 

[Philadelphia Flyers]

Flyers @ Blues: How to watch, lineups, and gamethread

After a tough loss back on home ice on Wednesday, the Flyers are hitting the road for a quick two-game road trip. Tonight, they’ll be facing off against a struggling Blues squad for the first game of their back-to-back (and what’s to be their first against the Blues in the span of a week) and they’ll be looking to get the ball rolling early, gaining back some ground and, what’s more, making a strong impression on their annual Fathers’ Trip.

Puck drop: 8:00 p.m.
How to watch/listen:
: NBCSP+
: 93.3 WMMR

Pregame reading​

• Wednesday’s game against the Oilers was a bit of a weird one, but it was undoubtedly another good game for Matvei Michkov, who might be, dare we say, back? [BSH]
• The Flyers are getting a good bit of offense from him now, which is a good thing, because the team’s level of production this season has taken a bit of a dip from last season. [BSH]
• And finally, before we get rolling with this next Flyers game, let’s catch up on some prospect related happenings. [BSH]

Pregame watching​

By the numbers​

Philadelphia Flyers – 8-5-3 (6th in Metro)

Goals: Bobby Brink/Owen Tippett/Travis Konecny (5)
Assists: Trevor Zegras (12)
Points: Trevor Zegras (16)

Edmonton Oilers – 6-8-3 (6th in Central)

Goals: Jake Neighbors (6)
Assists: Oskar Sundkvist (7)
Points: Pius Suter (10)

Projected lineups​

Philadelphia Flyers

Matvei Michkov – Sean Couturier – Travis Konecny
Owen Tippett – Christian Dvorak – Trevor Zegras
Tyson Foerster – Noah Cates – Bobby Brink
Garnet Hathaway – Rodrigo Abols – Nic Deslauriers

Cam York – Travis Sanheim
Nick Seeler – Jamie Drysdale
Emil Andrae – Noah Juulsen

Sam Ersson
(Dan Vladar)

St. Louis Blues

Pavel Buchnevich – Robert Thomas – Jimmy Snuggerud
Dylan Holloway – Dalibor Dvorsky – Jordan Kyrou
Brayden Schenn – Pius Suter – Mathieu Joseph
Alexey Toropchenko – Oskar Sundqvist – Nathan Walker

Philip Broberg – Colton Parayko
Cam Fowler – Justin Faulk
Matthew Kessel – Hunter Skinner

Jordan Binnington
(Joel Hofer)

Storylines to watch​

Ersson gets the nod

After a reasonably solid showing from Dan Vladar on Wednesday, and the expectation that he’ll be tasked as a result with facing the more difficult opponent in the Stars tomorrow night, this leaves Sam Ersson as the choice to get the start tonight in St. Louis. And he’s coming into this one, all things considered, in a decent spot. That is, his first game back from injury last weekend against the Senators was a good enough showing from him — not perfect, but pretty good — and he’s gotten quite a bit more rest and practice time in since then, and combining that with the fact that he’ll be going up against one of the lower scoring offenses in the league tonight (more on that later), if there was ever a prime opportunity to keep building his game in the right direction, this would be it.

Deslauriers stays in

We talked earlier this week about the Flyers’ continued struggles to find a fourth line arrangement that’s really working for them, and how the trio of Nikita Grebenkin, Rodrigo Abols, and Garnet Hathaway have been giving them some of their best looks of late, only for the Flyers to turn around and decide it would be best to break them up after their best showing of the season and put Nic Deslauriers in in the place of Grebenkin. And despite a less solid showing against the Oilers and Deslauriers not even cracking seven minutes of ice time in that one, he’ll be staying in the lineup for tonight’s game in St. Louis. And whether it’s physicality that they’re looking for, or some veteran presence that’s led to the decision, it’s impossible to say, but that line is getting another chance to make a statement, and we’ll see what they’re able to do with it.

Will this be exciting? TBD

This matchup is sure to be an interesting one, but particularly for the fact that it will be a meeting of two teams who have really been struggling to put pucks in the back of the net so far this season. As it stands, the Flyers are sitting second from the bottom of the league standings in scoring, with 41 goals on the season, and the Blues have only done just a bit better, as they sit sixth from the bottom with 47 goals of their own. This matchup might have something of a stoppable force meets movable object feel to it, were it not for the fact that, while the Flyers have been at least equally stingy in the number of goals they’ve allowed this season (also 41), the Blues have not had the same luck, as they’ve allowed 64 to date, making for a rough -17 differential.

Now, this all might be interesting, but will it be exciting necessarily? That’s yet to be seen. There’s some potential here for the Flyers though, but they have to do their part to rise to the occasion.

Anything but overtime, please

And finally, we’ll close this out with a reminder that the last two Flyers games ended rather unfortunately in losses in overtime, and we’re hoping that the third time can be the charm here, as it were, and whatever the outcome of this game winds up being, that it can be taken care of in regulation. We’re just about overtimed out over here.

Source

Source: https://www.broadstreethockey.com/post/flyers-blues-how-to-watch-lineups-and-gamethread/

 

[Philadelphia Flyers]

Alex Bump, Denver Barkey hit their stride in standout performance for Phantoms

Last night’s game, kicking off the first leg of their first three-in-three of the season, was a big one for the Phantoms, as they were able to overcome a bit of a dicey start on the way to taking down the visiting Springfield Thunderbirds by a score of 7-3, and extending their winning streak to a season high five games. It was a sound effort across the board, as each of their forward lines was able to contribute at least one goal on the night, but the most notable performance of the night came in the three goals set up by the team’s top line of Alex Bump, Lane Pederson, and Denver Barkey.

On the REBOUND!#LVvsSPR | #LVPhantoms pic.twitter.com/fVunlWRXaf

— Lehigh Valley Phantoms (@LVPhantoms) November 15, 2025​

The line’s big night really began to break open in the second period, when Bump was able to jump on a loose puck and get it over to Pederson to spring them on a breakout, and ultimately put away the rebound of Pederson’s initial shot after it was left out in front. This goal would ultimately hold as the game winner, but this line was far from done yet.

#LVvsSPR | #LVPhantoms pic.twitter.com/olxzALWCFa

— Lehigh Valley Phantoms (@LVPhantoms) November 15, 2025​

They were able to double up on their contributions, but this time through Bump stepping into the setup role, dropping down below the goal line to retrieve a puck and make a quick pass to Pederson inside the left circle, who then, despite being in a pretty prime shooting spot himself, took the beat to scan and then thread a pass across to the even more wide open Barkey, who knocked it home.

Alex Bump with some great work to set up a pretty wacky second goal of the night for Denver Barkey (this line is really buzzing!) pic.twitter.com/xCirSjFMT4

— Madeline Campbell (@madelinecampbll) November 15, 2025​

Their final goal felt a little bit like adding insult to injury for the Thunderbirds, as it saw Bump able to skate with the puck virtually end-to-end (with a bit of a break in the neutral zone for a quick back and forth passing with Pederson to relieve a bit of pressure), just cruising through traffic and then threading a pass back to the trailing Barkey, who whiffed on the shot but still had the puck bounce off of his skate and in. It certainly wasn’t how they would have drawn that play up, but there’s something to be said for making your own luck, and when a line is as hot as this one has been, that’s the kind of bounces that will be going their way.

This was the type of collective flashy performances which will have certainly turned heads, but it’s one that also felt like it has been building up for a little while now.

“I think they’re all starting to gel together,” head coach John Snowden said back after last weekend’s game. “You know, [Pederson]’s a calming voice, he understands the ebbs and flows of the game, he’s played in the NHL, he’s been in the American League for a long time. And [Barkey]’s just, he’s a hockey player. He’s just a hockey player. He competes on pucks, he understands space, and uses his leverage in battles. Like you see tonight, how many battles did he come out with the puck because he just understands how to get out of it. [Bump]’s really good at extending plays, he’s good at getting that sneaky shot off in areas, and it gets on goalies pretty quick and heavy because it doesn’t look like it’s coming off his stick quick and hard, and then it creates a secondary chance. And they’re really starting to understand how they need to play together and understanding each other’s tendencies, and if you start to understand each other’s tendencies and where they want to go and want pucks in certain spaces, good things start to happen like we saw in that one shift they put together and ended up getting rewarded.”

This line found a very nice bit of production last night, and it would be easy to point to it as a result of having three highly skilled players stacked on one line and feasting on matchups against a weaker opponent, but it would be unfair, in turn, to erase the fact that this output came on the heels of — and as a direct result of — the steady building up of a more well rounded and details focused process to help support the flashier bits of skill. There’s been a notable level of chemistry forged along the way, and this line is really reaping the benefits.

“I just think the hockey IQ we all have,” Bump said last night, when asked about what’s been driving his line’s recent success. “We all know where to be at the right times, and we can all make those little plays to attack. So yeah, credit to those two, those two are dominant.”

This is a line which, despite how skilled the individual players are, have yet been able to come together as something greater than the sum of them. It’s provided the Phantoms a dependable boost in offense, to be sure, but with some grounding from Pederson’s veteran presence and the overall steadiness in his game, it’s allowed both Bump and Barkey to vault into a new level of comfort with the AHL game. There’s still a lot yet for them to polish out, but they’ve gotten themselves onto a rapid trajectory, with the season still so young, and so much laid out before them.

Source

Source: https://www.broadstreethockey.com/p...-stride-in-standout-performance-for-phantoms/

 

[Philadelphia Flyers]

Takeaways: Dallas dominates as Flyers lose 5-1

The Dallas Stars took the Flyers to the woodshed for the most part Saturday night, winning 5-1 thanks to a Jason Robertson hat trick and a Philadelphia effort that didn’t quite measure up.

The basics​

First period: 3:48- Lian Bichsel (Alex Petrovic, Justin Hryckowian)
Second period: 11:39- Jason Robertson (Tyler Seguin, Roope Hintz), 17:02- Jason Robertson (Roope Hintz, Esa Lindell)
Third period: 9:29- Jason Robertson (Roope Hintz, Mikko Rantanen) (PPG), 10:57- Christian Dvorak (Owen Tippett), 13:51- Tyler Seguin (Ilya Lyubushkin)
SOG: 21 (PHI) – 28 (DAL)

Some takeaways​

Dan has a night to forget

On the second of a back-to-back, against a team that recently destroyed Montreal 7-0, the Flyers needed everyone pulling their weight on this night. And Dan Vladar did his share early, stopping a 2-on-1 rush by the Stars less then two minutes into the game before Travis Sanheim got his stick to deflect the rebound. The Stars’ second bit of offense found the back of the net. Tyson Foerster took a shot off the right forearm or wrist prior to the goal but didn’t miss a shift thankfully.

Lian Bichsel with his first goal of the season! pic.twitter.com/3nRMlP4JzW

— DLLS Stars (@DLLS_Stars) November 16, 2025

Vladar was busy early and often, essentially holding the Flyers in it and preventing it from being a quick laugher. Another flurry of pressure halfway through the first resulted in a whistle as Philadelphia looked lost in their own end in terms of defensive coverage. The loss was the second in a row for Vladar and marked the third time in his last five outings he surrendered three or more goals.

It was a game showing just how far to go the Flyers have in order to be a contending team. And also just how much work they have to do to ensure they win a handful of these horde of back-to-back games, particularly the second of two. Vladar stopped 23 of 28 shots for a .821 save percentage. Between that percentage and Ersson’s the previous game, getting two of a possible four points on this trip was fortunate.

Couturier avoids calamity

With the score and outcome looking more certain, Sean Couturier nearly injured himself colliding with Roope Hintz. Neither player saw the other until it was too late and both appeared to be briefly shaken up. Fortunately Couturier and Hintz were both coasting and not going at any speed, resulting in both of them continuing on.

D-vo lone offensive bright spot

Although Dallas was up 4-0 and it was over, the Flyers at least kept one streak in tact: not being shut out. Philadelphia broke Oettinger’s shutout bid moment’s after Robertson’s hat-trick goal to make it 4-1.

Christian Dvorak stays red hot for some reason and breaks the shutout!#LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/oVfIIlNFT4

— Flyers Clips (@Flyers_Clips) November 16, 2025

In the end the game was lost and over, but it was another little confidence boost to Dvorak and that line who perhaps might have found some chemistry on this road trip.

Has Andrae earned Tocchet’s trust? Looks like that

Emil Andrae was just two minutes behind Cam York (15:19) in terms of ice time heading into the second intermission. It might not seem like a big deal, but usurping Jamie Drysdale — however briefly it might be — of having the third highest minutes among the Flyers’ blueliners had to be a feather in his hat. Andrae again was marginally okay on a night a lot of guys were bad. After throwing his big hit on Faksa, the defenseman looked more confident on the ice, taking a lot of the head off Noah Juulsen while also helping generate a few offensive chances. It’s another sign that the defender is making life for Egor Zamula hellish.

Better start in second

The Flyers — tied with Dallas for second in the league for most comeback wins (seven) — looked a little more with it to begin the middle period. Matvei Michkov got a shot on Dallas keeper Jake Oettinger which wasn’t anything special normally. Considering how one-sided the first was it was a small victory of sorts. Michkov had a far better chance as Sean Couturier found him in deep on Oettinger. He couldn’t get the puck up and over him to tie things up.

Philadelphia began tilting the ice back to respectability, getting more shots in the opening minutes of the second than the three they had in the first. Owen Tippett had the first (and best) scoring chance on a good rush up ice but wasn’t able to cash in. The Flyers started coming alive though, with the lines beginning to stack a few good shifts together for the first time all night.

Sadly, another miscue resulted in a four-on-two rush. Jason Robertson put a soft backhander just beyond Vladar’s reach to make it 2-0.

ROBOOOOO

Jason Robertson coming in clutch once again.#TexasHockey pic.twitter.com/ms7UHeW5qO

— Victory+ (@victoryplustv) November 16, 2025

Power play peril

The Stars were humming at over 30 per cent efficiency on the power play. So the Flyers needed to take as few minors as possible. Bobby Brink was called for interference late in the first and Philadelphia were successful against the nearly lethal Dallas special team. The Stars scored once on their two power plays while the Flyers were kept off the board in the lone attempt.

Start not ideal

Philadelphia went into the game knowing they would probably have to weather the storm in the first 10 minutes to have a chance. And they did just that being down just 1-0 to a team that oozes firepower. Dallas had seven of the first eight shots in the game. Meanwhile, the Flyers could’ve been down 2-0 or 3-0 had Dallas had any semblance of puck luck. It was probably the closest Philadelphia looked to a Tortorella-era team all season, with shot blocking being the first option far more than a last resort.

If head coach Rick Tocchet was irked by the St. Louis start Friday evening, it’s safe to say he wasn’t overjoyed by the start on this night. It looked like the Stars had a power play with their fourth line out as Philadelphia had no answers and no legs. The first highlight from the Flyers came from Emil Andrae who threw a lovely check on Radek Faksa into the corner boards. But other than that, not a lot to get excited about, aside from Vladar and the buzzer signaling the period’s end. The Flyers had no flow after the opening twenty as this game flow graphic shows.

Konecny hit and miss

While having an impressive point streak recently, Travis Konecny could be given a bit of leeway at points. However a costly gaffe late in the second was Philadelphia’s nail in the coffin. Konecny had one or two chances to simply get the puck out of his own zone. Instead he lollygagged a bit before missing the mark and icing the puck. The ensuing faceoff resulted in Jason Robertson scoring his second of the night to make it 3-0.

Konecny wasn’t the only one on the line who was having a hard night. While all three were -2 after two period and had a combined five giveaways, Michkov had four of the 14 shots on goal Philadelphia took through 40. The Mad Russian also had a prime opportunity in the third but Oettinger stopped him cold.

Source

Source: https://www.broadstreethockey.com/post/takeaways-dallas-dominates-as-flyers-lose-5-1/

 

[Philadelphia Flyers]

Porter Martone keeps scoring, Michigan State keeps winning

The Michigan State Spartans returned to action this weekend with a two-game series against another Big Ten opponent; Notre Dame. Porter Martone would open the series with his first multi-goal game at the collegiate level, and followed it up with another tally on Saturday night.

On Friday night, the Spartans took control from the first drop of the puck. They found their way into the offensive zone with ease, created chaos on the forecheck, and took a ton of shots at the net. In the opening frame alone, Michigan State peppered Notre Dame goaltender Nicholas Kempf with 21 shots. The final shot count was 47 to 25 in favor of the Spartans as they took game one by a final score of 4-1. Game two was much closer, with Notre Dame living up to their name and showing a lot more fight. Shots were 33 to 29 Michigan State, who completed the series sweep with a 3-1 final.

Freshman forward, and the Flyers’ 2025 first round draft pick, Porter Martone was the star of the series, with two goals in game one and another in game two. Fellow 2025 first rounder, Ryker Lee, flashed his creativity with several slick plays, picking up two goals and an assist for his efforts. Spartans netminder Trey Augustine stopped 52 of 54 shots (.963 save percentage) and Charlie Stramel picked up three assists.

Game 1​

Martone’s first goal was a beauty off the rush. Picking up a loose puck in the defensive zone, Martone exits the zone and finds Daniel Russell in the neutral zone. As Russell pulls the Notre Dame defender wide towards him, Stramel turns on the burners and cuts down the middle of the ice. Russell hits him with an entry pass and Stramel makes a great backhand saucer pass to Martone cutting towards the net, who freezes Kempf and puts home the first goal of the night.

Porter Martone makes it 1-0 in the first! It's his fifth of the season.

Assists to Charlie Stramel and Daniel Russell! pic.twitter.com/zNJ0nyEIQT

— Michigan State Hockey (@MSU_Hockey) November 15, 2025

Following a somewhat lousy start to a power play that saw the Spartans struggle to enter the offensive zone cleanly, Martone is able to retrieve the puck near the offensive blue line, make a pass into the zone, and go to work. A couple of perimeter passes later, and Lee finds Martone with a cross-ice pass. After corralling the pass with his skate, Martone inches his way closer to the net and beats a screened Kempf up high for his second of the game.

Second of the night for Porter Martone, this time on the power play!

Spartans in front, 2-0, in South Bend pic.twitter.com/Xy75AHBL08

— Michigan State Hockey (@MSU_Hockey) November 15, 2025

After Notre Dame got on the board with a power play goal, Martone would again be involved offensively, though this time he wouldn’t get a point on the play. His linemates Russell and Stramel did some excellent work along the boards, concluding with Stramel finding Maxim Štrbák sneaking in from the point. With a lot of commotion and bodies in front, Martone included, Štrbák was able to put the Spartans back up by two.

Martone came close to re-directing Štrbák’s shot, which would have completed the hat trick. He had several quality scoring chances later in the game, but Kempf was able to deny his attempts the rest of the way. However, maybe the most impressive thing from this game? This move from Ryker Lee.

Ryker Lee pic.twitter.com/BxQ4RonI68

— John (@FromEastLansing) November 15, 2025

Game 2​

Lee opened the scoring in game two off a sick behind the back pass from Anthony Romani. Michigan State skaters had been pulling off all sorts of tricks this weekend, with Romani’s assist serving as another example.

Ryker Lee makes it 1-0 Spartans just 90 seconds into the first period!

Travis Shoudy started us in transition to set up the back-handed no look pass from Anthony Romani to Lee pic.twitter.com/Uj8C1TrgSi

— Michigan State Hockey (@MSU_Hockey) November 15, 2025

Augustine made maybe one of his most impactful stops in the closing seconds of the first period, when Sutter Muzzatti snuck behind the Spartans defenders in the neutral zone and came in on a breakaway. While a lot of the conversation surrounding Michigan State has been about the forwards, Augustine has had a tremendous start to the season. The Red Wings’ 2023 second-round draft pick has stopped 94.8% of the shots he’s faced through nine games.

Martone’s goal on Saturday night was similar to his first on Friday. Stramel keeps the puck in the offensive zone with his skates and makes a tough pass right between two defenders, hitting Martone in stride. Another quick deke to the backhand led to Martone scoring his third goal of the series.

Porter Martone makes it 2-0 off the feed from Charlie Stramel!

Third goal of the series for Martone and third assist for Stramel. pic.twitter.com/clKFluIBcv

— Michigan State Hockey (@MSU_Hockey) November 16, 2025

Entering the third up 2-1, it looked as if Tommi Männistö had given the Spartans their two goal lead back. However, after a review determined that there was goaltender interference on the play, the Spartans’ lead remained one. Things got a little bit sloppy for the Spartans in the middle of the third, with Augustine being called upon to make some difficult saves to keep their lead intact. With about two minutes remaining, Notre Dame pulled their goalie for the extra attacker, leading to a Männistö empty-netter to all but seal the game.

It was a bit of a quiet series for Flyers prospects outside of Martone. Shane Vansaghi was held off of the scoresheet, but did fire six shots on net. His center since game one, Cayden Lindstrom, missed both games this weekend. For Notre Dame, Cole Knuble wasn’t super noticeable on Friday night, but after a move to wing, was much more effective in game two. There was one shorthanded chance in particular from Knuble that stood out, but it was ultimately deflected high.

Martone’s weekend highlights​

Some Martone highlights from this weekend. Goals, chances, interesting shifts. pic.twitter.com/nVYoF4oaX9

— Brad Keffer (@brad_keffer) November 16, 2025

With a three-goal series, Martone is now up to 7 goals and 7 assists for 14 points. Ten games in, he’s on pace for a 23-goal, 46-point season (34 games). While Martone’s shooting percentage of 22.6 percent is a bit high, it’s not a completely unheard of figure. Cole Eiserman finished last season with a shooting percentage of 23.4 percent, leading NCAA skaters. Even if that does fall some, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him both shoot more, and pick up a few more assists along the way, given that his linemate Russell has struggled to find the back of the net so far this season. After back-to-back seasons with a shooting percentage of 12.7 percent, he has just one goal on 31 shots this season. With the way that line creates offense, his goals will come, and Martone will likely be involved.

Up next for Michigan State is another Big Ten series, this time at home against the visiting Wisconsin Badgers next Friday and Saturday night.

Source

Source: https://www.broadstreethockey.com/post/porter-martone-keeps-scoring-michigan-state-keeps-winning/

 

[Philadelphia Flyers]

Ethan Samson holds steady in season debut with Phantoms

The Phantoms’ winning streak come to a screeching halt last night on home ice against the Bears, as the Phantoms worked through a hard-fought game only to have it ended in heartbreaking fashion.

The Phantoms, despite outshooting the Bears more than 2-1 in the first period, couldn’t break through, and had themselves beaten by turnovers and soft plays, falling into a 2-0 hole in the second. But the third period saw their luck beginning to break for them, as Denver Barkey was able to finally get them on the board early in the final frame, and despite the Bears getting that one back in short order, two Phantoms power play goals drew them even again. And with the tie holding into the waning seconds of regulation, the Phantoms seemed primed to cruise into overtime, collect at least one point, but a misplay with the puck turned possession back to the Bears, and they were able to score to retake the lead with just 12 seconds remaining.

“I don’t want to say we deserved better than we got,” head coach John Snowden said after the game. “Was there good stuff inside of the game? I thought so, thought that we did some good things inside, liked our resolve towards the end, capitalizing on the power play to get ourselves back into the game. I thought today was just immature moments in the game that cost us two points, the way I look at it.”

This season is a long one, and especially for such a young team, there are bound to be ups and downs that the team will have to work through. Hershey plays a much different style then they’ve seen from recent opponents, and this matchup will have been a wakeup call to the level of attention they have to pay to close out games against these tighter checking opponents. It’s all a part of the process, but the Phantoms will need to learn from this one, to be sure.

Samson steps in​

Of course, one of the more notable bits to come out of this game was the news of Ethan Samson’s activation and return to the Phantoms, and while he was sat for the first game of the weekend — the Phantoms surely wanting to manage his workload — he was able to get in to make his season debut last night. His usage was more limited, starting on the third pair playing alongside Hunter McDonald, but he was able to bring some positive flashes in his easing back into action.

“I thought he was fine,” Snowden said postgame. “I thought there was moments where it looked like he hadn’t played yet this year, but overall I thought he did a fine job. He had some times when he skated through the neutral zone like he does well, a couple of o-zone opportunities to deliver some pucks and he made some plays, some breakout passes, so it was good to see him do that. You know, I didn’t expect him to come blowing the doors off, he hasn’t played a game this year, but overall, I didn’t hate his game.”

Samson, who’s been out of commission since taking an injury during training camp, has faced a very long layoff, and it’s going to take some time in turn for him to get back up to playing at the full strength of his game. But it was encouraging all the same to see some of the more dynamic elements of his game coming through right from the jump, in how he was moving the puck, using his feet, and feeling the confidence to activate in the offensive zone in a couple of instances when the space opened up for it. Notable too, was his willingness to get involved in battles and take a bit of contact, as his confidence seems to be well intact. We’ll see how he’s able to build up from here, but he’s off to a good enough start.

Barkey, Bump standouts again​

This game was undoubtedly a strange one, but the Phantoms once again received in it standout performances from their top line, led by veteran center Lane Pederson and prospects Alex Bump and Denver Barkey. It’s a line that’s been buzzing for the last five games or so, and they each continued to deliver results for the team in both their even strength matchups as well as on the power play.

Barkey was the one to get the Phantoms on the board, taking a pass on the rush from Bump and taking it in on net, beating the Bears goaltender cleanly one-on-one, while Bump would double up on his good setup work, making the breakout pass to spring the Phantoms on a rush up-ice with speed on the power play later in the period for a chance which Cooper Marody would ultimately close one, while Pederson got the game tying goal on their next power play chance, as these three continued to step up in their roles as effective drivers of offense.

Not all heroes wear capes! #LVvsHER | #LVPhantoms pic.twitter.com/iu6xX3bchc

— Lehigh Valley Phantoms (@LVPhantoms) November 16, 2025​

This was a game where the Phantoms really needed someone to rise up above the challenging circumstances — the heaps of chances created with no early bounces going their way, and how in their face the Bears were playing them — and Bump and Barkey have continued to bring their games to new levels to meet that challenge.

Playing with maturity​

Last night’s game did see the outcome that the Phantoms might have liked, but perhaps one of the silver linings of this at times compressed schedule in the AHL is that the Phantoms will get a chance right away to right the ship and exact a bit of revenge in this afternoon’s rematch.

“I think the biggest message is that they’re a team that’s never going to go away,” Snowden concluded, “they’re going to feast off of our mistakes so we have to play a pretty clean game against that team, and just be way more mature in how we go about it.”

This isn’t going to be an easy matchup, with both the strength of the Bears’ checking game sure to continue, and the fatigue in the third game in as many days coming into play, but the Phantoms know the blueprint for how the Bears will attack the matchup, and they already know what they need to do to hang against them, but now the next step is tightening up their game to now advance ahead of them. This might be their biggest challenge yet of the season, and a real chance ahead of them to rise to the occasion.

Source

Source: https://www.broadstreethockey.com/post/ethan-samson-holds-steady-in-season-debut-with-phantoms/

 

[Philadelphia Flyers]

Flyers prospect Oliver Bonk resumes skating

The Flyers are back from their quick road trip over the weekend, during which they split their back-to-back against the Blues and Stars, and after a surely much-needed day off on Sunday, they’re right back on the ice for a good practice, the first in their runway up to their next game on Thursday. And while the Flyers are working with some of the usual headlines coming out of the practice session — the shuffling of some of the forward lines, as well as an absence for Cam York which is, it seems, just for maintenance — the big news of the day is that they also have one of their top prospects returning to the ice as he works his way back from injury.

Oliver Bonk resumes skating​

For the first time since he took an upper-body injury during rookie camp, Oliver Bonk was back on the ice with the Flyers. It’s been a long road for him, as his injury was initially thought to be more of the day-to-day variety, but it’s turned out to be more serious, keeping him out now for upwards of two months, so it’s nice to see him getting back into the mix, albeit briefly and still in that non-contact jersey.

Looks like Oliver Bonk is back on the ice, skating with the big group. He's wearing a different color jersey than everyone else, presumably non contact.

Great to see him out there. He'll get sent down to the AHL once he's fully cleared for a return. pic.twitter.com/lxTOqeclNt

— Charlie O'Connor (@charlieo_conn) November 17, 2025​

Now, as reported by some of the boots on the ground at practice this morning, Bonk didn’t take the full practice with the NHL group, but rather came out for a bit of warmup work with the main group, and then headed over to the other ice sheet to continue with some individual rehab skating. So, it would seem that Bonk isn’t yet pounding on the door for a full return to action, but it’s encouraging all the same to see the recovery process continuing to move along nicely for him, as he gets closer to a return to playing, and eventually, his professional debut with the Phantoms.

The Phantoms’ defense, as it stands​

Getting Bonk back into the mix would be a pretty significant boost for the Phantoms in terms of raising the floor of the raw skill level of the group, particularly with veteran Dennis Gilbert remaining out with injury.

This will be, though, the first time in recent memory when the Phantoms will have a surplus of bonafide AHL level talent on the right side of their defense. The Phantoms were running for much of the early part of the season with just one right-shooting AHL regular in the mix, in Helge Grans, and filling in the rest with bubble players. Now, though, between the team getting right shooting Christian Kyrou back in the trade for Samu Tuomaala last month, and getting Ethan Samson back from injury over the weekend, the Phantoms are now running a full group of at least marginally more veteran defensemen on the right side of their defense. When Bonk returns, though, this will mean the coaching staff will either have to establish some kind of platoon rotating two or more of these players in and out of the lineup — as they’ve already been doing with some of their players up front — or else move someone over to play on their off-side and push one of the bubble players (like a Berger or a Sevigny) out to prioritize the AHL regulars.

At some point, though, some kind of rotation is going to have to be established, as the Phantoms will be adding to their mix the literally just now acquired Maxence Guenette who is another righty, and with Rasmus Ristolainen also progressing through his recovery track and looking like he could be back in action before very long, the Flyers will also need to send at least one defenseman back down to the Phantoms to make space to activate him, so their surplus of players will grow even more significant. This isn’t an impossible situation that they’ll eventually find themselves in, but it will be a challenging one, as they work to strike the balance between fairness and optimizing their lineup to best help them secure wins.

What Bonk can offer them​

All of this said, though, Bonk is going to get games. Not just because he needs to — as one of the organization’s top prospects and one who needs reps at the pro level to advance his development — but because his game is one which can offer a lot to the team, once he’s able to really get going. His details focused, well-rounded style of play is one which should lend him some versatility in that lineup, as he could be a good stylistic fit with just about any of the other pieces on the back end. His ability to move the puck cleanly and with some pace will also be an element of his game which will work particularly well within the Phantoms’ game plan, as they’re shifting their play style to a more uptempo transitioning team.

And on top of that, while Kyrou has been carving out a nice role for himself running the Phantoms’ top power play unit, the spot (or spots) on the second unit have been a little less locked down, as the Phantoms are still looking for the right mix, and Bonk could quite easily see himself sliding into a role there to help round out the second unit, building up from some success found in a similar role at the junior level.

Of course, ultimately it will take him some time to work himself up to speed and adjust enough to the professional game where he can again get to the top of his game, just like every other rookie in the league, but the Phantoms are running a system which should support his growing game nicely.

Source

Source: https://www.broadstreethockey.com/post/flyers-prospect-oliver-bonk-resumes-skating/

 

[Philadelphia Flyers]

Flyers trade Dennis Gilbert to the Senators for young defenseman

The Philadelphia Flyers and Ottawa Senators have made a one-for-one swap for defenseman and it makes one team younger but with less certainty, and the other one with some stability in the blue line depth chart.

Announced by the team on Monday afternoon, the Flyers have traded defenseman Dennis Gilbert to the Senators in exchange for defenseman Maxence Guenette. It’s a blockbuster, we know.

TRADE ALERT: We’ve acquired defenseman Maxence Guenette from Ottawa in exchange for defenseman Dennis Gilbert.

We have also agreed to terms with Guenette on a one-year, two-way contract. https://t.co/T6i6n9iPhj

— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) November 17, 2025​

Gilbert was a free agent acquisition by the Flyers this summer as someone who can at the very least be a minor-league depth veteran on the blue line. And, well, he was exactly that. The 29-year-old defenseman was on the NHL roster for a very little bit but never played in a game, and was always clearly just someone signed to just hang around the lower half of the depth chart just in case of injuries or underperformance from someone like Adam Ginning or Egor Zamula (well, they did underperform and he was still in the AHL).

Since being cut from the roster, Gilbert has appeared in six games for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and earned a total of one assist. On a blue line with other more prominent prospects like Hunter McDonald and Ethan Samson, Gilbert wasn’t really needed a whole lot in the minors.

So, the Flyers have traded him to one of the teams that he played for just last season as an extra defenseman. And in return, the Flyers received a 24-year-old blueliner that has put up solid AHL numbers but hasn’t really figured it out in the NHL yet.

Flyers get younger, trade for Maxence Guenette​

Other than immediately having one of the best names in the Flyers organization, Maxence Guenette adds an interesting wrinkle to the Phantoms blue line. He is clearly an offensive player with 25 goals and 116 points in 236 games through his last four seasons, and just came off a solid 2024-25 season with AHL Belleville where he finished second in scoring among defensemen with 23 points in 58 games. There is more of that edge that Gilbert ever provided.

Guenette was an unsigned restricted free agent and has not played in a game yet this season. Just last week reports came out that he asked for a trade out of the Sens organization since he was clearly not viewed as a key piece there, despite being an alternate captain for their AHL team. Now, he gets to be added to an already talented Phantoms team who are on the rise with a very exciting group of young players like Alex Bump, Denver Barkey, and Alexis Gendron lighting the lamp.

Where does Guenette fit on the Phantoms, though?​

But, there is a little bit of a problem. Guenette shoots right and the Phantoms already have a lot of those dudes laying around.

Helge Grans and Christian Kyrou are two right-handed defenseman who are at the top of the Phantoms blue line. And then factor in that Ethan Samson made his return to the ice after missing the start of the season due to injury. And that’s not even considering that high-end prospect Oliver Bonk will eventually be making his way back to the team as well. Something has got to give eventually since the Phantoms won’t be running five right-handed defensemen when everyone is healthy.

Whether it’s another trade or maybe the Flyers really want to give someone like Kyrou (who has been red hot since Philadelphia acquired him earlier this month) or Grans a shot in the NHL — but, Emil Andrae and Noah Juulsen are certainly an above-average bottom pairing right now. We’ll all find out soon enough what the solution is,

For now, the Flyers got a new young(ish) defenseman and as a plus, he’s ginger.

Source

Source: https://www.broadstreethockey.com/p...gilbert-to-the-senators-for-young-defenseman/

 

[Philadelphia Flyers]

Is it time to start talking about Alex Bump?

Alex Bump is coming off of another productive weekend for the Phantoms. The team has just come off their firs three-in-three of the season, and while it wasn’t a perfect showing from them on a collective level, it’s one that saw a number of flashy performances from a number of the top prospects in their mix, with Bump chief among them.

Alex Bump with some great work to set up a pretty wacky second goal of the night for Denver Barkey (this line is really buzzing!) pic.twitter.com/xCirSjFMT4

— Madeline Campbell (@madelinecampbll) November 15, 2025​

With a goal and four assists over the first two games of the weekend — no scoring in the third, though he did maintain a nice level of energy, which is something — Bump has seemed to take a step forward in his game, and it’s a turn of events which has certainly turned a number of heads. It’s about now when the recall buzz begins to build around prospects as hot as this, but Bump’s case for one, in particular, is something of a complicated one. Let’s dig into it.

Heating up​

Bump had himself a big weekend, as the Phantoms’ leading contributors, with those five points, and it’s a weekend that came nicely on the heels of what’s been three quite solid weeks running of play for him. Since his promotion to the Phantoms’ top line with fellow rookie winger Denver Barkey and veteran centerman Lane Pederson on October 31, Bump’s game has looked renewed. While he had just three points over the first eight games of the season, in the seven since that shakeup, he’s put up three goals and 10 points, and strung together a four-game points getting streak, for his longest in his time at the AHL level.

All told, this step up in production has shot him up to the top of the team’s leaderboard in points, and up into a tie for second among rookies across the whole league in points, as he’s put in some huge work to overcome that slow start to the season.

The big question, though, is whether this step forward should beget a step up to join the mix with the Flyers and show what he can do there — and potentially help jumpstart their offense — but that question is a trickier one.

The logistics​

The biggest roadblock in front of Bump on his road to an NHL job at the moment is, of course, the fullness of that NHL roster. As it stands, the Flyers are carrying 13 healthy forwards, with a top-9 that effectively locked in, and a fourth line which has had Nic Deslauriers and Nikita Grebenkin in a rotation for a spot on its wing. The Flyers, while they’ve been doing some shuffling of the organization of their top three forward lines, have largely had the same players making up that mix, and while everyone in that group is healthy, it’s hard to pinpoint anyone who would feel like a natural choice to be pulled from the lineup to sit for more than a game at a time to make a space for Bump.

Because this is the biggest thing — if Bump is going to be given time with the NHL team, whether for his benefit or in hopes that he can bring them some more offense, he’s going to need a consistent and sustained open runway to do that, but that’s not an easy thing to come by at the moment for a player on the outside looking in.

Now, if another injury crops up for them in that top-9 group, that’s another story, but for the time being, there’s no easy route to get Bump the consistent NHL games he would need that wouldn’t also come at the expense of another player, be it someone younger who the team is also trying to develop, or a veteran with both a bit more cachet in the league and who the Flyers might still be evaluating for their continued fit within the new system. The only option would be to shoehorn him into some kind of rotation, but it’s hard to imagine this being something that would benefit him or the team in the long run.

Is Bump even ready to make the jump anyway?​

It’s true that Bump has managed nicely to get his game on track after a bit of a frustrated start to the season, and tapped into a higher level of play, and greater level of success over these last seven games. And it’s not just been a matter of his luck shifting, bounces suddenly going his way, but of a process improved overall — he’s playing with more confidence, he’s been able to hold on to pucks for a bit longer and has been able to get himself into better spots for shots (and shooting at a slightly higher volume, at that), and he’s been finding a great deal of chemistry with his linemates, working in space to feed off of each other.

All the same, though, this is still just seven games that we’re talking about. It’s an excellent start to the process of mastering play at the AHL level, but seven good games doesn’t necessarily make a true pounding on the door for an NHL recall. In all of the positives that he’s been able to bring in his game, of late, there’s still too some work left to be done. For one, Bump is holding up well physically recently, throwing the body around some but, more importantly, looking much improved in his puck protection, but there’s still room for him to continue to grow in this area and become a bit more dominant physically before moving to the next level. Also, his offensive game has been clicking nicely, but there has still been a bit of it left on the table (his 8.6 shooting percentage actually feels a little bit low for how strong his shot is overall), whether that’s from missing some shots or needing to get himself into better positions in select moments, and there’s another level left yet untapped. And finally, while his line with Pederson and Barkey has looked close to unstoppable through much of these last few weeks and while Bump has been doing a lot well for his own part to drive their success, a true mark of his mastery of the game at the AHL level would be for him to step up as a player who could be dropped down to another line to help them get going, to be even more of a driver in that regard.

At the end of the day, Bump remains a really exciting prospect for the Flyers, a player with high potential to factor in as a key contributor towards the top of their lineup before long. There’s a lot to like in how his game is manifesting at the present moment, and a lot to be pleased about in how he’s been able to improve his game from where it was just 15 games ago.

At the same time, there’s still some fine tuning left to be done on his game, and he’s better off doing that in a top of the lineup role with the Phantoms than being rushed up to an NHL team which, as it stands, isn’t even a lock to be competing for a playoff spot this season. This season began with the sense that the patient approach was the one the Flyers would be taking as far as Bump’s development in concerned, and while it’s clear that he’s embracing that approach and making major strides within it, that approach still presents as the best one.

Source

Source: https://www.broadstreethockey.com/post/is-it-time-to-start-talking-about-alex-bump/

 

[Philadelphia Flyers]

Flyers should claim former first-round pick off waivers

The Philadelphia Flyers are no strangers to a reclamation project, and there’s another worthy one on waivers.

The Pittsburgh Penguins waived Philip Tomasino on Tuesday, with teams able to claim him for free. The 24-year-old center has a cap hit of $1.75 million and is a restricted free agent after this season.

Tomasino was selected 24th overall in the 2019 NHL Draft by the Nashville Predators. He put up 100 points in 62 OHL games the following season before graduating to the AHL, where he’s recorded 82 points (36 goals, 46 assists) in 89 games.

The forward has primarily played wing at the NHL level, taking just 112 faceoffs in 218 career games. He also hasn’t put up a ton of points with 34 goals and 61 assists, but that’s still an 82-game pace of 36 points.

Tomasino has plenty of skill but didn’t work out in Nashville, and the Predators traded him to Pittsburgh last season for a fourth-round pick. The change of scenery didn’t help too much, though, as he put up 23 points (11 goals, 12 assists) in 50 games last year and just one assist in nine games this year before being waived.

The Flyers’ fourth line simply isn’t living up to expectations this season.

Garnet Hathaway is irritating opponents, but isn’t contributing offensively. Rodrigo Abols looked good in the preseason, but has also looked pedestrian in the regular season.

They’ve combined for no points in 31 games. The only fourth liner to record a point this season is Nikita Grebenkin, who has a goal and two assists, and still gets healthy scratched.

Tomasino already failed once as a reclamation project, but it would cost nothing for the Flyers to give him a shot.

If it works out, great! He’s on a low enough cap hit and could be in the mix for next season.

If not, it’s not too much of a loss. And perhaps more importantly, claiming him would remove the possibility of him turning it around and becoming a contributor for the Penguins.

The Flyers have over $8 million in cap space and could add a former first-round pick with scoring upside to their bottom six. He may not fit the prototypical mold of a fourth liner, but perhaps the Flyers need to get away from that and add some skill alongside those grinders.

We’re not expecting it to happen because it would require the Flyers sending a player like Abols through waivers, but Tomasino would improve the team on paper, and could find his game in an organization that has found some diamonds in the rough.

Source

Source: https://www.broadstreethockey.com/post/flyers-should-claim-former-first-round-pick-off-waivers/

 

[Philadelphia Flyers]

6 reasons why Flyers will make playoffs or be destined for Draft Lottery

Through 18 games, the Flyers find themselves with 19 points. They’re at least even in games played with everyone in the Eastern Conference and will have a few games in hand on some by Thursday night when they take on the Blues. They have had some bright spots, they’ve had some problems. Yet they find themselves within reach of a wildcard spot. Not buried behind seven or eight teams, nor are they trailblazing in the Metropolitan Division. If the Flyers were part of an episode of The Simpsons, they would be the epitome of “frogurt.” See below.

So, with that being said, there are different things that could go right or wrong for the Flyers in the remaining 64 games. Here then are three things that would bode well for Philadelphia getting themselves into one of the two wildcard spots. And, on the flip side, three things that could see them plummet down the standings and end up looking for more lottery balls in April.

Flyers land wild card spot if…​

Michkov takes off

Matvei Michkov had an off-season he’d like to forget. A car accident in Dubai, an injury to his ankle that impeded his training and conditioning, and coming into camp not in shape hasn’t helped him in the first 18 games of the season. He has been getting better and shaking the rust off the last few games, but the expectations entering camp was for him to be the team’s leading point-getter. Or at least near the top. Instead, he’s eighth (tied with Bobby Brink) with nine points (four goals, five helpers).

Head coach Rick Tocchet isn’t putting Michkov in the doghouse yet. But he has a tighter leash on him than many thought he would. He’s averaged just under 15 minutes a game thus far. And he’s been glued to the bench at times in close games late in regulation. He’s starting to win Tocchet’s trust, albeit slowly. But his play away from the puck at times (like some of his linemates) leaves a little bit to be desired. He’s going to need to continue to score and produce offensively if he wants to get himself out of the muck.

A sophomore slump happens to a lot of players. Should Michkov avoid that and end up with a strong three-quarters of a season, that will certainly go a long, long way in helping the Flyers stay in playoff contention. And possibly get into one of the wildcard spots.

Dan keeps dominating

If anyone would’ve believed Dan Vladar was one of the saviors for Philadelphia nearly 20 games in, that’s a bet nobody would’ve put good money (or any money) on. Vladar was originally thought to be Sam Ersson’s support, and Ersson would see around 50 games, Vladar would see the rest. That still might happen, but 18 games in, Vladar has nearly two-thirds of the starts so far, with a .909 save percentage. And has kept the Flyers in a lot of games, stoning opponents more often than not in overtime and the shootouts.

Vladar is going to have to keep that high level of play going for the Flyers to stay in the hunt. They’re not scoring a lot of goals, so the run support the average National Hockey League goaltender would get isn’t something Vladar can depend on. It’s not there, making the line for error very thin. The goalie has played well but has come back down to earth somewhat, as the .930 save percentage he had to begin the year has dipped. The Flyers should be over the moon that it’s almost American Thanksgiving and a goaltender has a save percentage over .900. That standard has to continue. If Vladar — who played only 30 games last year — begins to have Ersson-esque games (.850 or lower save percentages) once a week, that’s going to make the playoffs extremely difficult if not impossible.

Power play keeps chugging

Flyer fans have to reflect quite a few years ago to remember an effective power play. Otherwise there’s no comparison to put this current 2025-26 Philadelphia power play into context. Prior to Tuesday’s games the Flyers are seventeenth in the league (19.6 per cent). To see this special team actually look competent is tear-inducing at times. They’re not great, but to see them essentially in the middle of the league is a step up from being in the cellar most of last year.

The power play might still be horrid if not for the arrival of Trevor Zegras. He’s been in on a huge chunk of their power play goals. If Michkov can begin to find his game and gain more confidence, that could extend into the other non-Zegras unit. One unit still looks like last year’s, one looks vastly new and improved. And for a team that is still scratching and clawing to score goals five-on-five, it’s vital they are able to do a bit of damage with the man advantage.

Flyers gain lottery balls if…​

Injuries

Every team has them. Montreal is suffering mightily because of them (or will be soon). The Flyers thus far have avoided major ones. Yet if the Flyers suffer one long-term injury to one of probably three key players then the playoffs or dream of a wildcard spot will be off the table. The Flyers need to have Trevor Zegras healthy, Dan Vladar healthy, and Travis Sanheim healthy for nearly all of the 82-game slate if Philadelphia has any hope. An injury to any of them will significantly hamper their chances.

If Vladar went down, the Flyers are left with Ersson and Kolosov. We know how that went down in 2024-25. Or, barring a call up of Carson Bjarnason, they’d have to try and find something off the waiver wire heap as a stopgap. Meanwhile a Zegras injury (even for a few weeks) could be enough to stall the Flyers’ power play and end up losing most of the shootouts. As for Sanheim, trying to find someone to adequately munch up between 24 to 26 minutes a night as the top blueliner would be next to impossible.

That’s not to say the Flyers would roll over and die if one of these things happened. It would be extremely difficult to logically believe they could overcome an injury to one of these three. It would probably mean the Flyers being sellers yet again at the trade deadline despite what general manager Danny Briere hoped for last summer. And their record being one of the worst in the league.

Schedule strength

The Flyers are up against it regarding their schedule and the strength of it. Some have them as having the worst schedule remaining in the league while others have them with the fifth or sixth-hardest the rest of the way. It’s not going to be easy. They’ve had just a pair of back-to-back games this year, losing the second game of both rather miserably. They have 12 more of those this year. And after going 1-12-2 in the latter of the two games since the start of 2024-25, Philadelphia has to improve dramatically on that record. They don’t have to sweep every back-to-back, but a .500 record is probably the goal to stay afloat in the playoff chase. If they only have one win this year in those second games it’s going to be a slow but steady drop in the standings.

The schedule gets much tougher the rest of the way, as the Olympics means squeezing a lot of games in on either side of the break. And the Flyers played a lot at home so far, so that will mean more travel and less practice time. Philadelphia have their work cut out for them. If they’re unable to win on the road, and win games where they don’t have their legs or “A” game, the Flyers could be in a world of hurt much sooner than later.

5-on-5 goals remain needles in haystacks

Philadelphia has just 31 even-strength goals this year, which puts them twenty-eighth in the league heading into Tuesday’s games. That’s 1.72 goals a game. Not a lot. Only Calgary, Nashville, Minnesota, and Seattle are tied with them or beneath them. The Flyers need to find a way to generate offense at even strength. The longer this scarcity of goals continues, the worse things are going to get. It will put more pressure on the goaltenders, more pressure on the defensive side to be near perfect, and a lot more stress on the power play to compensate for the lack of scoring five-on-five. That doesn’t include the pressure on the forwards having to finish nearly all of the handful of great chances they can muster each game. That’s a recipe for eventually far more losses than wins, and far greater chances of tumbling down the standings into the Gavin McKenna (or Alberts Smits) sweepstakes.

Tocchet isn’t a fan of putting up a less substantive high volume of shots, he wants quality. But if you can’t get quality shots, and avoiding quantity, then you’re not taking any shots in his system. That’s not good. Hopefully the Flyers start heading towards the land of even-strength goals soon. Otherwise it’s going to be a thorn in the side of a team that wants to distance itself from the draft lottery, not end up hoping for balls to fall the right way next May.

Source

Source: https://www.broadstreethockey.com/p...team-3-things-that-could-lead-to-the-lottery/

 

[Philadelphia Flyers]

Rick Tocchet breaks up Flyers Foerster – Cates – Brink line

The Philadelphia Flyers have had one consistent line for nearly the last year.

Tyson Foerster, Noah Cates, and Bobby Brink were put together by John Tortorella last November, and they formed one of the most consistent lines not only for the Flyers but in all of hockey during their time together.

However, new head coach Rick Tocchet has already had to do some line juggling with Tyson Foerster out of the lineup. He did reunite that line upon Foerster’s return, but it looks like Tocchet may finally be breaking up that trio.

Here is how the Flyers lined up in practice on Wednesday, per NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Jordan Hall:

Tyson Foerster – Noah Cates – Travis Konecny
Matvei Michkov – Sean Couturier – Bobby Brink
Trevor Zegras – Christian Dvorak – Owen Tippett
Nikita Grebenkin – Rodrigo Abols – Garnet Hathaway

Foerster and Cates are sticking together on that line, with Konecny replacing Brink on the right side.

That slots Brink down to the second line with Michkov and Couturier, which should hopefully provide some forechecking and playmaking from the right winger.

The bottom two lines stayed together, and rightfully so. Zegras, Dvorak, and Tippett combined for all five of the Flyers’ goals in St. Louis as well as the only goal in Dallas.

Grebenkin remains in the lineup on the fourth line with Abols and Hathaway, which means that Nic Deslauriers is the healthy scratch.

Is now the right time to break up Foerster – Cates – Brink?​

Even with Foerster missing a few games, this is by far the most-used line by the Flyers this season. They’ve played 147 minutes together at 5-on-5, per MoneyPuck, with an expected goals share of 51.4% while being outscored 4-3.

This has largely come against the opponent’s best lines, though, and it’s interesting timing to break them up with two home games coming up.

The Blues have had more than their fair share of struggles this season, so keeping that line together to shut down St. Louis’ top line would’ve made sense. Perhaps Tocchet wants to spread the matchups around, though, since the Blues do have a decent second line with Pavel Buchnevich and Jordan Kyrou on the wings of youngster Dalibor Dvorsky.

Still, it’s tough to see the Flyers’ most consistent line taken apart. It had to happen at some point, but you’d think that it would be out of necessity during a losing streak or to get some offensive spark going. That’s not the case for the Flyers, who have points in five of their last six games.

Line changes could get Michkov, Konecny going​

One of the exciting changes to the lines is Michkov getting a new winger to play with. Brink doesn’t need the puck as much as Konecny does, as the small winger does his work in the corner and battling along the walls. That should help the Flyers win possession with Michkov and Couturier on the ice, allowing the young Russian to work his magic in the offensive zone.

It’s also potentially a great sign that Michkov is feeling a lot more confident. He scored in three straight games recently, creating his own shot on two of them.

This won’t be a completely new line, either. They’ve played 34 minutes together with 43.5% of the expected goals share.

On the other hand, moving Konecny to the right side of Foerster and Cates could get him going a bit more. Yes, he had an eight-game point streak snapped in St. Louis, but he just hasn’t looked like his usual self out there.

Putting Konecny on a line with Foerster and Cates can allow him to play a more straightforward game while being able to be the one who leads the rush up ice and controls the puck in the offensive zone.

We’ve seen Konecny and Foerster have success with Couturier as their center back in the 2023-24 season. They had 60.6% of the expected goals share in 229 minutes together. Cates is the new Couturier in a few ways, so perhaps they can replicate that.

Zegras – Dvorak – Tippett still holding strong​

This line has been the Flyers’ second-most-used line this season, with an impressive 69.2% expected goals share in their 102 minutes together. Tocchet broke them up when Foerster returned last week, but they were put back together in St. Louis, and it paid huge dividends.

Zegras is the crafty playmaker, Tippett the speedy shooter, and Dvorak the solid two-way presence in the middle. It makes a lot of sense on paper, and the chemistry has shown on the ice.

These three all have six goals this season to tie for the team lead. Zegras leads the team with 13 assists and 19 points, and Dvorak and Tippett are third and fourth with 13 and 11 points, respectively.

---

We’ll see how these new lines fare on Thursday night at home against the St. Louis Blues, and if they can stay together through that game to Saturday night’s showdown with the New Jersey Devils.

Source

Source: https://www.broadstreethockey.com/post/rick-tocchet-breaks-up-flyers-foerster-cates-brink-line/

 

[Philadelphia Flyers]

Travis Konecny and Matvei Michkov are probably better off apart in Flyers’ line combinations

Flyers wingers Travis Konency and Matvei Michkov should, on paper, be a strong force on the ice together. Both have scoring ability. Both seem capable of keeping plays going in the offensive zone, whether working for the puck in the corners or weaving their way methodically into open space. And both had over 20 goals last season for Philadelphia, even if Konecny’s second half of the year was a drastic drop in production. With Sean Couturier down the middle between them, the thought was the line could be a means to get Michkov going while enabling Konecny to have a highly-talented linemate to feed to.

Well, it appears that combination is going to be put on hold at least for a while. If we are going by the line juggling Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet used Wednesday in practice, Konecny will see himself with two-thirds of Philadelphia’s most consistent line in Tyson Foerster and Noah Cates on Thursday night. Meanwhile, Michkov is still going to be paired with Couturier but will see winger Bobby Brink replacing Konecny. Fans might be irked at the line of Noah Cates, Brink, and Foerster broken up after being so darn effective the last calendar year. Yet if this is what it takes to get Michkov (and Konecny) going, and generating more five-on-five offense, then even the diehards would have a hard time arguing at keeping things the same.

“He’s a smart player, I don’t want him to play too safe, sometimes he’s playing too safe because everybody’s got to participate in a certain part of the system,” Tocchet said Thursday morning about Couturier on this new line. “So we got to make sure Couturier can be a little more aggressive too. But I think Bobby can help that line a little bit with his forechecking, getting to loose pucks. I think he can help that line.”

The coach also addressed having Konecny alongside Cates and Foerster. “We want to play aggressively,” he said. “I mean shutdown, we don’t want the Cates line to play a one-four, we want them to be aggressive. If you have the puck it’s the best defense. We’re just trying different things, maybe it helps getting TK going, it’ll gets some other people going sometimes when you switch lines.”

Konecny and Michkov this year​

Konecny hasn’t had the glare on him the last two seasons despite the long-term contract he’s now 18 games into. Last year, a lot of the spotlight was around Michkov and his rookie season. This year Trevor Zegras has taken the team on his shoulders (particularly on the power play) and has been nothing short of fantastic. So obviously Zegras is going to get a lot more attention being the new guy on the block. Especially with a contract extension looming as a restricted free agent. Konecny is even in terms of plus/minus this year with five goals and nine assists heading into Thursday night’s game against the Blues. He has one game-winner against Seattle and is still looking for his first power play goal of 2025-26. Konecny is currently on a four-game goalless streak with his last goal in a 3-1 win against Nashville.

On the other side of the coin, Michkov got off to a rocky start as has been well-documented. He has four goals and five assists through 18 games and is a minus-4 on the plus/minus scale. He has just one power play goal and is still looking for his first game-winner. Both he and Konecny aren’t anywhere near their production pace of last season, so breaking them up now could end up being a blessing for all concerned. The duo just haven’t clicked the way each individual player has with other linemates. It’s not a personality issue or anything of that nature. It just seems that it’s not a fit.

So, having said all that, Konecny and Michkov aren’t mixing. A comparison between them would make one wonder just who has the 14 points so far this season and who appears to be struggling somewhat. Let’s take a look at just what Konecny and Michkov have done so far in terms of the five-on-five underlying metrics.

Time On Ice	CF%	FF%	SF%	GF%	xGF%	HDCF%
Travis Konecny	255:40	47.20	49.04	48.82	47.83	44.60	47.30
Matvei Michkov	217:04	51.39	49.63	51.96	50.00	53.32	59.21

All statistics via Natural Stat Trick.

As you can see, Michkov is ahead of Konecny in all metrics outside of usage, with Konecny having roughly 40 more minutes of playing time over Michkov. Michkov, who has been paired with Couturier from the start of training camp (and prior to that), might find more chemistry with Brink on the other side while knowing Couturier probably better than any Flyer forward in his young career. At the same time, seeing Konecny with two younger forwards — who seem defensively sound while also driving play — could be the catalyst to see the winger get back in the swing of things like he was the first half of last year. At least that’s the hope with these changes.

Will separating them work?​

There is a small sample of ice time with Konecny on a line with Foerster and Cates this season. It hasn’t been for an extended period of time, but when they were together, the ice was tilted in their favor. The trio have just under 10 minutes of ice time together five-on-five (9:36) but had a Corsi For percentage of 72.22 (13-5), and a Scoring Chances For percentage of 71.43. Again it wasn’t a huge amount of time, but they looked like they could turn into something. At the very worst it was a decent stopgap until Tyson Foerster returned from injury. But could this turn into something promising? Nobody knows, but they made a very decent first impression.

Here’s some other data showing how Michkov and Konecny worked when they were paired with Couturier and what they’ve done away from each other. It looks like separating them could be a step in the right direction.

Time On Ice	CF%	FF%	SF%	xGF%	SCF%
Konecny/Couturier/Michkov	51:37	41.49	45.16	42.86	54.37	40.82
Konecny/Couturier/Tippett	50:10	54.26	54.79	58.82	53.99	51.22
Brink/Couturier/Michkov	34:34	63.34	61.76	69.57	48.36	50.00

Although the line combinations won’t be what you see for Konecny in terms of being with Couturier and Tippett, it appears that his metrics look better when he’s not with Michkov. His numbers are far better overall in those categories with a slight drop in the expected goals percentage. And as you can see from Michkov’s short time with Brink and Couturier, he seems to be thriving in that combination in several categories but, sadly, a slight drop in the expected goals for percentage. Looking at this data, it’s fairly evident that Michkov and Konecny might have all the time in the world for each other and the utmost respect for their teammate. But when push comes to shove they’re not wingers that for now work well with each other.

So, while the cries will be heard to reunite Cates, Foerster, and Brink if losses pile up, it hasn’t resulted in Michkov or Konecny finding their game. If sacrificing that line’s chemistry to get Michkov and Konecny going works, then it’s well worth it. As much as this writer loathes the notion of not seeing 71, 27, and 10 together, it’s worth it. These two wingers have to produce. Or at the very least find two linemates who can accentuate their strengths. The quicker Michkov and Konecny find their games and scoring touch again, the easier things should be in getting the even-strength offense going while having three potential scoring lines.

Tocchet is hoping the lines catch lightning in a bottle. Otherwise more juggling means more time needed to find chemistry. It’s a vicious circle you want to stop. Hopefully Michkov and Konecny being apart can make Philadelphia’s offense come together.

Source

Source: https://www.broadstreethockey.com/p...better-off-apart-in-flyers-line-combinations/

 

[Philadelphia Flyers]

Takeaways: Flyers come from behind again to take down Blues

You’ll never believe it, but Thursday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena, the Philadelphia Flyers had yet another game go to overtime. They’ve struggled in overtime as of late, but thanks to a clutch play from their No. 1 defenseman, the Flyers pulled off a 3-2 victory over the St. Louis Blues in dramatic fashion.

The Basics​

First period: 5:31 — Justin Faulk (Oskar Sundqvist, Nathan Walker), 12:08 — Faulk (Jake Neighbours, Jordan Kyrou)
Second period: 17:57 — Rodrigo Abols (Owen Tippett, Trevor Zegras)
Third period: 11:49 — Tyson Foerster (Emil Andrae, Travis Konecny)
Overtime: 3:51 — Travis Sanheim (Konecny, Sean Couturier)
SOG: 29 (STL), 28 (PHI)

Takeaways​

Sanheim comes up clutch

Despite being spectacular in the shootout all season, the Flyers’ luck hasn’t exactly been optimal during the 3-on-3 period.

Thanks to Travis Sanheim, though, the tables turned Thursday night.

With a little over a minute remaining in overtime, Travis Konecny sprung Sanheim for a 2-on-0 rush alongside Sean Couturier. But instead of sliding the puck over to his captain, Sanheim buried the game-winning goal with a wrister that beat Blues netminder Joel Hofer over the glove.

SANNY ENDS IT IN STYLE. #PHIvsSTL | @fwwebb pic.twitter.com/ncYywkM6AI

— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) November 21, 2025

The game-winner marked Sanheim’s first goal in over a month, but the modest scoring numbers are not indicative of his overall impact. Sanheim is playing some of the best hockey of his career, and it’s sort of poetic that he was the one to seal the deal against the team he was nearly traded to back in 2023.

How ’bout them Abols?

The Flyers haven’t gotten much offense out of their fourth liners to start the season, but one of their depth forwards finally broke through for a goal against St. Louis.

Rodrigo Abols netted his first of the year to cut the St. Louis lead in half late in the middle frame. Trevor Zegras got the play started with some magnificent work along the boards. He then nudged the puck to Owen Tippett behind the net, who fed Abols with a nifty between-the-legs pass to earn the primary helper.

The Flyers are used to seeing Zegras and Tippett generate offense. Abols, however, has largely been quiet since beating out Jett Luchanko for the fourth-line center role, so it’s good to see him getting involved in some fashion.

Our first Rodrigoal of the season. #STLvsPHI | #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/olZ8Zi0xsN

— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) November 21, 2025

Abols didn’t just look dangerous on that one shift, either — he put together arguably his best performance of the season, as did his regular linemates on the fourth line. The trio of Abols, Nic Deslauriers, and Garnet Hathaway was far and away the Flyers’ most efficient line of the night from a 5-on-5 play-driving perspective, logging a downright fantastic Corsi For percentage of 86.67 in 8:15 of 5-on-5 ice time.

Not too shabby.

Another early hole

The Flyers just can’t seem to get out of their own way early in games. In what has become an all too familiar trend, the Flyers fell into another early hole Thursday night, allowing a pair of Blues goals within the game’s first 20 minutes. Blues defenseman Justin Faulk scored both markers for St. Louis, first beating Dan Vladar with a blast from the point, then burying a one-timer off a nice feed from Jake Neighbours.

The Flyers have managed to earn a first-period lead just one time out of their last eight games, which came when they scored three goals in the first period against the Montreal Canadiens on November 4. Sure, the old “It’s not how you start, but how you finish” adage exists for a reason, but the Flyers haven’t been finishing either.

At this point, something has to give. If the Flyers want any chance at being a competitive hockey team, they cannot continue fighting from behind.

Vladar bounces back

A big reason why the Flyers found themselves in the early hole was largely due to a pair of suboptimal goals allowed by goaltender Dan Vladar. Vladar was surprised by Faulk’s quick point shot on the Blues’ first goal, and he was visibly frustrated with himself after Faulk’s one-timer that made it 2-0. But after Faulk’s second marker, Vladar was perfect, turning aside all 24 Blues shots on goal for the remainder of the game.

Vladar wasn’t just bouncing back from a rough first period, though — he was also coming off his worst performance of the season. He allowed a season-high five goals against the Dallas Stars on Saturday, and while he certainly wasn’t the primary reason why the Flyers were routed in Dallas, there’s no question that he wasn’t at the top of his game that night.

Save for a few minutes early on, Vladar was as good as we’ve seen him for the majority of the game Thursday night, and he was a major reason why the Flyers ended up earning a pair of points — especially taking into account his highway robbery on Jordan Kyrou in overtime.

VLADAR GAME-SAVING SAVE! TRAVIS SANHEIM OT WINNER!

TIM SAUNDERS AND @FRIDGE29 ON THE CALL pic.twitter.com/wV7qnJ19Z7

— Nick Piccone (@_piccone) November 21, 2025

The Flyers certainly appear to have found a reliable goalie, folks.

Statistics courtesy of Natural Stat Trick and NHL.com.

Source

Source: https://www.broadstreethockey.com/post/takeaways-flyers-come-from-behind-again-to-take-down-blues/

 

[Philadelphia Flyers]

Flyers reportedly eyeing trade for another center

The Philadelphia Flyers season has gone surprisingly well. The new additions to the roster are doing their part and contributing to a team that finds themselves in a playoff spot by points percentage, and there are some internal improvements that are thankfully compensating enough for some disappointments elsehwere.

We don’t need to get into all that. But, it means that the Flyers are actually icing a somewhat competitive roster and there isn’t the creeping thought in the back of our heads that eventually we will be cheering for them to drop in the standings as much as possible for better draft lottery odds. And while we could still see them sell off some pending free agents as a smart way to not completely bottom out but to gain as many assets as possible for the long-term outlook of this team, the Flyers are looking to make some additions as well.

According to one recent report, general manager Danny Briere is working the phones to try and get another center for this team.

Flyers are in the trade market for a center​

On Friday’s episode of 32 Thoughts: The Podcast Elliotte Friedman reported that the Flyers are looking to acquire a new player, specifically a center.

“It’s not the biggest thing, but I did hear from a couple places that Philly’s looking for another center. Maybe more of a depth guy as much as anything else, but definitely another center.”

Friedman’s co-host Kyle Bukauskas then hypothesized that the Flyers are trying to stay in the playoff hunt, and Friedman agreed — essentially confirming what Flyers management has been saying all along this season, that they don’t want to take a step back.

“I’m formulating some thoughts on them,” Friedman continued about the Flyers. “Might take another pod or two but I’m formulating some thoughts on them. I’ve been watching them a lot more lately.”

It’s an interesting tidbit. We might not see anything formulate from this report for months, but the Flyers are still looking to add more than subtract at this point in time. As Friedman speculates, it’s not like Philadelphia is eyeing up the biggest fish that can play down the middle and be here for the next decade, but just a solid depth option so that they have some security and possibly knocking Rodrigo Abols out of the lineup.

Is Rodrigo Abols’s roster spot in jeopardy?​

The 6-foot-4 Latvian easily won his spot as the Flyers’ fourth-line center in training camp and was only not included in the lineup every single game because of Jett Luchanko’s presence and the team wanting to see if the 19-year-old could stake a claim to it. Once the prospect was sent back to the OHL’s Guelph Storm, Abols has been there ever since and while he just managed to earn his first point of the season Thursday night, scoring a goal against the St. Louis Blues and having an all-around good game, he hasn’t been rocking anybody’s world on the ice.

The 29-year-old Abols has been perfectly neutral. He’s not generating any offense but he’s also not messing up so much that he’s a defensive weak link. Exactly in the middle — not a driver one way or the other, just there and not doing any harm. Essentially, Abols is the perfect candidate to be a replacement-level player and the Flyers are clearly looking for his replacement.

Abols has been a great story — coming back to the NHL after being a draft pick that stayed overseas for his entire career until his late-20s and signing with the Flyers as a free agent in 2024 — but he does suit the roster more as a 13th forward and to hang around Nic Deslauriers in the press box whenever head coach Rick Tocchet doesn’t need someone to punch a player on the other team.

Considering Tocchet has been rarely using his fourth line — Abols is averaging just 9:22 TOI per game — maybe Briere is hoping that by making an addition down the middle to play with Nikita Grebenkin and Garnet Hathaway for the rest of the season, that it can ease the burden on the rest of the lineup and not have Sean Couturier burn out by January.

Who could this mystery trade target be? Could it be someone on the younger side to solidify that depth center role for years to come? Or is it just a patchwork player that does something a little bit more than Abols currently does? We might find out soon enough, or never find out at all and the large Latvian will be the fourth center until the summer.

Source

Source: https://www.broadstreethockey.com/post/flyers-reportedly-eyeing-trade-for-another-center/

 

[Philadelphia Flyers]

Flyers need to start winning in regulation to improve playoff chances

When the Flyers take on New Jersey Saturday night, they will be playing their twentieth game of the season. The quarter pole is often a decent sample size of where a team is at or, more importantly, where it isn’t. Philadelphia still isn’t looking for its first win of the year, so that’s a good thing. Some might argue facetiously they’re still seeking their first five-on-five goal but they’ve done that too. Not a lot, but they’ve reached that achievement. The Flyers still haven’t been shutout yet, another plus. And they are now four games over .500 in the National Hockey League Standings.

The optimist would look and argue they’ve only come up empty in six out of 19 games this year, meaning two-thirds of the time they’ve moved or inched up in the standings with a point or two. Yet one huge concern which might be posing a bit of a problem is that the Flyers have all of four regulation wins. Prior to Friday’s action, the four was the least out of all the Metropolitan Division teams. They were six regulation wins back of Pittsburgh and Washington (both with 10) and five behind Carolina and the Islanders (both with nine). Heck, even the lowly New York “can’t score at home” Rangers have eked out seven regulation wins. Meanwhile when looking at the Atlantic Division, only Montreal, Buffalo (five each) and Toronto (six each) are within spitting distance of them in terms of this statistic.

People might feel that if the Flyers are winning, it shouldn’t matter how they get the Ws. They would be correct. If Trevor Zegras continues his wizardry in the shootouts, and Philadelphia churns out overtime wins like they did against St. Louis on Thursday night, then great. If the goaltending stones the opposition, great! Two points is still two points at the end of the season. Unfortunately, given how closely packed teams are this far into the season, teams need to keep winning to stay in the hunt. A four-game or five-game winless (or pointless) streak would make things difficult. The biggest concern if believing the Flyers have a chance at a wildcard spot may come down to tiebreakers. And the first tiebreaker is regulation wins. Not wins in overtime or in the shootout, but wins that saw Philadelphia defeat their opponent in sixty minutes. No extra session or sessions required.

Last season the Flyers had 21 regulation wins. So doing the layman’s math, they are essentially on pace for probably 16 to 18 regulation wins this season. That’s not a lot. And it’s miles from where they need to be in terms of being a seeded team in the Eastern Conference. Or of earning a wildcard spot. Last year Washington (43), Carolina (42), Toronto (41), and Tampa Bay (41) were the class of the East. Florida (37) and New Jersey (36) rounded out the top three seeds in each respective division. As for the wildcard seedings, Ottawa (35) and Montreal (30) all had a decent glut of victories without the need of a three-point game. Looking back at the last few seasons post-pandemic, the team with the lowest amount of regulation wins to eke their way into the playoffs was the New York Islanders in 2023-24. They squeaked in with a rather lowly 29 regulation wins in a season where they had ample games go into three-point game territory.

Outside of that outlier, the average would suggest that the Flyers need between 32 to 35 regulation wins to be in the conversation of a playoff spot. In 2021-22 Washington earned a spot with 35 regulation wins while the following year both the Islanders and Panthers had 36 of them, the fewest of the eight Eastern Conference teams in those years. The lone outliers from that number was in 2023-24 where the Leafs nabbed a playoff berth with 33 and Washington with 32. Needless to say, all of those numbers are a long way from the current four that Philadelphia has.

So what does this all mean?​

The Flyers shouldn’t change their structural framework having so few regulation wins so far. It’s not to the point of pulling Dan Vladar or Sam Ersson in a tie game late in regulation to go for the win before overtime. That’s just asinine thinking. There’s a lot of hockey left to be played. What’s quite apparent is that the Flyers have their work cut out for them when it comes to the rest of the season. It’s conceivable they win a slew of games in shootouts and overtimes and end up edging other teams for a wildcard spot by a point or two. Going down that path is needing to play almost perfect hockey in a season where the scheduling is nothing short of hellacious on both sides of the Winter Olympics. With 63 games left prior to the Devils tilt, the math would suggest the Flyers need to win between 28 to 31 more games in regulation alone to make a playoff spot more realistic. So just about half of their games need to be regulation wins for Philadelphia. If they end up in a tiebreaker situation, Philadelphia will lose that easily with so few victories after three periods.

In terms of the bigger picture, getting victories is important in creating a level of play that should help push a rebuild along. Philadelphia talked about adding pieces this season and they still might do that depending on how the next 40 to 45 games pan out. And wins are always good, regardless of how they might be achieved. What’s quite evident though is this manner of wins is often the exception when it comes to teams wanting to get into the playoffs. Philadelphia could get there this way in 2025-26, but it’s an anomaly most of the time. It becomes even tougher when you look at divisional games. Trying to gain on division rivals requires regulations wins, gaining a pair of crucial points on the likes of the Penguins, Capitals, or Islanders while they gain none. Three-point games are rarely the recipe for creating distance between teams in the standings. Otherwise, you would have to be damn near perfect in those contests to create any sliver of breathing room in the Metropolitan Division.

Philadelphia hit 30 regulation wins as recent as 2023-24 before plummeting down to 21 last season. In the pandemic-shortened season of 2019-20, they ended up with 31 of them in 69 games. That’s close to a 50 per cent success rate in terms of shutting down an opponent without giving them a loser point. If Philadelphia sees themselves as a playoff team this season, Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet and his staff are going to have to find ways of scoring more than their opponent in 60 minutes. And probably much sooner than later. Otherwise, all the dramatic, exciting, and nerve-wracking overtime and shootout sessions probably won’t account for anything other than a first-round pick somewhere in the middle come next June.

Source

Source: https://www.broadstreethockey.com/p...ing-in-regulation-to-improve-playoff-chances/

 

[Philadelphia Flyers]

Two Flyers prospects connect for a sick goal

The Michigan State Spartans entered Friday night’s contest against the Wisconsin Badgers riding a nine-game winning streak and a perfect in-conference record. Up two early and seemingly in control, a rough second period forced the Spartans to chase the game. While their comeback bid fell short, and their winning streak may have ultimately come to an end last night, not all was lost. Before things turned sour, two members of the Philadelphia Flyers’ 2025 draft class combined for a pretty sweet goal.

About midway through the first period, the Spartans, while already on a power play, drew another minor and were about to get a two-man advantage. However, a Porter Martone shot finding the back off the net off of a Shane Vansaghi pass cancelled the delayed call and put the Spartans up 2-0.

After Owen West makes a great keep at the blue line, the puck finds Gavin O’Connell. With a quick deke around a Wisconsin penalty killer, O’Connell would find Vansaghi just left of the faceoff circle. Meanwhile, having just come off of the bench as the extra attacker, Martone rushed to the middle of the ice. With both Martone and Ryker Lee on the opposite side of the net, Vansaghi makes a quick one-touch royal road pass to Martone who makes no mistake.

Porter Martone makes it 2-0 Spartans on the power play! His second point of the night.

Assists to Anthony Romani and Shane Vansaghi pic.twitter.com/6zwKBnXaOw

— Michigan State Hockey (@MSU_Hockey) November 22, 2025

It’s the first time the two have connected for a goal this season, which isn’t too surprising given that they have yet to play on a line together nor are they on the same power play unit. Still, it was a cool moment to see two members of the Flyers’ future getting one on the board.

Vansaghi has had a bit of a quiet start to the season offensively, with this assist being his first point since game four, and still with just one goal this season. It looked as if Vansaghi and Cayden Lindstrom had been building some chemistry coming out of their strong series against Boston University, however, after missing last weekend’s games, Lindstrom was once again out of the lineup on Friday night. In his absence, senior center Tiernan Shoudy has been moved up from the fourth line in his place. While effectively a defense-first, checking line to balance out the all freshmen third line, the Spartans are going to need more offense from Vansaghi and his line moving forward. There have been positive signs, with Vansaghi in particular having a strong game possession-wise and on one shift in particular extending the Spartans’ offensive zone time with a couple of takeaways along the boards. Still, both Michigan State and the Flyers’ brass are likely hoping to see a bit more offense out of him, and perhaps breaking this cold streak will get his offensive game flowing.

For Martone, it was another multi-goal game for the 2025 sixth overall pick. Picking up his eight and ninth goals of the season, as well as a primary assist on the opening tally, Martone’s freshman campaign continues to impress. Through 11 games, Martone now has 9 goals and 8 assists for 17 points. His 0.82 goals per game rate is good for seventh among NCAA skaters (min. 10 games played) and his 1.55 points per game rate ranks third. Over the last decade, only a select few players have put up points at this rate over a full season in their draft or draft+1 seasons per Quanthockey: Jack Eichel, Adam Fantilli, and Macklin Celebrini, who did it in their draft years, as well as Kyle Connor, Will Smith, and Gabriel Perreault in their draft+1 seasons. We’re just a fourth of the way through the season, but if Martone is able to keep pace, this bodes really well for his NHL future.

Michigan State was uncharacteristically sloppy in their own end in this one, with the two teams trading chances for much of the night. The second period in particular was a disaster for the Spartans, allowing four unanswered goals. It was by far their worst period of the season, though that maybe goes without saying given that it was pretty much the first time they had to play from behind all season. While they technically played from behind in game one, it was only the last five seconds of the game. This was the first true stretch they’ve had while down a goal. While they were able to close the gap twice — Lee made it a 4-3 game midway through the third, and later Martone scored to make it 5-4 — they were unable to complete the comeback.

The two teams will meet again tonight to close out their season series, as Michigan State looks to prevent the weekend sweep. With the loss, Michigan State drops to 9-2-0 on the season, and 4-1-0 in Big Ten contests.

Source

Source: https://www.broadstreethockey.com/post/two-flyers-prospects-connect-for-a-sick-goal/

 

[Philadelphia Flyers]

Takeaways: Flyers give Devils their due with strong 6-3 victory

The Flyers scored three goals in 26 seconds, scored a season-high six goals (all at even-strength), and registered their fifth win in regulation with a convincing 6-3 victory over visiting New Jersey on Saturday night.

The basics​

First period: 7:37 – Timo Meier (Jesper Bratt, Nico Hischier) (PPG), 9:00 – Noah Cates (Unassisted), 12:06 – Matvei Michkov (Sean Couturier), 12:15 – Tyson Foerster (Noah Cates, Travis Konecny), 12:32 – Tyson Foerster (Noah Cates, Nick Seeler)
Second period: 11:42 – Bobby Brink (Sean Couturier), 16:16 – Nico Hischier (Luke Hughes, Jesper Bratt)
Third period: 13:27 – Nico Hischier (Simon Nemec, Jesper Bratt), 15:21 – Trevor Zegras (Owen Tippett, Christian Dvorak)
SOG: 29 (PHI) – 35 (NJD)

Some takeaways​

Sleepy start by both

The two teams looked like they were waking up for an afternoon contest, at least from the initial shifts. Neither team showed much flow with the first shot by Brenden Dillon that Dan Vladar stopped rather easily. The Flyers were forced to kill a Cam York minor, resulting in in the Devils (minus Jack Hughes) establishing some zone time and having some glorious chances before they finally cashed in. A great opportunity to clear the puck by Sean Couturier failed miserably. The goal marked the third consecutive game Philadelphia conceded a power play goal. And the seventh consecutive game giving up the game’s first goal. Not great streaks to continue.

WTF was that in 26 seconds?

Matvei Michkov’s 100th game was slow-starting. Although he nearly had a takeaway five minutes in, he could’ve had a great scoring chance seconds later. Bobby Brink didn’t see Michkov racing up ice to feed him a pass. But it didn’t matter minutes later when Michkov went in alone on a breakaway. Michkov got a great pass from Couturier before beating Allen through the five hole to put Philadelphia up 2-1.

MATVEI MICHKOV!!!!!! IN HIS 100TH GAME!!!!! 2-1!!!!!#LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/d3pnxcBguF

— Flyers Clips (@Flyers_Clips) November 23, 2025

Then, faster could you say Matvei Andreyevich Michkov, the Flyers made it 3-1 when Noah Cates delivered a delicious backhand pass to a rushing Tyson Foerster. Foerster buried the shot to put the Flyers up 3-1.

TYSON FOERSTER!!!!! 2 GOALS IN 9 SECONDS!!!!!!! 3-1!!!!#LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/mft6iUwNgX

— Flyers Clips (@Flyers_Clips) November 23, 2025

Then, faster than you could say Tyson Foerster and Matvei Andreyevich Michkov, Tyson Foerster put his second of the night by Allen, who was looking more like a sieve than simply leaky. The low-percentage shot beat Allen and gave Philadelphia a rather incredible 4-1 lead. Three goals in 26 seconds was something that the Flyers were screaming for in terms of five-on-five goals and gaining confidence. And it also set a franchise record for fastest three goals, shedding the previous record by nine seconds! But Foerster wasn’t fast enough to tie or beat Jeff Carter’s record of two goals in 13 seconds.

TYSON FOERSTER AGAIN!!!! WHAT IS GOING ON???? 3 GOALS IN 26 SECONDS!!!! 4-1!!!#LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/Idn6y4Jy1u

— Flyers Clips (@Flyers_Clips) November 23, 2025

Vladar solid

The pre-game showed highlights of the late Bernie Parent. A video montage of his career and life was shown, concluding with his goalie mask atop Dan Vladar’s net, similar to what the Montreal Canadiens did in honoring their late icon Ken Dryden earlier this season. And Vladar was great after the puck drop, doing the late icon proud. Despite giving up the first, and seeing the Flyers explode offensively minutes later, the goaltender was great during a Devils power play that carried over into the second period.

He was also great during an extended shift halfway through period two when Cam York lost his stick. The Flyers were hemmed in their own end for some time before they got the much needed clear. Vladar had no chance on New Jersey’s second goal after the referee missed or turned a blind eye to Travis Sanheim being pushed from behind into the boards. However, Vladar was money late in the second period with the Flyers fourth line on the ice and the Devils turning things into a shooting gallery.

In the third, the Flyers again were sloppy early and Vladar stood tall. None were probably better than a two-on-one chance where he stoned Evgenii Dadonov midway in the final frame. Although it was a three-goal lead that was cut to two late, Vladar was sensational the last 25 minutes of regulation. Thankfully, Trevor Zegras put the game on ice with under five minutes to go on a breakaway.

TREVOR ZEGRAS WITH THE INSURANCE GOAL!!!

6-3 #FLYERS!!! TOUCHDOWN!!! pic.twitter.com/JvHqRbkHQ5

— Flyers Nation (@FlyersNation) November 23, 2025

Michkov’s intensity apparent

Aside from scoring a goal in his 100th game, Michkov also got into a tussle with Arseny Gritsyuk. Neither player dropped their gloves but did some pushing and shoving which resulted in minors to both parties. But through the game, Michkov looked like he had a level of intensity that wasn’t seen too often in the opening weeks of the season. Another good sign that he’s coming around.

EZ peasy

Egor Zamula, making his first start in a while, ended up being crucial on Philadelphia’s opening goal minutes after New Jersey opened the scoring. Zamula’s shot resulted in a meaty rebound that Noah Cates buried into an open net.

Noah Cates answered right back for the Flyers pouncing on a rebound. Credit to Egor Zamula to pinch in on the goal. 1-1.
Goal: Cates (5) pic.twitter.com/e6ro6YQ5vl

— Andrew Coté (@acote_88) November 23, 2025

It had to be a confidence boost to Zamula who has been trying to battle his way back into the lineup. Or at least ahead of Noah Juulsen in the pecking order. The defenseman also made a good clear late in the first while Philadelphia killed a New Jersey power play. Overall, Zamula was in fine form, something that wasn’t the case in his first eight appearances. After 40 minutes he had 81.25 per cent of the attempts and an expected goals for of 81.79 per cent five-on-five. Oh, and he was also +5 on the plus/minus scale after two.

Konency with chances

While he did have an assist in the opening 20 minutes, Travis Konency looked a bit snakebit in the second. A golden opportunity on the power play saw Konecny hit the outside of the net. Then minutes later Konecny located an aerial pass and was in alone on Allen. Allen was up to the challenge. The winger also nearly set up Foerster’s third of the night when he took the puck from the Devils’ keeper and fed it to his linemate. Nico Hischier got his stick between Foerster and the goal to prevent the hat trick tally.

Whether it was through necessity or eventually getting some puck luck, the lines Tocchet threw together in the last two games have caught fire quickly. Bobby Brink, who finds himself now with Couturier and Michkov, scored on a nifty wrister after Couturier fed him a short pass at the New Jersey blueline to make it a 5-1 Flyers lead.

BOBBY BRINK TOE-DRAG RELEASE SNIPE!!!! WHAT A SHIFT FROM SEAN COUTURIER. 5-1!!!!#LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/FDBzWRYKOh

— Flyers Clips (@Flyers_Clips) November 23, 2025

All stats courtesy Natural Stat Trick

Source

Source: https://www.broadstreethockey.com/p...ive-devils-their-due-with-strong-6-3-victory/