The Flyers have spent the first week of the season looking nothing like the team that made people lean in last spring, and that disconnect is driving the conversation right now.
Four games in, the results have been rough enough. More alarming has been the way they’ve gotten there.
Philadelphia has managed points in the standings, and the play has improved a little from game to game, but the overall feel is still off. The pace, the purpose, the bite that made last season’s playoff run so easy to buy into - it hasn’t shown up yet.
At the center of it all is a simple, ugly question: why do the Flyers look so bad to start the season?
Two issues keep jumping off the page. First, they aren’t holding onto the puck nearly enough. Second, the basic execution behind their game - skating and passing - just hasn’t been good enough to change that.
The shot totals tell the story. In Monday’s game against Tampa, Philadelphia was outshot 36-14.
That came after they were held to 18 shots against Carolina, 25 in New Jersey and 19 in the season opener against Pittsburgh. Even if some of the opposition volume has been kept to the outside and the most dangerous looks have been limited, those numbers still leave the Flyers chasing the game far too often.
And it isn’t just the chances they’re failing to create. It’s what they’re giving up, too.
The shot counts against them have been 40 versus Carolina, 44 in New Jersey and 38 against Pittsburgh. That’s a steady stream of pressure, and it’s hard to survive that way for long.
The root problem starts with skating. In hockey, moving your feet changes everything.
It gets you into battles, helps you win loose pucks, and lets you arrive in position before the other team does. It’s also how you create speed through the neutral zone and turn that into offense.
When a team isn’t skating well, it spends the night on its heels.
The other issue is passing, and that’s not just about moving the puck from one stick to another. It’s about moving it with pace and conviction.
It’s about chaining together three, four, five passes to get out of trouble and up the ice. Right now, the Flyers aren’t doing that with any consistency, and the result is a team that looks direction-less.
They don’t seem to have the urgency needed to handle the simple things well, and that has put extra strain on the goaltending while making it harder for them to generate their own offense.
There’s still plenty of season left, but the opening stretch has already put the Flyers in an uncomfortable spot. The old saying still applies: you can’t win the Stanley Cup or make the playoffs in the first week or two of October, but you can lose it.
That matters here because this is the same head coach who was part of last season’s second-round team, a group that didn’t have the same level of talent as some others but understood its assignment, embraced it and got the job done. The question now is how that identity seemed to disappear so quickly.
The season opener was the first warning sign. After the second period, the concern wasn’t just whether the Flyers were going to start with a loss.
It was the kind of loss it was becoming. This team was supposed to be beyond getting embarrassed like that, beyond having no answers, beyond letting one bad night turn into a long slide.
It was supposed to be past the doubt that makes people wonder whether the rebuild needs to be rebuilt.
Even the most optimistic view gets harder to hold when the numbers keep piling up. The Flyers’ 17-5 goal differential and 158-76 shot differential are brutal, and they’ve arrived fast. That’s the kind of start that leaves a team looking as if meetings are coming behind closed doors and changes could follow in a hurry.
For now, it feels like a return to the same old pattern: three different general managers shaping the roster, eight different head coaches searching for answers, and too many players raising questions instead of solving them.
It’s only four games out of 84, so nothing is sealed. But after 240-plus minutes of play that have looked this poor, it’s getting harder to believe the problems will just disappear.
The cushion built by last season’s playoff run is gone. The good will is gone, too.
And unless the Flyers turn this around fast, the hope for this season could be gone right behind it.
In Other News...
Oilers Trade Interest In Young Center Suddenly Gets More Complicated
The Flyers early offensive issues made the front office move quickly, and Michael Bunting was brought in on a one-year, $1.2 million contract as part of that effort. Philadelphia had been short on finish through the opening stretch, and the hope is that Bunting can help add a little more spark to a group that has been searching for goals and cleaner looks in the attacking zone.
Elsewhere around the league, trade chatter involving a young center has only added another layer to the Flyers corner of the rumor mill. Edmonton has reportedly talked with an Eastern Conference team about a possible deal, with Bostons Matt Poitras among the names being floated, though nothing has been finalized. For Philadelphia, it is the kind of background noise that can matter, especially as the club keeps trying to sort out its own scoring picture while other teams weigh whether to make a move. [Read more 🡒]
Red Wings Face Growing Pressure Around Two Crucial Roster Situations
The Flyers are back in the early-season spotlight for all the wrong reasons, with Rick Tocchet and his staff already feeling the heat after a winless start. There is always a little panic baked into October when the details slip and the results do not follow, and Philadelphia has given its coach and assistants no real cushion as they try to settle the group down and get the season pointed in the right direction.
Across the league, Detroit has its own roster questions building in the background, and those decisions could ripple well beyond its own locker room. Contract talks with restricted free agent defenseman Simon Edvinsson have yet to show movement, Dylan Larkins situation remains fluid, and Kris Drapers shift into the pro scouting department only adds another layer to the evaluation process as the Red Wings weigh what comes next. [Read more 🡒]
Flyers Already Look Stuck With A Roster Problem They Created
The Flyers came into training camp with a roster that felt mostly decided before the competition even got going, and the shortened preseason only made that approach harder to challenge. Danny Briere acknowledged the team had a preset mindset, which meant there was limited room for younger players to force their way onto the opening night lineup even as Cole Knuble and Jett Luchanko showed enough promise to at least keep the conversation alive.
Philadelphias caution has left it with a familiar early-season problem: a roster that may not have much flexibility when opportunities appear. Even with injuries creating openings, the Flyers still did not lean into them for a young forward, a choice that speaks to how carefully the organization is managing its prospects and how quickly a self-imposed logjam can turn into a real issue once the games start counting. [Read more 🡒]