The Flyers opened the 2026-27 season with a night they’ll want to erase in a hurry.
Pittsburgh came into Xfinity Mobile Arena on Wednesday and buried Philadelphia, 7-0, matching the worst opening-night defeat in Flyers history. The building started with a soldout buzz and ended with boos, a sharp turn for a team that had just beaten the Penguins in last spring’s first-round playoff series after racing to a 3-0 lead and closing it out in six games.
Instead, the rematch went the other way fast.
Rick Tocchet’s team never found its footing, and the coach made it clear afterward that the performance crossed a line.
“We were down four-nothing and we were still making some disturbing plays,” Tocchet said. “So we have to figure this out quickly. Since I’ve been here, that’s the worst D-zone I’ve seen.”
He didn’t stop there.
“Obviously this is a test of character,” he said. “We’re looking for people to step up and do the right thing.
The D-zone was what we built on last year. And we were just runnin’ around.
The first couple goals, we lost battles along the wall. You just can’t do that. . .
I don’t think we won a battle.”
The Flyers’ defensive issues were obvious from the start. Pittsburgh grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first period, and Philadelphia went the final 12:25 of the opening frame without a shot on goal.
The Penguins’ first came at 7:26 when Nicholas Robertson guided a Kris Letang entry past Dan Vladar. Then Ville Koivunen got behind the defense at 15:44 and slipped a short backhand between Vladar’s pads after taking a pass from Sam Girard.
Philadelphia’s problems carried straight into the second period. The Flyers didn’t record a shot for the first 4:37, extending the stretch to 17:02.
Then Porter Martone took a costly penalty, and Evgeni Malkin drilled a shot from the slot at 5:03. Hendrix Lapierre followed at 7:26, skating down the left side and beating Vladar short side.
Vladar stayed in the net through the onslaught, with Tocchet choosing not to turn to Joseph Woll. The Flyers face the Devils on Thursday night, and Tocchet said he didn’t want to use his backup in back-to-back games.
Afterward, the Flyers’ leadership group was front and center. Captain Sean Couturier and alternates Travis Konecny and Travis Sanheim were the only players made available.
“We have to wake up, the last exhibition game (a lopsided loss to Washington) we played the same way,” Couturier said. “Everyone’s like, ‘Aw, it’s training camp, we’re going to ease our way into the season.’
But we have to wake up here. I mean, there’s no panic but we have to realize that we’re not that good.
What happened last year is last year. We have to keep working to try to get points.”
Konecny called it a useful jolt.
“I mean it’s frustrating. Also, it’s great in this league you get an opportunity to flush it down (on Thursday).
There’s been some tendencies we’ve had in preseason, I think we need to get on those right away. You know it’s not going to be easy.
I think it was a little bit of a wakeup call today.”
Sanheim, speaking softly, was just as blunt.
“I think it was as ugly as it could have gotten,” he said. “The fortunate thing is it’s game one.
We’ve got 83 more of these. We’re playing a team we played in the playoffs.
They just wanted it more and battled harder. It’s unfortunate.
“We’ll see about the approach we take after this. We’ve got a game tomorrow night and we can bounce back and forget about this. We shot ourselves on a couple of them, probably gave them half their goals.”
The night also marked a milestone for Couturier, who began his 15th season and tied Bob Clarke and Claude Giroux for the Flyers’ team record. Couturier has played in 953 games, with Clarke holding the all-time mark at 1,144 and Giroux at 1,000. Bill Barber is fourth at 952.
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