Rick Tocchet may finally have something to hold onto.
After spending the first few weeks of the season shuffling his roster, the Flyers are starting to climb out of the 0-6-3 crater they created for themselves. The reason is simple: a pair of combinations have begun to separate from the rest of the pack, one up front and one on the blue line.
The lineup picture has been messy from the start. Tocchet has rotated his forwards constantly, and injuries have only made the puzzle harder to solve.
Through the first 12 games, Philadelphia has already used 13 different forward lines for at least 10 minutes together at 5-on-5. The defense hasn’t been any steadier, with 12 pairs logging at least 10 minutes.
Still, the Flyers appear to have at least two groups they can lean on.
One of them is the Martone-Cates-Michkov line, which first got a chance together in the eighth game of the season. That look came in one of the Flyers’ better outings, and even though the trio didn’t generate offense against Seattle, Tocchet kept them together.
Matvei Michkov then scored the only Flyers goal in the loss in Detroit, and the line really broke through in Saturday night’s win over Ottawa, when Michkov and Porter Martone connected on two strong goals. Michkov later added two more goals against Colorado and then picked up a power-play assist in Buffalo.
The production is one thing. The underlying numbers are even more striking.
Philadelphia’s Martone-Cates-Michkov trio leads the team with 41.6 minutes together at 5-on-5, and their expected goals share in those minutes sits at 65.5%. That stands out even more when you compare it to the Flyers’ season-long 36.49% xGF, giving that line a +26.47 xGF% relative to the rest of the roster in those 41-plus minutes.
It’s still a limited sample, but the tape backs it up. Martone and Michkov have already shown the kind of chemistry you notice immediately, especially on cross-ice passes and offensive setups. Cates has settled in after a slow start and has given the two skill wingers a steadier presence down the middle.
Among NHL lines with at least 40 minutes together through Wednesday night, only 73 have reached that threshold, and this Flyers trio’s 65.5% xGF ranks 18th in the league. That’s ahead of some pretty good company.
There is, though, a catch: Cates may not be the ideal first-line center. That makes this best suited as Philadelphia’s second line for now. The Flyers will likely keep chasing a top-six center in the trade market, or they may have to wait for Jett Luchanko or Jack Nesbitt to eventually grow into that role between the two wingers.
On defense, Travis Sanheim and Oliver Bonk have become the other stabilizing force.
Sanheim has long looked capable of handling top-pair minutes, but Bonk’s rise has been a real development. Most expected him to settle in as a solid second-pair defenseman at the NHL level. He may still land there eventually, but he’s holding up just fine at the top of the lineup right now.
His work against Colorado stood out most. Bonk logged a season-high 24:22, including 22:25 at 5-on-5, and much of that time - 13:31 - came against Nathan MacKinnon.
Philadelphia held its own in that matchup. Colorado had more shot attempts, 14-10, and more shots on goal, 7-6, but the Flyers won the scoring-chance battle 7-6, held a 4-2 edge in high-danger chances, posted a 1.11-0.29 advantage in expected goals, and won the scoreboard 1-0.
Through Wednesday night’s win in Buffalo, Sanheim and Bonk have played 95.6 minutes together at 5-on-5. Their 55.7% expected goals share is the best on the team by a wide margin. The next closest pair, Sanheim-Drysdale, sits at 47.2% in 45.1 minutes.
That 55.7% mark also stacks up well across the league. Among 54 defensive pairs with at least 80 minutes together, Sanheim and Bonk rank 21st. As with the forward line, there are strong pairs sitting below them.
That matters for a Flyers team still dealing with injuries, call-ups and all the constant lineup juggling that comes with them. The Seeler-Drysdale pair has been a mess, sitting 54th out of 54 at a 27.4% xGF, and the third pair has struggled badly outside of Hunter McDonald’s strong two-game run.
For now, Tocchet at least has two combinations he can trust. For a team that spent the early part of the season searching for any kind of traction, that is a real place to start.
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