The Flyers are still searching for their first win, and Monday’s trip to Detroit only deepened the hole. Philadelphia dropped a 2-1 decision to the Red Wings, extending its season-opening skid to nine straight games while Detroit picked up its second victory of the year and stayed in last place in the Atlantic Division.
For a while, the Flyers actually looked capable of making something of it. They carried a 1-0 lead into the first intermission despite putting only five shots on goal, with Matvei Michkov providing the lone burst of offense.
The Flyers’ leading scorer notched his third goal of the season by batting a puck out of midair and past Daniil Tarasov. It was Philadelphia’s only goal of the night, leaving the club with 11 goals scored and 32 allowed so far this season.
The game flipped in the second period, right after Philadelphia’s first power play expired. Anton Johansson stepped out of the penalty box, jumped into a two-on-one, and beat Joseph Woll with a shot that went in off the goalie’s shoulder blocker side.
It was Johansson’s first NHL goal, and it erased the Flyers’ advantage. Philadelphia finished 0-for-2 on the power play.
The third period brought the kind of stretch that has defined this start. The Flyers went halfway through the final frame without a shot on goal, and by then Detroit had a 22-11 edge in shots.
Woll kept Philadelphia afloat throughout the night, and he’s quietly been one of the few positives in a brutal opening stretch. Through four regular-season games, he has allowed 10 goals on 244 shots, good for a .914 save percentage and a 2.95 goals-against average.
He also turned in five preseason periods without giving up a goal.
Detroit finally broke through for good with 4:38 left in the third. Woll got a piece of the centering pass and the shot, but the puck still trickled in off his skate with David Jiricek chasing.
Philadelphia had chances late, including one sequence after Nick Seeler took a tripping penalty at 1:29 to stop a Red Wings breakout. The Flyers chose not to pull Woll while they still had the puck in the Detroit zone, then spent the rest of the game short-handed.
The Red Wings worked the clock down in their own end during the power play, and Oliver Bonk came agonizingly close to tying it when he stole the puck and then whiffed a shot wide after a strong feed from Trevor Zegras. The Flyers got a timeout with 1.8 seconds left and a faceoff to the side of the Detroit net, but Michkov was on the bench for that final push. He played 13:40 in the loss.
The final was Detroit 2, Philadelphia 1. The NHL’s longest season-opening losing streak remains 15, a mark set by the 1943-44 New York Rangers.
In Other News...
Flyers Young Core Is Raising An Early Concern Philadelphia Can't Ignore
Early-season growing pains have shown up quickly for Philadelphia, with young players such as Porter Martone, Denver Barkey and Oliver Bonk all trying to find their footing at the NHL level. For a group that figures to matter to the Flyers future, the first few weeks have been a reminder that development does not always move in a straight line, especially when the pace ramps up right away and the margin for error gets thin.
A shorter preseason appears to have left less time for those players to get comfortable before the games started counting, and that has become part of the conversation around the clubs uneven start. Still, the Flyers issues are not limited to the rookies and second-year types, and simply adding more exhibition games would not have guaranteed a cleaner opening stretch. [Read more 🡒]
Flyers Fans Finally Have A Date To Watch For The New Jerseys
The wait is finally over for Flyers fans who have been watching the clubs alternate-jersey rollout with curiosity. Philadelphias Hometown Remix look will get its first on-ice appearance this season, giving the team another visual identity to go along with the regular home set and adding a little extra buzz to the building when the new threads arrive.
The debut is set for the first time the Flyers host Minnesota, and the jersey will show up often enough afterward to feel like more than a one-off marketing exercise. The team has said it will use the alternates 13 times this season, with most of those games coming at Xfinity Mobile Arena, though the full design has still not been formally unveiled after a possible version surfaced back in June. [Read more 🡒]
Avalanche Fans Should Be Watching Mikhail Gulyayevs Start Closely
The early KHL season has offered a useful snapshot of how several NHL prospects are faring overseas, and one of the names worth keeping on the radar from a Flyers perspective is Yegor Zavragin. The young goalie has been getting regular starts, and his team situation has given him a chance to show whether last seasons promise can carry over into a bigger workload.
For Flyers fans, the appeal is obvious: Philadelphia has been tracking goaltending depth closely, and Zavragin remains one of the more interesting long-term pieces in that conversation. His recent run has been strong enough to keep him in the spotlight, even as the wider group of drafted prospects in the KHL continues to shift with injuries, ice time and roster decisions that will shape the rest of the season. [Read more 🡒]