The 2026-27 season opens Thursday with the Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins squaring off in a cross-state matchup that gets the Flyers’ regular season rolling after a 1-3 preseason.
Philadelphia’s lone exhibition win came at home, when Joseph Woll posted a shutout against the Bruins. Pittsburgh finished its preseason at 2-2.
The Flyers are coming off a much shorter offseason than usual after reaching the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season. Now the attention shifts to the opener, with a fresh lineup and a familiar opponent across the ice.
Here’s how the Flyers are projected to line up against the Penguins:
Forwards
Owen Tippett - Trevor Zegras - Porter Martone
Tyson Foerster - Christian Dvorak - Travis Konecny
Alex Bump - Noah Cates - Matvei Michkov
Carl Grundstrom - Sean Couturier - Noel Acciari
Defensemen
Travis Sanheim - Rasmus Ristolainen
Cam York - Jamie Drysdale
Nick Seeler - Simon Benoit
Goalies
Dan Vladar
Joseph Woll
Special Teams
PP1: Drysdale, Zegras, Foerster, Martone, Michkov
PP2: York, Cates, Tippett, Konecny, Bump
PK1: Couturier, Dvorak, York, Sanheim
PK2: Cates, Foerster, Seeler, Ristolainen
The last meeting between these teams came with real playoff weight attached. Pittsburgh was knocked out of the 2026 Playoffs by the Flyers in a six-game series, capped by Cam York’s overtime winner that sent Philadelphia into the second round. That rivalry, as the source notes, was reignited last postseason.
Noel Acciari is now on the Flyers’ side of it. He spent last season with the Penguins and was strong at the faceoff dot, but this year he’ll wear orange and black.
Head coach Rick Tocchet said that having Acciari on his side this time around is an advantage for his team, because he’ll be taking faceoffs for the Flyers, not against them. Acciari won 61% of his faceoffs in the playoffs last year.
Dan Vladar, who was injured in the Flyers’ second preseason game, is back and available for Wednesday night. Tocchet confirmed that the Flyers’ No. 1 netminder will start in goal against Pittsburgh.
It’s a new season, and with it comes a batch of new line combinations. Training camp and preseason offered a preview, but the opener is where the real answers start to show. The 2026-27 season is officially underway.
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