Danny Briere tried to warn everyone back on July 1.
Sitting at a press conference table on the first day of free agency, the Flyers general manager talked openly about the risk that a young team could slide backward after a promising run. It was a reminder that Philadelphia had barely squeezed into the playoffs last season, clinching its berth in Game 81 of an 82-game schedule after the Blue Jackets and Islanders both fell apart late.
"We understand the expectations are going to go way higher coming into next season," the Flyers' general manager said. "There's always a danger, there's a little bit of a pullback.
It's not like we ran away with it last year. We got hot at the right time and snuck into the playoffs."
He didn’t stop there.
"We took a big step forward last year," Briere said. "There's a chance, and a good chance, that we take a little bit of a step back this year.
We're ready for that. But I'm excited where this young group of guys is going."
That caution now looks downright prophetic.
The Flyers have opened this season with the longest losing streak in franchise history, a nine-game slide that has turned the start of the year into a mess. They’ve been outscored 32-11 along the way, and the numbers around the team have gotten ugly in a hurry.
Rick Tocchet is already feeling the heat just two and a half weeks into his second season behind the bench. Last year, he received three first-place votes for the Jack Adams Award. This year, the Flyers are 0-6-3 with a minus-119 shot differential.
There’s still a decent chance Briere will choose patience with the coach he hired for the job. Philadelphia wasn’t built as a win-now, title-or-bust team, and Tocchet is in Year 2 of a five-year contract, according to The Athletic's Pierre LeBrun.
Still, sample size matters. Briere has to balance what the Flyers showed in last season’s surge against what they’ve put on the ice so far this fall. The players have stood up for Tocchet, but losing streaks like this have a way of forcing a general manager to make a decision.
"Sure, as a coach or a player, you hate to hear the outside noise, but that's part of the whole deal," Tocchet said Sunday. "That's the business we're in, it comes with the territory.
We owe the fans a better product on the ice and we haven't given it to them yet. When that doesn't happen, it's on me, I've got to take the blame on that."
The biggest offseason worry was whether Briere had done enough to fix the most obvious problem areas. After the Flyers were swept by the Hurricanes, it was clear they needed more speed threats and more scoring.
During the regular season, they were only a shade better than a bottom-third scoring team. In the playoffs, they managed just 10 goals over their final seven games after scoring 11 in the first three. Their league-worst power play finished 3 for 36.
Briere didn’t make the kind of splash some expected over the summer. Some believed the answer could come from within, with internal growth from players like Tyson Foerster and Porter Martone. Instead, the offense has sputtered badly, with the Flyers scoring just 1.22 goals per game.
And that’s where the story has landed: a team that looked like it had moved beyond those marathon losing stretches is right back in one. The ugly run from 2021-22, when the Flyers lost 57 games, already feels uncomfortably familiar.
The Flyers are not past it. They’re in it again.
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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 🡒]