The Flyers are set to open their four-game 2026 preseason schedule Monday night against the Capitals, and the first exhibition at Giant Center in Hershey will give Rick Tocchet a first real look at how the pieces fit.
Puck drop is 7 p.m. EDT, and NBCSP will carry the game.
Washington, coached by Spencer Carbery, is the first of two opponents Philadelphia will see twice in the preseason; the Bruins are the other. Each club will get one game on the road and one at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Philadelphia comes into the opener after an intrasquad scrimmage two days ago at the FTC in Voorhees. Team Orange rallied from 2-0 and 3-1 holes to beat Team Black, 4-3.
Tyson Foerster scored for Black in 3-on-3 play, and the rest of the goals came from Danila Klimovich, Alex Bump, Helge Grans, Trevor Zegras, Oliver Bonk and Denver Barkey. Matvei Michkov assisted on the Bonk and Barkey goals.
In net, Dan Vladar and Joseph Woll kept the first half scoreless during their turns. Lehigh Valley Phantoms goalies Aleksei Kolosov and Carson Bjarnason handled the second half.
The scrimmage also included a late board battle between rookie forward Porter Martone and defense prospect Spencer Gill. Martone appeared to be favoring a hand afterward, though he finished the session. Ten forwards and six defensemen took part.
One of the main things to watch Monday is how Tocchet continues sorting out line combinations. Through the first stretch of camp, and again in the scrimmage, the staff has leaned on pairs of forwards with a rotating third player.
Sean Couturier has skated regularly with Noel Acciari, while Noah Cates has been back with Foerster. Barkey has seen time with both Michkov and Bump, Christian Dvorak has worked with Travis Konecny and Martone, and Zegras has been used with Owen Tippett and rotating wingers.
The blue line has followed a similar pattern, with Travis Sanheim and Rasmus Ristolainen together and Cam York paired with Jamie Drysdale. Nick Seeler has been alongside David Jiricek, while Simon Benoit has skated with Gill.
There are real roster fights going on here, too. Bump is trying to turn a stronger second half last season into his first opening-night NHL job after a rough camp a year ago cost him.
Nikita Grebenkin, who is day to day with an injury, won that battle last time around. This year, Bump has put himself back in the mix.
The defense race is just as interesting. Jiricek and Bonk are the main competitors for a spot as Seeler’s partner, and Benoit is also pushing for a top-six role. Jiricek is no longer exempt from waivers, while Bonk remains exempt.
Special teams are another early checkpoint. Saturday was the first camp session in which the Flyers worked on the power play, and right now the focus is more on personnel and structure than results. Still, after years of power-play frustration, Philadelphia would surely like to bank a few clean chances before the games start to count.
The penalty kill has its own wrinkle after Garnet Hathaway’s departure opened a lane for Acciari to work regularly with Couturier.
There’s also some positional shuffling to monitor. Dvorak and Couturier are expected to stay in the middle, and Zegras is getting the first shot at the 1C role.
Cates remains the default third-line center, but the Flyers have also used him on the wing, including on the right side. Barkey has gotten center reps in camp as well, even though he hasn’t played there regularly since his NHL Draft year with the OHL’s London Knights.
How all of that settles before opening night on Sept. 30 is still to be determined, and these preseason games are where the picture starts to sharpen. Faceoffs will matter in that process, especially for the players trying to hold down center.
Couturier and Dvorak are the exceptions; for the others, the draw work still needs to come along. Zegras in particular has a long way to go on faceoffs, Cates has been below average in that area so far in his career, and Barkey’s recent center experience is limited.
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The Flyers had to wait until the third period to make clear Barkey would not be back in the game, leaving his status as the main concern from an otherwise routine preseason tune-up. Philadelphia has been counting on Barkey to keep developing with the organization if health allows, so the focus now shifts to how serious this latest issue turns out to be and whether it interrupts his push to stick around. [Read more 🡒]