It would be foolish to condemn the Philadelphia Flyers two games into a young 2026-27 season, but in those two games, against divisional opponents looking to take charge, the Flyers looked completely unprepared, outmatched, and disinterested in it all.
Through two games, the Flyers have, according to Natural Stat Trick, allowed the most shot attempts in the NHL at 5-on-5 (125) and rank 18th in the league in expected goals generated (1.92), which is the fewest amongst all teams that have played two games thus far, and still ranks below 11 teams that have played only one game, including their two opponents: Pittsburgh and New Jersey.
Starting their season winless at 0-1-1, the Flyers have already dropped points to two divisional opponents, with the 7-0 loss in their home opener against Pittsburgh especially egregious.
The actual on-ice play aside, the most concerning part of it all is that nobody has an actual answer as to what is going on with the Flyers. Not head coach Rick Tocchet, not the leadership group, not Christian Dvorak, and not Joseph Woll.
"I'm not sure. If it keeps happening, I guess we got bigger issues, and so we need to clean it up. Need to get back to playing the way that we know we can, and we know that works," Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim said after the 3-2 overtime loss to the Devils on Thursday night.
"I'm not sure why we're kind of straying away from that when it's worked in the past."
Added Tocchet a short time later: "We got to really buckle down here, and the problem is we don't have much practice time, so we're going to have to do it on the fly here. ... I have no idea. We just talked as coaches, like, we'd have to maybe change some practices. We need more skill work. Unfortunately, we've only had five or six practices, but I don't know. I don't know, over the summer... but we are choppy with the puck."
Astute Flyers fans will recall that the reference to a lack of practice time was a common refrain repeated by Tocchet's predecessor, John Tortorella, throughout his rollercoaster tenure with the Flyers.
From Tortorella's time in Philadelphia, many things remain the same. The Flyers look most competitive when they have superb goaltending behind them, and they rely on a large volume of blocked shots and spontaneously manufactured offense to stay competitive.
Most of all, the power play is still the team's Achilles heel.
"Offensively, I think that some guys are squeezing it, too. And it's only our second game. I don't know why we're squeezing it," Tocchet added. "We got to relax if there's a play to be made."
On social media, it's become a bit of a source of consternation amongst fans how often Tocchet refers to players as "nervous" before or after games, and leading up to the season, Tocchet felt that his group was both anxious and excited to follow up their performance last season.
It's unflattering to the second-year coach, but also unflattering to a group of players - the veterans in particular - that's already been through this song and dance with Tortorella in 2023-24.
What happened to player development?
The one thing the Flyers have been able to hang their hats on in recent seasons is their player development, though that has stalled out in a major way at the beginning of the season.
Top prospect Porter Martone has been effectively benched in each of his first two regular season games of the year, and Alex Bump played just one shift in the third period against New Jersey and finished that game with a team-low 8:18 of ice time... in a game that went to overtime.
Meanwhile, Christian Dvorak, Tyson Foerster, and Trevor Zegras led the forwards in ice time; Dvorak made the turnover that sprung the Devils on Luke Hughes's game-tying goal halfway through the third period, and Zegras finished the game playing left wing next to Sean Couturier and Noel Acciari. He and Sanheim also combined for the turnover that led to Jack Hughes's game-winning goal in overtime.
But Martone, Bump, Matvei Michkov, and Carl Grundstrom finished the night as the bottom-four in ice time for the Flyers. The irony was that Martone was on the ice for the Flyers' first goal, and Grundstrom for the second.
Flyers' Joseph Woll Trade Looking Like Early Danny Briere MasterclassThe Philadelphia Flyers are looking clear winners of the Joseph Woll trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs, who have no players left from their end of the deal.I asked Tocchet his perspective behind those personnel changes, to which he responded, "I needed some lines here to somewhat control Jack. He was caving some of our lines, and so I just tried to get the best nine, I thought, for tonight."
Player development can be a self-fulfilling prophecy, though, and players like Bump, Michkov, and Martone will never be able to handle playing against elite players if they don't learn at some point.
The Flyers drafted Michkov and Martone to be those players themselves one day, but it's not going to happen with the process going the way it is.
Twenty-two-year-old David Jiricek has yet to play a game for the Flyers this season, and Tocchet had said on the record he told the player he has to get Jiricek in the lineup in one of these games.
Is Game 3 against the reigning Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes an appropriate time to turn to a young defenseman carrying high expectations with your team winless to start the season? Probably not, and that's another lose-lose situation right there, whether Jiricek plays or not.
Again, it is far too early to pull the plug on the 2026-27 Flyers, but how they show up and perform against the Hurricanes on Saturday night will give us a better idea of where they're headed, playing a third division rival in four nights.
