Flyers continue to ignore change as lost season looms

The Philadelphia Flyers either don’t want to change or are oblivious to what’s happening around them.

They’ve now lost 14 of 18 games to open the 2026-27 season, they’re barely mustering two goals per game, and they haven’t adjusted their on-ice methods or tactics despite all the loses and persistent issues.

Thursday’s loss against the New York Rangers was a microcosm of their inability to think outside of the box or to get creative. With a slim 2-1 lead, head coach Rick Tocchet decided to park the bus, and as expected it blew up in their face as they lost in regulation.

The Flyers aren’t in a position where they can set up shop in the defensive zone and try to ward off their opposition. They also don’t have the personnel to withstand an offensive barrage once they settle and park in front of their goaltender.

The worst part is they actually played a really good second period and had a solid 40 minutes of play in their back pocket. All they needed to do was come out with the same level of compete and aggressiveness they showed in the first 40 minutes to leave Madison Square Garden with the two points.

Instead we witnessed a tentative first 13 minutes before the Rangers struck on the power play to tie the game and then took the lead 80 seconds later on a neutral zone breakdown. With not much time left on the clock, the Flyers comeback efforts were fruitless and they got Joseph Woll to the bench for the extra attacker with less than 90 seconds remaining.

Tocchet’s pregame changes also backfired after he broke up one of the only trios that was actually producing. Noah Cates entered Thursday’s game with 5 points in his last 7 games, Porter Martone had 7 points in his last 8 contests, and Matvei Michkov had 8 goals and 11 points in his last 9 games. Additionally, he demoted Denver Barkey – who scored a power play goal in their prior game against Minnesota – to the fourth line.

When asked about why Martone got promoted up the lineup, Tocchet mentioned how he had been playing a lot better lately and deserved the newfound opportunity.

And yet despite the pat on the back for Martone, the rookie forward only saw 12 minutes. The newfound trio of Cates, Michkov, and Tyson Foerster didn’t mesh well and the only line he didn’t change did almost nothing in close to 20 minutes. A defensive defenseman and a gritty fourth line forward scored both goals for the Flyers who looked to be missing in action on offense and allowed Dylan Garand to settle into the game.

If it’s a rewards system then why is Tocchet being so selective? Before last night’s game, Martone scored 2 more goals and had double the amount of points than Foerster, but the latter had been averaging 3.5 more minutes of ice time per game – a number which rose again after Martone only saw 11:51 to Foerster’s 17:13.

Same can be asked about Cates and Christian Dvorak. You can make the argument that both players need to play a higher allotment of minutes because of their lack of depth down the middle but the latter is averaging almost 5 more minutes of ice time per game than the former. Dvorak also has only one more goal and 2 more points than Cates, so the difference is very little.

Even when it comes to Michkov and Trevor Zegras, the latter can make continuous mistakes and errors but won’t be punished for it. Tocchet even came out and criticized Zegras’ 10-minute misconduct penalty against Minnesota on Tuesday but he still finished the game with 20 minutes of ice time.

To be clear, the Flyers need both players on the ice as much as possible, but when you’re lambasting Michkov for extended shifts and errors on the puck, why is the same standard not being exercised on Zegras whose arguably doing the same?

Additionally, if Martone is being promoted for 7 points in an 8-game stretch, which came in large part because of Michkov, then why is one getting promoted and not the other?

If you’re looking for a shot in the arm or an infusion of energy there’s a lot of changes that can be made. Zegras can move back to the centre position and play with more skilled wingers. They can also use Denver Barkey or Cole Knuble, which would incidentally be a better situation for all involved since they have better offensive instincts than both Cates and Dvorak.

You need to score to win in this league, which would make you think that averaging two per game through nearly a quarter of the season would signal alarm bells in Philadelphia. However all they’ve mustered up was a free agent signing of Michael Bunting (1 assist, -5 in 8 games) as some sort of a message to the locker room for change instead of trying to come up with the best lineup possible to score goals.

Don’t let them to try to convince you that they recalled the prospects for development or an opportunity, it was solely done because because they were floored with injuries to Travis Konecny, Rasmus Ristolainen, Owen Tippett, and Cam York.

The Flyers can’t even hide behind their rebuild because they’re not building anything. GM Daniel Brière made it pretty clear in the spring when he confided in the media that he told his club that he held playoff aspirations for them in 2025-26 despite never using that rhetoric with the media. Of course he’s going to think positively and hope to inspire his team but everything they’ve done since then doesn’t add up either.

If this season continues the way it is, then there’s almost no doubt they finish high enough to draft in the top five of next summer’s event. Though the irony is that they weren’t able to do that when they were knee deep in their rebuild, but yet it’s coming in a year they expected to make some noise after qualifying for the playoffs last season.

They were extremely proud that they made the playoffs and they wore it like a badge of honour. You can’t blame them for that either since it was the Flyers’ first postseason trip since the COVID bubble and it was also their first playoff game played in front of their fans in Philadelphia since 2018. However, they stood pat in the summer and put all their faith into their faulty core.

Any moves they’ve since tried to pull off could be categorized as retooling or exiting the rebuild since the Flyers have reportedly attempted to trade for Dylan Larkin and Kirill Marchenko. They’ve also seemingly been very quiet on the Ristolainen trade front since last season and might have missed their opportunity with yet another injury suffered. Plus, you’d expect Martone and Michkov to be presented front and centre in a rebuild, yet we’re being force fed more of Dvorak, Noel Acciari, and other veterans.

Sure, Flyers fans can complain a lot, however their gripe is legitimate because this organization is going through the motions yet again with whatever this process is. Outside of Martone and Michkov, this rebuild has netted them a lot of future top-9 players who are likely replacements of their current top-9 players. There is very little they can latch onto unless Jett Luchanko and/or Jack Nesbitt turn into top-6 centres as soon as possible.

It’s been almost two decades of futility and there really doesn’t seem to be light at the end of the tunnel.

At what point are they going to look deep inside the organization for their faults. They’ve had 6 head coaches, 4 interim coaches, and 4 general managers since 2013 alone. All different people with different visions, voices, leadership qualities, and philosophies, yet somehow it led them to the exact same spot.

The current regime is no different and everything we could have said about their predecessors and the ones that came before them is identical. It’s like a Twilight Zone episode where a nightmare is being replayed over and over again no matter how many times we try to stop the events from unfolding.

So what do we do with the current members of this organization? Something has to change unless they’re content with mediocrity, which would be malpractice on someone’s end; whether that’s the CEO, President, GM, or all of the above.

It’s really an interesting cast and crew they have at the moment. They have a head coach that doesn’t know how to inspire his team outside of using the same cliches after every loss. Their general manager has been in hiding after sitting on his hands after a disastrous 19-game start that should have at least netted them a new coach and their president didn’t realize that the rest of the NHL would catch onto the salary cap spike and retain all their star free agents because everyone had money to burn.

If we thought last year’s start to the season was bad, this year takes the cake. At least last year you could pinpoint some spark and comradery. This year’s unit is far from cohesive, the comradery is absent, and there’s a lot of back biting and frustrations are boiling over on the ice and on the bench.

I’m sure the front office is looking at the next two games as a respite from all the negativity as they face off against Calgary and Vancouver. Perhaps they were waiting for these two games in particular to spin that things are okay and the white flag needn’t be raised.

They tried saying the ship was righted after their 3-game win streak, all you need to do is to pay attention to the language being used by certain people. Prior to last night’s loss they mentioned that the Flyers had gone .500 since their 9-game losing streak without mentioning the fact that they had lost 4 of their previous 5 contests (which became 5 of 6 last night).

Maybe losses against the Flames and Canucks will expedite the process, but should they win even one of those games, don’t expect any changes to come or be on the horizon. It seems like they’re just trying to wait things out and are hoping for another surge like the one they went on last year.

Tocchet’s style of hockey is anti-everything the Flyers should be building towards. Martone and Michkov should be allowed the freedom to exercise their offensive abilities that got them to be high draft picks instead of being stifled and stymied. Barkey and Knuble should be higher up in the lineup since they actually play with spunk. Zegras should be front and centre offensively next to Martone and Michkov rather than having defensive minded forwards leading the way.

It shouldn’t be that hard.

Unfortunately, they have a head coach hellbent on doing things the “Flyers way”, which is precisely why they’re a pitiful 4-10-4. Drop the “Flyers way” and move on, there’s no such thing in the year 2026, let alone after the 2010s. It’s an archaic form of thinking that ended when Mike Richards was traded and it’s something they’ve been trying to rally the fans around ever since – to no avail.

The clock should be ticking and changes should be afoot, but when it comes to the Flyers, expect the expected.

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