The Philadelphia Flyers have been off to a pleasant surprise to kick off the 2025-26 season as they sport a 3-2-1 record heading into Thursday’s game versus the Ottawa Senators.
Their season opening loss was a tightly contested 2-1 game against the defending Stanley Cup champions, and they were inches away from claiming an overtime victory in Carolina before the referees waived off the goal before their only real stinker so far came against the Winnipeg Jets.
They’ve gotten off to a much better start because they’re finally getting stable goaltending in large part because of Dan Vladař, the Noah Cates-led line has been sensational once again, and Sean Couturier and Owen Tippett are currently leading the charge with the former accumulating a team-high 7 points and the latter scoring 5 times in 6 games.
While it might be too soon to make any bold proclamations, it’s safe to say the Flyers are exceeding early expectations and that’s coming without major contributions from two of their key offensive pieces in Matvei Michkov and Travis Konecny, combining to the tune of just 2 goals and 5 points.
However, should Michkov and Konecny eventually right the ship, Couturier finds himself back in the 60-point conversation, and Tippett bounces back from a dormant 2024-25, the Flyers could be in business but those two players specifically have to keep going.
It’s been a long time coming for Couturier, who has gone through the wringer over the last 4 years. The longest-tenured active Flyer was seen as one of the best two-way players in the sport before a back injury derailed about a year and a half of his career, and even though he came back in 2023-24, it’s taken him a bit of time to get going again.
2023-24 was particularly strange because Couturier started off the season like he had never left with 30 points in his first 41 games before slumping to the tune of just 1 goal and 8 points in his final 33 games.
There were a variety of factors into why his game slipped but perhaps none more pronounced than his relationship with head coach John Tortorella. Couturier’s ice-time was chopped by almost 4 minutes, he was playing in the bottom-6, had been benched a few times, and was even a healthy scratch not too long after being named captain.
While his offensive game was missing at times – which was the case for a lot of the other members of the team – his defensive play, faceoff acumen, and overall two-way game never wavered, which were usually the reasons why Tortorella would scratch or bench someone.
Moreover, it spilled into the 2024-25 season, and while he improved to 15 goals and 45 points in 79 games, it felt somewhat muted with how their relationship had deteriorated.
Once he was relieved of his duties, Couturier broke out of his shell and finished the season on a high-note and seemingly took that momentum into the summer, because Rick Tocchet said he came to camp in great shape and look like a man possessed.
It’s certainly early but Tocchet is leaning on Couturier with 19:28 ATOI through the first 6 games. He’s returned the favour with 2 goals and 7 points, a +3 rating, 53% in the faceoff dot, 6 hits, and 5 blocked shots.
He’s come alive since the home opener when he notched 2 goals and 2 assists in a 5-2 victory over the Panthers. He followed that up with 3 assists in the next 3 games with an ATOI just under 20 minutes. He’s also added 14.3 minutes while shorthanded and another 11.2 minutes on the top unit of the power play.
His body language is fantastic, he looks a lot more loose and free, his confidence remains high, and anywhere near a 25-goal and 60-point season should be seen as a resounding success, considering many were willing to write him off after the injuries.
Considering how Tocchet has talked about him and how he continues to utilize him in the lineup, expect his numbers to continue to rise and he aims for a massive bounce back campaign.
As for Tippett, the goals are certainly coming at the right time, with trade rumours having ramped up in recent weeks. It has been speculated that the Flyers are listening but aren’t in any rush to move the former first round pick.
The Flyers have a lot of wingers with not a lot of places to put them and the team certainly sees the future revolving around Michkov, Konecny, Tyson Foerster, and Porter Martone in their top-6. For Tippett to succeed he needs to continue peppering shots towards the goal, and over the last few games, he’s been nearly unstoppable.
He’s currently on a 3-game, 4-goal streak and has 5 tallies over his last 5 contests, which is a very good sign for an offensively-starved Flyers team. Tippett’s goals have been important ones as he tallied the game’s opening goal against Carolina on the power play, cut the deficit in half against Winnipeg, tied the game in the third period against Minnesota, and then scored the Flyers’ first and final goals against Seattle.
His skillset has meshed well with that of Trevor Zegras and his recent promotion to the top line with Couturier and Konecny worked very well in a dominating performance against Seattle.
After scoring 27 goals in 2022-23 and 28 goals in 2023-24, Tippett slumped to 20 goals last year in 77 games, while only firing 188 shots towards the net. At his best, he fires a lot of shots, creates a ton of pressure with his speed, and is very visible on the offensive end.
However, what we saw last year was the complete opposite. He recorded 101 less shots on goal, was making silly mistakes on and off the puck, was wiring shots into skates and well above the net, and wasn’t using his speed to his advantage,
Anthony Di Marco mentioned that part of why he struggled was because Tortorella struggled to find the right for him in his system. While he can be a great goal scorer, his back-checking, cycle game, and defensive play didn’t really suit what Tortorella was looking for.
In Tocchet’s balanced system, Tippett can play his game as he’s generally been paired up with a reliable pivot in either Couturier or Christian Dvorak.
It will be interesting to see where things go from here and how the Flyers end the month of October. They’ve been a pleasant surprise to start out the 2025-26 campaign and it’s always a sight for sore eyes, especially for those fans who have been around for their more successful decades like the 80s, mid-90s, and 2000s.
Couturier and Tippett have played some inspiring hockey to start, but for the club to come anywhere near a wild card berth, or just having a flat out successful season, they’re going to need both players leading the charge and at least hovering the 60-point mark.
