Preview; Game 22/82: Philadelphia Flyers at Florida Panthers

After a drowsy 3-0 loss in Tampa on Monday, the Philadelphia Flyers (11-7-3) head to Sunrise to take on the Florida Panthers (12-9-1) in the second contest of their four-game road trip. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00pm ET.

Tonight is the third and final meeting of the season between the Flyers and Panthers. The Panthers won on October 9th in the Flyers’ season opener, 2-1, before the Flyers returned the favor with a 5-2 victory in their home opener on October 13th.

Philadelphia will be looking for a more inspiring effort than what they showed on Monday. Despite another stellar defensive showing with just 18 shots allowed, the Flyers only fired 20 shots on Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, who picked up his 6th career shutout against the Flyers. Sam Ersson allowed just 2 goals but picked up the loss at the other end for Philadelphia.

“There were plays to be made, we just didn’t make them,” said Rick Tocchet after Monday’s game. “Their best players won them the game. Cirelli was awesome, Hagel, Kucherov. When we had chances, when we did shoot, we didn’t have anyone at the net, so there were plays to be made and we just didn’t make them. Bottomline.”

The Flyers’ offensive woes have been a major storyline all season. They rank 30th in shots per game (29.4) and 31st in total goals (56). They are playing a Panthers team that gives up just 26 shots per game as well, so tonight could be another uphill battle in trying to establish their offense.

But if the offense is going to step up, the Flyers need their top players to show up. Matvei Michkov has just one goal in his last 5 games, Travis Konecny is on a 7-game goal drought, Owen Tippett has just 1 goal in his last 15 games, and Sean Couturier hasn’t scored since the last time the Flyers and Panthers met – a span of 17 games. Simply put, the Flyers need these players to find the scoresheet and consistently contribute. Michkov’s ice time is still being limited – he was only ahead of the team’s fourth line in forward ice time on Monday – so he gets a bit of a pass, but the others don’t have a real excuse for their futility and just need to be better.

On the other side of the ice, it’s been business as usual with the Flyers defense continuing to limit shots and scoring chances. The Flyers are allowing just 2.81 goals per game (12th) and 25.5 shots against per game (4th). Their penalty kill is also operating at an 85.5% success rate, good for 4th in the NHL. Florida is coming off an 8-goal outburst against Nashville and they’ve put up 27 goals across their last 6 games, so tonight will be a challenge for the Flyers, but hopefully another strong defensive performance is in store and can lead to momentum at the other end.

“Obviously not the result we wanted last game,” said Nick Seeler after morning skate. “We’ve been resilient this year, you know, bouncing back and playing a good game after, so that’s what we need to do. Play our game and be up in their face and be predictable for each other. So that’s kind of our game plan going into tonight.”

Noah Juulsen will reenter the lineup for Egor Zamula after 2 games in the press box and take his usual place on the third pair. Nikita Grebenkin will also rejoin the lineup on the fourth line after sitting for the last 9 games. Nick Deslauriers will swap out with him.

Dan Vladař will get the nod in net tonight after having Monday off. Vladař has won his last 2 starts and enters Wednesday’s contest with an 8-4-1 record, .912 SV%, and 2.42 GAA. On the other end, the Panthers will start a familiar face in Sergei Bobrovsky. The former Flyer is 10-6-0 with a .887 SV%, 2.80 GAA, and 2 shutouts in 2025-26 for Florida.