Tonight, the Philadelphia Flyers (1-1-1) host the Winnipeg Jets (2-1-0) at the Xfinity Mobile Arena. The opening faceoff is scheduled for 7pm/ET.
Rick Tocchet has the Flyers competing closely against teams that appeared in the 2025 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. First, there’s the Florida Panthers, whom Philadelphia lost against on their opening night, but avenged the loss with a victory in their home opener. Then, there’s the Carolina Hurricanes, which required theatrics in overtime, overturning a game-winning goal from Bobby Brink due to goaltender interference between Frederik Andersen and Travis Sanheim.
“They’ve [Philadelphia Flyers] been scrappy. I think it’s been a scrappy group. You play Florida [Panthers] twice and Carolina [Hurricanes], there’s a lot of heat on those teams. Florida’s one of the better forechecking [teams] in the league. I thought they were scrappy out there. Sometimes you think they look overwhelmed, but if you watch them, Florida had the puck one time for fifty seconds. I know people were freaking out, but it was okay. They had them outside. I saw our defense hang in there. Sometimes, when the other team has the puck and they’re moving around, people start running around. I didn’t see that. That’s a maturity thing that I’m seeing a little bit, and it’s early in the season, but I do like to see that. It’s okay to keep the people on the outside, stay in structure, and I saw some of those defensemen do that, which is a nice thing.” – Rick Tocchet; 10/16/2025
The Jets, in the Western Conference, made it to the second round of the 2025 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. In what appears to be a murderer’s row of an NHL schedule to begin the 2025-2026 NHL Regular Season for the Flyers, a closely contested 1-1-1 record cites confidence under a new head coach. Winnipeg, on the road, is favored. That’s the norm for Philadelphia, which has clearly looked beyond expectations in three games to open the season.
“I call it eighty-five percent about us, fifteen about the other team. That’s kind of my ratio. There’s some things that you got to give these guys [Philadelphia Flyers] information. Winnipeg [Jets] [is] a really, really good rush team, and they like to use wide passes. So, how do we deal with that? Their power play was number one last year. It’s dangerous. [We] got to stay disciplined. There’s some defensive zone stuff that we feel that if we execute, we might have some stuff against them, but that’s a team that’s won a lot of hockey games. The way they go two rounds deep, they got some guys that can score off the rush like that. They can turn the tide. We got to stack the same effort we did against Florida [Panthers], the same game plan. Getting the puck deep against Florida helped us [in] the first period. We didn’t have many turnovers, and against Winnipeg, if you want to fuel them, if you turn the puck over, you’re in trouble. We’re not saying [to] not make a play. We’re just saying [to] make the right play.” – Rick Tocchet; 10/16/2025
After securing their first win of the season versus the Panthers, the Flyers are hoping to add consecutive victories for the first time in the 2025-2026 NHL Regular Season.
Injury Report: Philadelphia Flyers
Injury Report: Winnipeg Jets
- Dylan Samberg (wrist)
- Adam Lowry (hip)
- Cole Perfetti (ankle)
Where: Xfinity Mobile Arena; Philadelphia, PA
When: 7pm/ET
Last Game PHI: 10/13/25; 5-2 W; vs. Florida Panthers
Last Game WPG: 10/13/25; 5-2 W; at New York Islanders
Philadelphia Flyers
Cam York will make his 2025-2026 NHL Regular Season debut. He missed the first three games of the season due to a lower-body injury. Emil Andrae returned to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, meaning Adam Ginning and Noah Juulsen occupy the third pair. York will jump to the top pair with Sanheim.
“What I liked about him [Cam York] in camp, and even in some of the exhibition games [is] he was actually trying stuff on the blue line. There’s a lot of movement. Just talking to Danny [Daniel Brière] and Jonesy [Keith Jones] last year, he would get it and reset the puck. We want him to make plays at the blue line, and I’m seeing that. He’s got a lot of confidence to do that. We continue wanting to have a lot of movement on the blue line.” – Rick Tocchet; 10/16/2025
Sean Couturier lit up the stat sheet and scoreboard versus Florida. He scored the game-winner from a spicy assist by Trevor Zegras. Couturier was very effective with his linemates, which mostly consisted of Travis Konecny and Matvei Michkov. However, Christian Dvorak did move up to the first line in place of Michkov in the third period. Something to follow will be Michkov’s usage, who skated in 14:55TOI versus the Panthers.
Part of the reason for the decrease in minutes for Michkov is the number of minutes Philadelphia spends on the penalty kill. They’re providing an average of 9:20PIM for opponents, and Winnipeg housed the top power play unit a season ago. Currently, the Jets are tied for 16th with the New York Islanders in power play efficiency.
“The refs, I usually don’t complain about it because they’re trying their best. Everybody’s a little rusty at the beginning of the year. Maybe some guys are a little rusty. I don’t know, but we’ve had fifteen penalties. The alarming thing is stick penalties; hooking. Yeah, there’s a couple [when] you’re like, ‘really?’ But, I get it in the sense that you just got to keep your stick down. That’s the way it is. It’s funny, you kill off the aggressive penalties. Mich [Matvei Michkov] goes in there and helps out TK [Travis Konecny], we kill that penalty off. It’s usually those stick infractions when teams score on [you]; the lazy ones. Just stay aggressive, but just keep your stick down.” – Rick Tocchet; 10/16/2025
Sam Ersson will start versus Winnipeg. He’s searching for his first win of the season after Dan Vladař secured the victory in the home opener.
Lineup: Philadelphia Flyers
Konecny-Couturier-Michkov
Zegras-Dvorak-Tippett
Foerster-Cates-Brink
Grebenkin-Luchanko-Hathaway
York-Sanheim
Seeler-Drysdale
Ginning-Juulsen
Ersson
(Vladař)
Lineup: Winnipeg Jets
Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi
Iafallo-Toews-Pearson
Niederreiter-Namestnikov-Nyquist
Koepke-Barron-Chibrikov
Morrissey-DeMelo
Stanley-Pionk
Fleury-Schenn
Hellebuyck
(Comrie)
