NEWARK — Well, it wasn’t quite as bad as the season opener. But 24 hours later, the Philadelphia Flyers again found themselves on the losing end of the scoreboard against a division rival.
Despite the New Jersey Devils controlling the bulk of the possession battle and outshooting the Flyers 41 – 22, the Flyers jumped out to leads of 1-0 and 2-1 but could not hold either, ultimately falling 3-2 in overtime courtesy of a Jack Hughes gamewinner — the final exclamation point on a standout performance for the Devils star.
The Flyers, on the other hand, continue to lack anything close to standout performances, at least by their skaters. Joseph Woll was fantastic in his Flyers debut, making 38 saves and holding down the fort even as the skaters were pinned in their own zone for multi-minute stretches. Travis Sanheim and Rasmus Ristolainen scored for the Flyers, who fell to 0-1-1 and are still searching for their first victory of the 2026-27 season.
Diehard Exclusive
Unlock Your Full Philadelphia Flyers Experience
This premium content is a Philadelphia Flyers Diehard exclusive.
Diehard Level 1
Most Popular
Diehard Pro Level
Cancel anytime. No questions asked.
You're already a Diehard! Manage your subscription from your dashboard.
Already a Diehard?
Sign In
4 Comments
yoni
Thanks Charlie.
superunoriginal
It’s only two games, but this is an extension of the preseason, and this team is extremely disconnected. Same problems where they simply cannot move the puck consistently or complete but a few passes before losing control and turning it over. Sloppy. It’s something that gets cleaned up in the preseason and it didn’t happen, and as Charlie pointed out, Tocchet not knowing why is a red flag.
If you don’t know the problem, you don’t know how to fix the problem. Obviously practice is key–develop the familiarity, but that there’s no sign it’s actually worked (going back to training camp) is alarming. Then you start throwing things against the wall to see what sticks. Tocchet’s next move might be to punish young players. Negative reinforcement on a young team. That’s not going to go over well.
Anthony Pozzi
When you can’t execute a 6 foot pass there are bigger problems , but low key thought to one problem. MM seems surprisingy good at faceoffs when he has to step in . 1st pp unit it would help to win a draw to start the pp
Marc
The Pens and Devils sure looked like they practiced more than “5 or 6” times. With this starting schedule (4 games in 6 days, including the Canes and Lightning coming), the way they are playing right now (they look completely unprepared and totally out of synch) is inexcusable. And Tocchet sounds like he doesn’t know what to do or how to fix it.