On the first night of a home-and-home with Washington, the Flyers came out flat against the Capitals, and fell to 1-4-1 on the young season. The loss featured many of the same trends that we’ve seen through the first six games of the year, with a lack of quality center play, turnovers from young defenseman, and a return to the power play that was dreadful in 2023-24. This might be a rebuild, folks. 

The Basics

First period: 3:49 – Nic Dowd (Fehervary) (SHG), 15:07 – Andrew Mangiapane (McMichael) (SHG) 

Second period: No scoring 

Third period: 0:34 – Travis Sanheim (York, Michkov), 1:38 – Dylan Strome (Carlson, McMichael), 14:07 – Jakob Chychrun (Duhaime, Vrana) 

SOG: 29 (WSH) – 18 (PHI) 

Some Takeaways

Power play woes 

The Flyers power play is … returning to its 2023-24 form, and that’s not a good thing for any of us. But particularly, the issues today revolve a lot around the second unit, which was depleted without the likes of Jett Luchanko and Tyson Foerster. Instead, Sean Couturier and Scott Laughton saw time on the power play for their first extended looks of the season, and the second unit was a mess. In the first period alone, two misplays by the group, particularly Egor Zamula, led directly to two Capitals shorthanded goals. In both cases, Zamula was caught behind the play as the Capitals went the other way on breakaways. Really, if something doesn’t change, the Flyers are going to have to look at removing Zamula from the second unit. There’s far too many times when Zamula’s mistakes turn into legit chances for the penalty kill, and the Flyers can’t afford to keep a guy like that on the man advantage. 

Brink has jump, but commits bad turnover on power play

Speaking of power play woes, Bobby Brink was certainly a part of them, as one of his turnovers led directly to the Capitals’ second shorthanded goal of the night. And to top it all off, John Tortorella certainly noticed it, and removed Brink from PP2 on the Flyers remaining power play opportunities for the night. 

However, Brink had some noticeable pop tonight in a game where not a ton of Flyers had it. There were numerous shifts, especially in the second period, where it felt as if Brink was flying on the ice and creating chances for his teammates. It’s fair to wonder though that despite Brink’s offensive creation, the mistake on the power play sends Brink out of the lineup when Tyson Foerster and Jett Luchanko check back in tomorrow night. 

Lineup in a blender 

Guessing what the Flyers’ lineup is going to look like is not easy right now, and Tortorella is literally trying every possible combination to see what sticks. Today, it was already quite surprising to learn that Tyson Foerster was removed from the lineup, as a Torts’ favorite being sent a message early in the season is somewhat out of the ordinary. Then, the lines throughout the game were all over the place as the Flyers tried desperately to snap out of the early-season issues. There were first lines with Couturier, extended looks with Poehling centering Michkov, and much more weird combinations that don’t feel like long-term plans for this season. He alluded to it in a mid-game interview, but Tortorella is trying to find a center combination that works, and there might just not be the pieces on this roster to do so. 

Sanheim gets on the board 

Hey, the Flyers did score a goal in this one! And it was the first Travis Sanheim goal of 2024-25, and the first Flyers home goal of the season! The Capitals managed to answer barely a minute later, but it was good to see the Flyers’ No. 1 defenseman find his way onto the scoresheet. And also, this goal finally let us know that the goal song remains the same, for those who keep track.