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Rick Tocchet’s Philadelphia Flyers (14-8-3) sustained a costly 5-1 home loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins (13-7-5) on Monday evening. Playing their fifth game in eight nights, the Flyers never got in sync all night. Philly briefly tied the game at 1-1 in the second period but never put together significant momentum at any point.
Moreover, the Flyers lost a key player. Shortly after scoring his 10th goal of the season, winger Tyson Foerster whiffed on a power play one timer. He went down to the ice in obvious pain and immediately left the game. He did not return. The Flyers did not immediately know the extent of the upper-body injury. However, it looked like a dislocated shoulder from the non-contact nature of the play.
Monday’s game was the polar opposite of Saturday’s win over the Devils. Whereas that game had mostly positive takeaways, the only true positive from Monday was that it only counts as one loss. Here’s the short version of the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The Good
- Bobby Brink had a strong opening period. He had a couple of good scoring chances right off the hop. Brink has been rather quiet lately offensively , so that was a positive start to the game. Thereafter, not much went right for him or anyone else in orange and black.
- Foerster cashed in the first of back-to-back 5-on-3 power plays for the Flyers. For a very short while, the Flyers had an opportunity to take over the game.
- It was far from a flawless game for Emil Andrae or pretty much any Flyer. However, at least he had some energy. Andrae jumped to plays numerous times and tried to make things happen.
The Bad
- Pretty much everything. The Flyers got massively outplayed on special teams (1-for-7 on the power play, 1-for-4 on the penalty kill). The Flyers had 27 turnovers (20 charged giveaways, seven Pittsburgh takeaways.
- The Flyers’ failed second five-on-three of the middle frame was a bad omen for the rest of the night. However, nothing stood out more than the sight of Foerster hurrying off the ice. He right arm dangled as he held his shoulder. Foerster dropped his left glove and disappeared down the tunnel.
- Not even a disallowed Evgeni Malkin goal early in the third period provided a lift to the Flyers. It was just a temporary reprieve.
- Team captain Sean Couturier took a bad penalty deep in the offensive zone. Pittsburgh scored on the ensuing power play. That’s really when things started to unravel for Philadelphia.
- Vladar coughed up a fat rebound to Sidney Crosby on the game’s first goal. Normally, Vladar settles in quickly after such a goal. Monday wasn’t that night. The goaltending was as mediocre as everything else.
The Ugly
- The Flyers’ penalty kill hasn’t been quite right for a couple weeks. The team’s win in Florida was the main exception. On Monday, the Pittsburgh power play shredded Philly’s PK.
- Philly had numerous opportunities to make plays. Instead, most went for turnovers, missed shots or lost battles.
- On pretty much every power play, the Flyers lost the critical first faceoff. They even lost offensive zone draws at 5-on-3.
Flyers Daily: December 2, 2025
