Flyers Home Opener: Game Day Notebook

Anthony Mingioni’s Flyers blogs are powered by Phans of Philly and by Summit Public Adjusters. Have you experienced damage to your property? Don’t panic! You’re in good hands. Summit works for YOU, and not the insurance companies. Call Brendan Gillespie at 215-919-1434. Phans of Philly is the longest-established travel company for Philadelphia pro sports team fan road trips.

Flyers

After two games down south to open their season, the Philadelphia Flyers finally got things going on home ice Monday night. Coming off a short season opening road trip in Florida and Carolina, Philadelphia is set to rematch the defending Stanley Cup champions at the Xfinity Mobile Arena.

The Flyers have a 0-1-1 record heading into their 2025-26 home opener. They lost to the Panthers 2-1 on Thursday, then suffered a heartbreaking 4-3 overtime loss to the Hurricanes. 

Andrae’s Elevation

During Monday morning’s practice’s line rushes, the Flyers are deploying the same forwards group that played in Carolina on Saturday, with rookies Jett Luchanko and Nikita Grebenkin slotting into fourth line roles. In addition, Dan Vladar starts in net, despite a strong performance by Samuel Ersson against the Hurricanes.

However, the team’s defense sees changes as Emil Andrae was recalled from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Sunday. Andrae skated on the team’s third pairing with veteran Noah Juulsen. Adam Ginning moves up to the second pair alongside Jamie Drysdale. The top pairing of Travis Sanheim and Nick Seeler remained unchanged.

Tocchet discussed his expectations for Andrae with reporters: “Puck movement. I think we struggled the last couple of games getting the puck up the ice. I think he can add that as a fourth man on the rush with his mobility on the ice, beating their forecheck.”

“The best forecheck teams wheel the puck. If you beat their forecheck and then our forwards get the puck. If you’re always constantly in the glass, you’re going to be slow to get it out. Then you’re mucking and grinding to get it out of there.”

Tocchet acknowledged Travis Sanheim is shouldering a large amount of ice time and is looking for someone to step in and help. The problem for Andrae during training camp was more decision-making based, such as throwing pucks into the middle of the ice.

Zamula’s Demotion (For One Night, At Least)

As a result, Egor Zamula will be a healthy scratch from Monday’s lineup. Not an unsurprising development considering his struggles late in preseason and into the first two games of the season.

Indecision with the puck and mistakes such as on Logan Stankoven’s game tying goal in the second period on Saturday have compounded his struggles. As Noah Cates’ line and Drysdale got trapped up ice, Zamula took himself out of the play by diving across.

Michkov Summer Setback

One of the more interesting developments that has occurred during the opening two games has been Matvei Michkov’s ice time.

In his rookie season in 2024-25, Michkov averaged 16:41 of ice time. This season, he has a 14:11 average, including only 13:27 against the Hurricanes, with no shifts in the overtime period. Of note, the Russian winger committed a turnover late in regulation in that game.

During his postgame press conference on Saturday, Flyers head Tocchet deflected a reporter’s question regarding it, stating “I just wanted the guys that I thought were skating.”

When asked by The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz about his star winger’s lack of ice time during Monday’s pregame press conference, Tocchet pointed to the Flyers penalty taking and an ankle injury during the summer as the primary reasons.

“We’ve had five power-plays, so the game’s 50 minutes now, and then we had four or five penalties that we had to clean up,” Tocchet said to reporters. “So all of a sudden, he’s getting 15 minutes. If we don’t have penalties, he’s probably getting 17 minutes and everyone’s making it an issue.”

“The other thing is that he dealt with something this summer, something with an ankle that I didn’t even know about. It limited some of his training. So he’s a little bit behind the eight-ball when it comes to (his ice-time). But it’s something we’re going to correct.”

“He’s healthy now, it wasn’t a major thing. It affected some of his training. We know we have to work him and stuff like that.”

1 thought on “Flyers Home Opener: Game Day Notebook”

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Scroll to Top