Flyers vs. Senators: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

By Bill Meltzer / February 6, 2026

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Rick Tocchet’s Philadelphia Flyers (25-20-11) crept into the NHL’s Olympic break with a 2-1 home overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators on Thursday. It was a downright dreadful hockey game. Played with all the energy and urgency of a late September exhibition game, both teams lacked execution.

The Flyers enter the break nine points out of an Eastern Conference playoff spot, factoring the regulation wins tiebreaker. Meanwhile, Philly has lost each of their last seven games decided after regulation.

There’s not much to say by way of game synopsis. Prolonged stretches went by with little action. Neither team impressed. Except for a few shifts, the Flyers generated little attack. Ottawa generated more but didn’t sustain it. Finally, Tim Stutzle ended the game in the opening minute of overtime. For the second time in three games, the Flyers had an overtime odd-man rush. They didn’t score. Play swung the other way and the opposing team collected the victory.

The good

Dan Vladar continued to look sharp. He gave his team every chance to win.
For the second straight game, Jamie Drysdale scored a clutch goal late in the third period.
Ottawa entered the game as the NHL’s No. 2 team on faceoffs. The Flyers held even in that department through regulation despite Trevor Zegras going 1-for-6.
The Flyers took just one penalty all night. They killed it successfully.

The bad

The Flyers generated a mere eight shots on goal through two periods. They had none for the first 14-plus minutes of the game, then two in succession. That represented their entire first period total.
Through the game’s first 55 minutes, Philly had just six high-danger scoring chances.
The team juggled three of its four forward line combinations by the third period. The bump was minimal.

The ugly

Turnovers. The Flyers were charged with 21 giveaways. They lost another five pucks via takeaways from Ottawa.
Missed opportunities. Philly missed the net 21 times. Ottawa also blocked 18 other attempts. Vladar had just six blocks in front of him and Ottawa missed 12.
The coverage on Stutzle’s OT game-winning sequence was atrocious.

Postgame reaction

This topic has 3 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 1 month, 2 weeks ago by Flyers_01.

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- February 6, 2026 at 12:25 pm #64030
  
  Bill Meltzer
  Keymaster
  
  Rick Tocchet’s Philadelphia Flyers (25-20-11) crept into the NHL’s Olympic break with a 2-1 home overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators.
  
  [See the full post at: Flyers vs. Senators: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly]
- February 7, 2026 at 6:45 pm #64112
  
  Shoresy
  Participant
  
  The Flyers were not as good as they seemed in the first half of the season and they’re not as bad as they have been recently. This is just water seeking its own level. They will be a lottery team but, regrettably, they’ll be stuck in the mushy middle again.
- February 7, 2026 at 9:56 pm #64129
  
  Flyers_01
  Participant
  
  I thought the game was so bad and boring that Bill went to sleep and wiped it from his memory. It was bad boring hockey by the Flyers and we are all worse off for having watched it. People who went to the game should have their money refunded.
  
  Despite another hatchet job by Kevin Kurz after the Caps game, i thought Michkov was one of the better Flyers players on the ice with other players not being held to the same strict standard that he has been held to. Whoever (Tocchet) inspired Kurz to write that article needs to be fired.
  
  Friedman called the Flyers out for the Michkov Saga, DB went to bat for his hand picked coach, hand picked coach FINALLY told Michkov he could stay on the ice longer, Michkov looked good, Flyers won. The heat was dying down. Then Kurz publishes his article saying that many in the building think Michkov is basically a lost cause for this year. WTF? Only an idiot would protect Tocchet even though every advanced metric says Tocchet is wrong.
  
  The icing on cake against the Sens were 2 things :
  
  1. Juulsen whose only defining hockey trait is being tall was to important to let the smaller but much more talented Andrae play in the Sen was responsible for what was, up until the last 2 minutes, the only goal in the game.
  2. Michkov, who still leads the team in OT goals over the last 2 years, once again not seeing OT ice because …. Tocchet. The Flyers never even made it to the first line change with Tocch’s boys making all the mistakes he keeps saying he’s afraid Michkov will make.
  
  2 goals in 18 OT games and counting. The Flyers are so so bad but apparently the extra 45 seconds of ice time in OT would break Michkov.
  
  DB has been forced to take deserved heat for Tocchet despite only being 6 months into his 1st year. It’s going to be a loooong contract for DB to answer for as this goes on.
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