Rick Tocchet’s Philadelphia Flyers (8-5-2) overcame a poor first period to earn a point against the Ottawa Senators on Saturday afternoon. However, Ottawa prevailed in overtime, 3-2. Here’s the good, the bad and the ugly from Saturday’s performance.
The Good
The Flyers played well in the second period and dominated the third period. Philadelphia held Ottawa to a combined six shots on goal over the final 40 minutes of regulation, including just one in the third period.
Resiliency. Saturday’s game already marked the fifth time in the still-young season that the Flyers battled back for a win (three times) or regulation tie (twice) when trailing after two periods. That tops all NHL teams. The team managed that feat eight times for the entire 2024-25 season.
Matvei Michkov now has goals in back-to-back games. His second period tally on Saturday was a beauty. He combined skill and grit to fend off Jake Sanderson and cut from the perimeter to the inside. Subsequently, Michkov used Christian Dvorak as a screen and snapped a shot past Linus Ullmark.
Jamie Drysdale combined with Dvorak and Trevor Zegras for the game-tying goal. Drysdale pinched down low and scored on a rebound. Both Drysdale and Cam York continue to play with much more assertiveness and confidence this season.
Noah Juulsen is often at his best when he goes completely unnoticed. That’s true for most defensive defensemen. However, on Saturday, Juulsen was quite noticeable for good things. He was very physical (six hits). He boxed out Senators forwards effectively. Moreover, he got under the Senators’ skin. Juulsen had a rough preseason but he’s settled in well as the number six defenseman in the rotation. He’s played with three different partners — Egor Zamula, Adam Ginning and now Emil Andrae. Hopefully, the Andrae pairing builds off the last few games.
Travis Konecny now has a seven-game point streak.
The Bad
Tuesday’s game in Montreal saw the Flyers play their best first period of the season. Thursday’s game in Nashville saw the Flyers overcome a brutal opening 10 minutes to win in regulation. Saturday marked another poor start. The eight comeback point this season are great. However, chasing the game too often is a losing formula eventually.
The two quick Ottawa goals in the first period caught Flyers players flat-footed. These were not easy saves for Samuel Ersson. However, they were also not unstoppable chances. Overall, Ersson did OK in his return game from the Injured Reserve list.
Trevor Zegras had a moment of line change indecision that proved costly in overtime. No one took it harder than Zegras himself. The normally upbeat and gregarious forward sat pensively at his locker for a long time after the game ended. Even as the media filed in for postgame interviews, Zegras was still there.
Owen Tippett is notorious for his streakiness. He’s either scorching hot or ice cold offensively. In Montreal, he looked to be in the brink of another scoring binge. Unfortunately, except for a couple of isolated shifts, the last two games have been a backward step from Monday. Since his run of five goals in five games (Oct.11 to 20), Tippett has one point (0g, 1a) in his last nine games.
The Ugly
The first period was downright ugly from a Flyers’ point of view. From there’s, the Senators would probably say the second and (especially) the third period were ugly. The game started to turn with an early second period shift by the Flyers’ fourth line. Both Nikita Grebenkin and Garnet Hathaway were the the catalysts. The Flyers didn’t score there but it sparked some momentum.
Saturday’s tilt was not a well-officiated game. Some blatant penalties were either missed or conveniently evened up.
