October 09, 2026
Eric Hartline/IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Matvei Michkov and the Flyers left themselves with a long way to go.
The Flyers actually – finally – looked pretty decent Thursday night in Ottawa.
They pushed the puck up ice with much better pace and purpose, and made it a point to shoot, winning a shot battle for the first time all season, 29-26, over the hosting Senators.
They graded out as the better team at even strength, too, with a 2.16-1.36 advantage in expected goals over Ottawa, along with a 9-5 edge in high-danger chances, per Natural Stat Trick.
They even – and also finally – hammered home a power-play goal in the second period, when Matvei Michkov found a still loose puck behind Sens goaltender Linus Ullmark to clean up.
If the Flyers played this way a week ago, when the season started, there'd be no issue – or rather, there'd be far less of one.
But they still lost, 2-1, Thursday night, to drop to a still winless 0-3-2 on a still young 2026-27 season.
They took four consecutive penalties through the first period to keep leaving themselves on their heels for an extended stretch; they had a third-period 5-on-3 that they left on the table; then new Flyer Michael Bunting went to the box for hooking, they fell behind off of it, and couldn't will their way back, which means they're still in the same spot.
So, cool, the Flyers looked better on Thursday night, and maybe that is a show of promise that they're starting to establish some kind of rhythm heading toward Boston on Saturday.
But better still resulted in another loss, all after an opening week of flat, disconnected hockey that dug what should be a young and talented team on paper – that just made the playoffs a few months ago – into a hole that they really didn't need to be in.
Better, from where the Flyers started in this case, doesn't drop them a rope or a ladder out of this, and any silver linings or positive takeaways right now don't either, even though they do still need those, too.
The only way out of this jam is with actual results – with wins.
But the Flyers are just over a week into the season, with five games played, and they're still looking for their first win.
They're at the bottom of the early NHL standings, with a slow Los Angeles Kings club and a Calgary Flames group way short on difference-making talent as the only two other winless teams.
And they're sitting with a minus-13 goal differential, the second-worst only to those aforementioned Flames at minus-17, while having scored no more than two goals in a game so far.
So, cool, the Flyers looked better for a game. But only after they've put themselves in a spot where they're going to need way more than that going forward.
They still need that first win, then go from there.
"You're building on stuff," head coach Rick Tocchet said postgame. "It still sucks to lose. We gotta make some plays, though, under pressure. I thought the 5-on-3, we had a couple looks there, [but] we never found them...Anyways, we'll go back to the drawing board."
"Five-on-five, we knew we were playing good," said captain Sean Couturier, who was bumped up the lineup Thursday night in the hopes of finding a spark. "Thought we played a good game. We just didn't find that extra opportunity that we needed, and they did. It's unfortunate, but at least we can build on some good things here."
But there is urgency, and only more of it the longer the Flyers stay winless, to get those good things off the runway.
Rick Tocchet, Sean Couturier, and the Flyers are at a minus-13 goal differential to begin the season.
Hope isn't totally gone for the Flyers yet, though. There are still 79 games to play (for as much as they can't afford to sit and lean on that solace), and this definitely wouldn't be the first time that a Flyers team royally stumbled, only to fix themselves and rally into the playoffs anyway.
The 2013-14 Flyers started 1-7-0 and had to fire Peter Laviolette for Craig Berube in between, until they rallied to 94 points and then seven games against the Rangers in the first round.
The 2008-09 Flyers, to which general manager Danny Brière was a part of and as NBC Sports Philadelphia's Jordan Hall pointed out, lost six straight to start (at 0-3-3), but then made it, too, with 99 points, until a young Sidney Crosby and the rival Penguins sent them home quick.
Even last year's Flyers, who are largely the same as this year's, nearly didn't make it after sleepwalking through January and into the Olympic break, but figured it all out through March and April.
It's still bad right now, for sure, but it can get better.
It's just that the Flyers left themselves needing way more than better after this bad of a start.
They need wins.
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