October 27, 2026
Eric Hartline/IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Trevor Zegras and the Flyers got yet another reality check on Tuesday night.
Fans were yelling "shoot," just for the Flyers to lose the puck after standing still with it for too long, and to be left scrambling back by their own net.
A four-on-four with plenty of open ice halfway through the first period from matching roughing penalties went to waste – left them in the hole, even – and for more than half of the opening period, the Flyers skated without a single shot on goal, all while the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets scored three times off of complete Philadelphia disarray.
The progress the Flyers had pieced together to win three straight games, and a period before they let Saturday against Anaheim get away from them, looked like it had gone completely out the window.
But then Porter Martone finally just shot head-on for Noah Cates to guide in a loose rebound behind Columbus goaltender Cam Talbot in the second period; Trevor Zegras jammed another puck under Talbot's blocker shortside late in the third; and then, with the seconds dwindling and an extra attacker out, Jamie Drysdale dropped to a knee and had Tyson Foerster's centering pass and the tying goal hop in off of him to force overtime.
It was a mad dash back...just for the Flyers to give up consecutive 2-on-0 breaks, with Adam Fantilli and Kent Johnson not missing on the second try to put the Flyers away 4-3 at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
KENT JOHNSON WINS IT FOR THE JACKETS ON THEIR SECOND (!!!) 2-ON-0 IN OVERTIME 🤯🚨 pic.twitter.com/5E4T9zdBoA
— Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) October 28, 2026
The Flyers are still getting another point, sure. But much of Tuesday night carried many of the same issues that made the Flyers look like one of the worst and more perfunctory teams in the NHL through the season's first two weeks.
They looked sloppy. In the waning seconds of that 4-on-4 and with Columbus breaking down the ice, the Flyers made a poorly timed change, which left Oliver Bonk stranded, Cates overcommitting to attack Johnson as the puck carrier straight off the bench, and Fantilli free across the crease to ricochet in the opening goal off of Dan Vladar's blocker.
Kent Johnson and Adam Fantilli connect on the give-and-go to open the scoring for the Jackets 👀🚨 pic.twitter.com/f2gLWu0MgJ
— Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) October 27, 2026
They looked passive. Columbus' second and third goals came on open point shots from Zach Werenski, with a deflection by Johnson, and then Denton Mateychuk, through collapsing traffic around Vladar's crease that he couldn't see through, and that was largely created by the Flyers' own bodies directly in front of him.
2 GOALS IN UNDER A MINUTE 😱
— Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) October 27, 2026
And Denton Mateychuk makes it 3-0 Jackets in the first period 🔥 pic.twitter.com/ENn8EM4dd2
And they looked disconnected. Broken passes were fired through the neutral zone, possessions were short-lived around the walls and never encroached in far enough for genuine scoring chances, and then the Flyers fell back into getting hemmed down in their own corners and spinning around with the puck as a Columbus checker would go in to hound them without any kind of direct escape.
The team that beat Ottawa, and then Colorado and Buffalo, and looked like it was beginning to find a groove and make its way out of the disastrous hole they dug for themselves right at the starting line of the season wasn't there.
Instead was a team that slipped straight down from any steps up the ladder they might've made in the past week or so.
"For whatever reason, seems like our energy's a little off, our mojo with positive or negative things happening to us," Cates said postgame. "It can't be a 'poor me' mindset. It's gotta be, whether it's good or bad, let's get after it the next shift and turn the tide for us in our favor."
Right now, though, it's only taking the Flyers the other way.
To be fair, the Flyers skated the second period onward like they did get some sort of wakeup call, outshooting Columbus 28-6 through the rest of regulation, after they went into the first intermission down a woeful 7-2 in the shot battle.
"Coach got on us," Cates said. "But I think we kinda knew after that first, not good enough, you know, getting booed, all that stuff. I'm happy with how we responded, but that first 20 can't happen."
But also to be fair, skating harder and trying to jam passes and shots through the shins of two or three guys ahead of you when you're behind isn't a steadily dependable way to crawl back into and win games, and neither are two initial shots and then a 15-plus minute drought of offense to put yourself into that spot in the first place.
Plus, it's 14 games and almost a full month into the season. It's way past the time for wakeup calls.
Dan Vladar stopped one 2-on-0 to save the Flyers Tuesday night. They really tried their luck sending him another seconds later.
As for that mountain the Flyers have to climb in the standings from a now 3-7-4 record, if they do intend to fully climb it, well, it hasn't gotten any less steeper.
The only thing getting lesser now is time.
"We've been chasing all year trying to play 60 minutes," head coach Rick Tocchet said. "We didn't do the game plan in the first. We decided to do it, and look at the difference. So until we get it [through] our thick heads, we gotta play a certain way."
And largely, Tuesday night felt like a slide right back to square one.
Time is fickle.
Apparently, so are these Flyers.
"We have to have a chunk of players that know that when we come in, this is how the Flyers play," Tocchet continued. "We can't be so rollercoaster-ish...
"So yeah, I don't know if it's one or two players. For our team, I think it's a group, a collective group of players."
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