January 16, 2026
Charles LeClaire/Imagn Images
The Flyers got scored on a lot Thursday night in Pittsburgh.
Thursday night in Pittsburgh got no better for the Flyers.
They got spun around, outsmarted, and outworked, and now they're staring down what is easily their worst stretch of the season, at a bad time and with no easy escape.
They got knocked around by the rival Penguins in a 6-3 loss, their fifth straight defeat, and in a tight Eastern Conference race that seems at a breaking point to start separating, a four-point swing against a divisional opponent that you just knew was out of their hands by the second period.
The power play is still abysmal. It went 0-for-4 on Thursday night to officially drop to the NHL's worst at a dead-last 15.0-percent conversion rate.
And now the penalty kill is crumbling, too, having gotten completely torn apart on a 3-for-4 power play effort from Pittsburgh to worsen a run where they've been struggling to fight away any sort of danger.
Checkers are getting pulled out of position, guys are getting left unmarked, and when one of those guys is Sidney Crosby, he'll make you pay for it, as he's done for 20 years now.
Sam Ersson got pulled from the net Thursday night for a recalled Aleksei Kolosov. Neither looked great, and while the Flyers seem to believe that they've avoided anything major with Dan Vladar's injury, they don't have him for right now, but can't exactly count on their goaltending between Ersson and Kolosov until he gets back.
They're in a bit of trouble here.
On New Year's Day, the Flyers were sitting at third in the Metropolitan Division and were playing generally solid hockey that kept them afloat in the early playoff picture. Their defense was mostly sound, Vladar gave them dependable goaltending, and while they still don't have overwhelming offensive skill, a reignited Trevor Zegras was doing a lot to help them get by.
But ever since? They haven't been right after leaving that 5-2 thrashing of Anaheim last Tuesday.
Scoring seized up, discipline slipped, and then goaltending took a hit once Vladar left Wednesday night's loss at Buffalo with his injury – and after he had his own rough night a couple of days prior in the 5-1 pummeling from Tampa back at home.
Now the Flyers are sitting outside the playoff bubble by four points and at a minus-5 overall goal differential.
They're not sunk yet, but they are sliding.
And they have to find a way to save themselves here, because at least for right now, help isn't coming from anywhere else but within.
Back before that Anaheim game, after just having signed Christian Dvorak to his five-year contract extension, Flyers general manager Danny Brière spoke to the local media about that deal and where it indicated the team was at.
Brière has said previously that the players on the ice would always dictate the pace of the organization's rebuild, and at that point of about two weeks ago, he believed they were far enough along to not be annual sellers at the trade deadline anymore; that they could keep pieces around that helped the team stay more competitive, rather than continually going around to try and hoard assets and draft capital; and that it was OK to let the team try and make a push if it could manage it.
But what it didn't mean, Brière said, was that all chips were suddenly in.
It's nowhere near time to go for rentals when the next trade deadline rolls around in early March, and now that the Flyers are in a rut of bad hockey, it definitely isn't time to make a panic move to try and snap them out of it.
Patience is still the game, and tomorrow is still Brière's true goal.
If the struggling Flyers of today are going to figure this out and rebound, it's likely going to be with whatever they have in the building with them right now.
They set themselves up for a chance, but now that it's slipping, it's on them to save themselves and work their way back to it.
"It's exciting to see what's going on," Brière said of the Flyers' trajectory last Tuesday. "We're going to try to help the team if we can, but it's something that's gonna make sense. It doesn't change the vision. It doesn't change what we're trying to do. It's still about the future. If we do make a move, it's gonna be something that's gonna help us for the future as well, not just in the moment.
"Don't bank on any rental and to give up assets. We're not at that stage yet."
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