March 09, 2026
Eric Hartline/Imagn Images
Matvei Michkov and the Flyers struggled to crack Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin on Monday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
For every step forward, there's a step back.
For every maddening slide that leaves a fan just wanting them to punt to next season and go in on the draft lottery, there's somehow a string of hard-fought wins with flashes of promise that leave them just enough within reach of the postseason picture to not count them totally out yet.
Then there's a crash back to earth, and repeat.
Such is the state of the Philadelphia Flyers in 2026, with a 6-2 blowout loss to the New York Rangers on Monday night spinning them down to the bottom of that brutal cycle.
They got knocked around, got repeatedly caught out of position collapsing too far down in front of their own net, struggled to force their own shots through at the other end of the rink – or just made one move too many before they even could – and before the Flyers knew it, a 3-0 hole was dug by the end of the first period and Xfinity Mobile Arena was booing them off the ice.
Matvei Michkov jammed home a rebound for a power play goal early into the second period, which maybe could've been the spark for a momentum swing. It wouldn't have been the first time the Flyers suddenly put the burners on to stage a rally, after all, or at least force overtime for a point. But it also wouldn't have been the first time they'd have just let the night spiral either.
Travis Konecny, in his return to the lineup from injury, tipped the scales to the latter.
A couple of minutes after Michkov's goal, he got caught flat-footed against Rangers forward Tye Kartye, couldn't get his skates chopping, and grabbed at Kartye to get tagged for a holding call.
Gabe Perreault got leverage on Travis Sanheim in front of the Philadelphia net and got his stick free to tap in a rebound off Dan Vladar's pad immediately into the ensuing Rangers power play.
New York went back up by three, and the Flyers looked checked out.
They got caught with their feet still a few more times as the second period wore on, Mika Zibanejad, with his second goal of the night, and then Vladislav Gavrikov piled on to make it 6-1.
The seconds ticked down, the building started looking emptier, and yet the boos got a lot clearer.
Such is the state of the Philadelphia Flyers in 2026.
Michkov can take over in an OT thriller up at Madison Square Garden, which can snowball into three straight wins.
But then just before the trade deadline, they show up against Utah – or rather, they don't – and lay an egg in a 3-0 shutout.
The front office trades away Bobby Brink at the deadline for David Jiříček, who will hopefully be a key young defenseman in their lineup this time next year, and that opens up a spot in the forward lines for Alex Bump to come up and impress in his NHL debut, while two other important young pieces in Michkov and Denver Barkey skate well together in a shootout victory over the rival Penguins that they had to scratch and claw to.
Then they get the Rangers again, this time at home, and just fall apart – mind you, against a Rangers team that has become the worst in the Eastern Conference, and with a New York front office that already waved the white flag on this season to rebuild again a while ago.
It was a despondent night for Travis Konecny and the Flyers.
The Flyers are 29-23-11 after Monday night's loss. They're still technically in the Wild Card chase, but games like this, that go nowhere and just run their time left to recover shorter, are ultimately going to keep them out of it.
They have the Capitals, who have also fallen to the outside looking in of the race, back here at home on Wednesday night.
Maybe they bounce back with that game and keep themselves afloat for a little longer, just long enough to where you can't totally count them out yet, as much as many fans might want to altogether.
Or maybe they fumble around the ice again, and those lottery odds really start gaining traction, which really might be for the better.
But such is the state of the Philadelphia Flyers in 2026.
You don't know what to really make of them.
SIGN UP HERE to receive the PhillyVoice Sports newsletter
Follow Nick on Twitter: @itssnick
Follow Nick on Bluesky: @itssnick
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports
