December 03, 2025
Eric Hartline/Imagn Images
Matvei Michkov (39), Travis Konecny (11), and the Flyers' power play jumped right on the Sabres during Wednesday night's win at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Rick Tocchet stacked the Flyers' top power-play unit ahead of Wednesday night's game.
He said after the morning skate that he held off on doing it earlier because the power play personnel on the whole had been giving up too many shorthanded 2-on-1 chances, and they needed to cut down on those.
But the situation can change.
Time and maturity for a still relatively young team under a still relatively new head coach can factor into that, and Tyson Foerster's upper-body injury setting him down for the next 2-3 months definitely played a part, too.
Though there was one other big component...
"Listen, we gotta get middle shots," Tocchet said. "We need to start hammering the puck from the middle of the ice. We're not getting that, obviously. We gotta get more down low plays and bumper plays. Those are the best power plays, and we're trying to find that."
So Trevor Zegras, Matvei Michkov, Owen Tippett, and Travis Konecny were put on a line all at once as Philly's top offensive guns, with Travis Sanheim hanging back as the point man for the man-advantage looks.
And they took off.
Konecny and Zegras scored back-to-back power-play goals to dig the Flyers out of yet another 1-0 hole, and then Bobby Brink slipped home a rebound at even strength right after to make for three goals scored in just 59 seconds, which all launched the Flyers toward a 5-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres at the home Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Noah Cates and Tippett piled on with a goal each in the second period, and as the Sabres lost their temper, the Flyers stayed the course to rebound quickly from a rough loss to the rival Penguins on Monday night, along with the loss of their leading scorer in Foerster for a good while.
Scoring is contagious! #BUFvsPHI | #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/lqBw893zNX
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) December 4, 2025
Konecny got his shot from up high through thanks to a Tippett screen in front of the net for the tie. Then, after a failed Buffalo challenge for goaltender interference kept the Flyers on the man-advantage for delay of game, Zegras tried to throw a pass across the ice from the top of the right faceoff circle, but it instead bounced off the skate of the Sabres' Ryan McLeod and past goaltender Colton Ellis for the lead.
It wasn't quite a shot, and wasn't really from the middle either, but hey, you take that – along with Brink's goal in quick succession, which was sparked by a great keep and a touch pass by new linemate Nikita Grebenkin right at the offensive blue line.
The Flyers improved to 15-8-3 with Wednesday night's win, keeping up in the early playoff picture with 33 points in the Eastern Conference standings.
They're also continuing to show, perhaps quietly, that when a tough night does happen – as it did on Monday against Pittsburgh – this team doesn't let the problems snowball and get out of control. As an example, the Flyers haven't lost consecutive games in regulations since the back-to-back against Toronto and then Calgary from Nov. 1-2.
They can clean themselves up pretty fast, and that's a small but important sign that they are building forward as a group.
"I think that's kind of the step this team needed," Cates said after the morning skate. "We're not super young anymore. Guys like me, Tipp, and whoever else with the kind of young core that's been here for 3-4 years now, we're not the 22-23-24-year-old guys now. I'm turning 27, so it's gotta be that step that has to be there in our game, the maturity."
They're learning. They're growing. And yeah, losing Foerster hurts a lot. But the locker room is operating in "next man up" mode, with the challenge issued from Tocchet earlier in the day for everyone in the lineup to get themselves to "five percent better."
The Flyers answered that call Wednesday night.
Plus, they know now that they've come far enough in their game to be able to stack all of their offensive heavy hitters on to the power play all at once.
Powering up. ⚡️#BUFvsPHI | #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/bROYQsyNfs
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) December 4, 2025
Zegras got boarded by Buffalo's Rasmus Dahlin after a 2-on-1 rush to the Sabres' net late in the second period
Every Flyer on the ice immediately booked it toward Dahlin to start the post-whistle scrum. Zegras was slow to get up, but stayed in the game after skating off the hit during the stoppage.
Cam York, who was in the scrum along the glass behind the Buffalo net, however, wasn't on the bench to start the third period, and the Flyers eventually announced that he was out for the remainder of the game without any specifics.
"He got hit behind the net or something," Tocchet said of what he knew postgame. "We're trying to look for it, but I think he got hit behind the net a little bit late."
Injury update: Flyers defenseman Cam York will not return to tonight's game. #BUFvsPHI
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) December 4, 2025
York forms the Flyers' top defensive pairing alongside Sanheim, and has taken a substantial step in his play at both ends of the ice so far this season under Tocchet.
Losing him for any length of time due to injury would be another tough blow for the Flyers' lineup to take.
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