October 06, 2026
Pablo Robles/IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Tyson Foerster fires a shot for the Flyers Monday night against the Lightning in Tampa. Someone had to, eventually.
Tyson Foerster wheeled over the top of the left circle and just flung a shot on, which finally took a lucky ricochet by Andrei Vasilevskiy.
The Flyers, finally, were on the board Monday night in Tampa Bay. But by that point, well into the second period, they were being heavily outshot by the host Lightning 14-5, were still trailing, and weren't about to find any reprieve.
The Flyers went on to lose, 4-1.
Four games into the new season, they're still winless at 0-2-2, and with increasing reason to worry, because their record accurately matches how they've looked.
They can't generate effective offense.
Through four games, the Flyers have been outscored 17-5, outshot 158-76 (a minus-82 differential), and haven't had a game yet where they've left the second period with 20 or more shots on goal (while each of their opponents went down the tunnel with 21 shots minimum).
Through four games, they're not driving play at even strength or playing with any solid defensive structure either. After Monday night, the Flyers left the ice with a 25.99 expected goals for percentage and a 25.00 high-danger chance for percentage, per Natural Stat Trick, which both rank out at 32nd (i.e. dead last) in the NHL.
And what almost completely did the Flyers in on Monday night was a blind and spinning backhand pass from Cam York across his own blue line, while the Flyers were changing early into the third period. Tampa's Gage Goncalves picked the puck immediately, and charged straight to the Philadelphia net with Hart Trophy winner Nikita Kucherov also closing in, which left goaltender Dan Vladar frantically scrambling in his crease to fight the situation away.
The moment that truly did the Flyers in against the Lightning, though, came with just over three minutes left. David Jiříček, a reclamation project of a defenseman, tossed another no-look pass to no one across center ice. The puck locked right to Pontus Holmberg's stick, which sparked another Lightning rush that, after Holmberg made a deke that dropped a flat-footed Jiříček to the ice, ended with Ilya Mikheyev burying a wrap-around for a 3-1 lead.
There was no recovering from that.
Oh yeah, the Flyers' power play went 0-for-3 on Monday night, and is 0-for-11 on the season. It's still awful, on six years running.
And as for the entire effort – or lack of it, if you're really cynical – it's damning.
"This team is way too comfortable," head coach Rick Tocchet said following Monday night's loss. "It did not compete tonight."
Hardly for any night, really.
Last Wednesday's 7-0 embarrassment of an opener to the Penguins went beyond early-season rust.
The push into overtime against the Devils the night after in Newark was more of a credit to backup goalie Joseph Woll making 41 saves more than anything, while New Jersey star Jack Hughes was pressing after his moment all night and eventually got it.
Saturday against the defending champion Hurricanes was heavily on Woll, too, after another 37 saves, and after the Flyers set themselves back immediately with a Sebastian Aho goal 10 seconds in.
And Monday night in Tampa? Where do you point to? What do you hold on to? Foerster finally getting one from just throwing the puck on, only for the Flyers to go and hand it right back with some blind and reckless passes that hung themselves out to dry?
It's a mess right now.
Jamie Drysdale (far left) and the Flyers have spent far too much time trying to clear out their own net in the early going.
The young team that clicked last March, and caught a wave all the way into the playoffs and then past the rival Pens in the first round, just isn't there right now.
In its place is a group that still doesn't look like it's aware that the season actually started, a group that largely doesn't know where it's supposed to be or what to do with the puck, and a group that, even when it does have it, just can't – or won't – press it forward and shoot.
Tocchet, for as briefly as he spoke to the press postgame on Monday night, visibly agitated from the previous couple of hours, owned that.
"[There's] not enough compete in this group right now," he said. "It's on me."
And look, there's still 80 games left, sure. Long season and all that.
But how the Flyers have looked so far – ugly, unprepared, and highly underwhelming to a city and fan base that was ready to see them take off – isn't something to gradually work out of.
These games do count. The wake-up call has to happen now.
The Flyers can't be hitting the snooze button again when they're back up Thursday night in Ottawa.
"You can't be getting outshot like that," said key rookie Porter Martone, who doesn't have a point yet this season after some considerable Calder Trophy buzz all summer. "Give [the Lightning] credit, they're a good team. But we gotta come to battle. I mean, starting 0-4 isn't our best thing, but hockey, it's a mindset. It's just how you respond."
"We have the skill in here, we have the people," Martone continued. "I think it's just, you know, doing it. I think it's decisions, and we just gotta be connected. It's easy to say, but actions speak louder than words, so we gotta go out and do it."
Start by shooting the puck.
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