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With Foerster down, likely for the season, the spotlight is on Matvei Michkov, Travis Konecny, Owen Tippett, and Bobby Brink to step up.
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Nick Tricome
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Flyers thoughts: Tyson Foerster’s surgery leaves a lot for other Philly forwards to make up for
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Flyers thoughts: Owen Tippett turns it on with two goals vs. Kraken, keeps scoring streak going
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The Flyers made it two wins in a row for the first time this season, thanks to a 5-2 thrashing of the Seattle Kraken Monday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Owen Tippett scored twice, Tyson Foerster and Noah Cates notched a goal each, Dan Vladar saved 21 of 23 shots to stay steady in net, and when push came to shove, Nikita Grebenkin and Travis Konecny weren’t shy about throwing any punches.
The Flyers are 3-2-1 still early into the season, but here’s what’s starting to click for them…
Tippett turns it on
Owen Tippett has been flying to begin the season, and especially throughout the last three games.
He’s been using his size and speed to bulldoze the puck through along the wall again, is finding those soft spots in the offensive zone ice, too, and with Monday night’s game against Seattle, he scored twice to make it four goals in the past three nights – first on a Nick Seeler redirect in the first period, then on a tough-angle shot just ahead of the goal line that slipped under Seattle goaltender Joey Daccord’s pads in the second.
Tippett has looked good. He looks more like that power forward who was scraping up against the 30-goal mark a couple of years ago, and that young piece the Flyers felt comfortable enough to put an eight-year contract into.
“He’s taking charge,” head coach Rick Tocchet said of Tippett after Monday’s morning skate. “I think whatever line I put him on, he’s really helped that line. He’s driving play.”
And it’s been adding up early.
Tippett was a noticeable presence throughout Monday night skating on a line with Sean Couturier and Travis Konecny.
He generated several other chances outside of his goal in the first period, including a high-danger one on a rush down the ice with Matvei Michkov late in the opening period, where Michkov had the puck along the wall and Tippett crashed the net looking for the pass inside.
Daccord just managed to fight the look away, but couldn’t way later on in the second, when a Couturier drop pass down low setup an unconventional shot that Tippett just went for and fired away. Daccord wasn’t ready and the Flyers went up, 5-2.
Tippett was one of the key Flyers in need of a bounce back year after taking a step back in what became former coach John Tortorella’s last.
He knew he needed it, too, as Tocchet noted the 26-year-old’s level of buy-in seemingly from Day 1 of his tenure behind the bench.
“He’s one of the guys, since the new crew got in here, the coaching staff, like he’s been really attentive,” Tocchet said. “Like I noticed that in camp. When you tell him something, sometimes players, they get the information and go ‘Okay, we get it,’ and they leave. But he hangs aorund, and he’s been aksing a lot of questions. I think he’s emotionally invested in this year, I’ve seen. There’s a long way to go, but I’ve felt that he’s really emotionally invested in the group, in the team.”
And so far, it’s been showing.
Tippett looks fast again. He looks powerful, and he’s finding the back of the net, in any which way.
“The fastest skater I’ve ever seen, it’s awesome,” Trevor Zegras said of Tippett with a sigh of disbelief after Saturday night’s 2-1 overtime win over Minnesota. “I’ve never played with a guy that has much speed. He does some wild stuff sometimes…Somebody so big that skates that fast, it’s fun to watch.”
And right now, adding up on the scoreboard.
The three-headed monster
Contuining to pile up just as much has been the production from Tyson Foerster, Noah Cates, and Bobby Brink.
“Three-headed monster, those three,” Zegras quipped of the line after Saturday night’s win.
And no kidding.
Cates scored the overtime winner to beat the Wild on Saturday night.
Foerster delivered the setup for it, then came back on Monday night against the Kraken to laser a goal home to the far post, which was followed by another Cates tally on a redirect through traffic later on. (And both on the power play!)
Entering Monday night, that entire line had a combined five goals and 11 points between them after five games.
Last season, they ended as the Flyer’s most consistent and relentlessly checking line. So far this season, they didn’t just pick up where they left off, they got better.
They’ve been all over the ice, and they’re putting up points, too.
Actually taking advantage
Staying with Cates, Foerster, and Brink, they contributed heavily to a pretty successful night on the power play for the Flyers, running with their specialty unit that also includes Zegras and then Cam York on the point.
With Foerster’s and Cates’ goals, they left the Flyers with a 2-for-4 night on the power play, with some considerably clean movement and exectuion, especially on the latter goal – that went from initially being credited to Cates, then to Foerster, then back to Cates on the official scoresheet:
Moreover, York got a better look on the power play after only getting 39 seconds to skate on it Saturday night against Minnesota.
York got 1:28 of power play time on Monday night, and the defenseman’s shot from up top on Cates’ goal in the second period threaded it’s way through traffic to set up for the redirect.
York has been waiting for an outlet to produce more points – he ended up with three assists for Monday nigh alone – and the Flyers have been waiting for their man-advantages to actually be advantages after years of toiling in the league’s basement of that category.
They might just be inching toward both now.
Grebenkin the gladiator
Garnet Hathaway got decked along the boards pushing late into the first period by Seattle defenseman Cale Fleury.
Nikita Grebenkin, who checked back into the lienup and slotted onto the fourth line as Hathaway’s opposite winger, made a beeline straight to Fleury and started throwing punches as he tackled him to the ice.
Grebenkin got a two-minute penalty for instigating, five for fighting, and a ten-minute misconduct.
It did take him out of the picture for a bit, but the act definitely won him points among his teammates and the Flyers faithful for sticking up for his guy.
Grebenkin later got a clean look right between the hashmarks that he just missed wide on with the shot, but when the Flyers had already built up their lead.
The winger made the team out of camp, but doesn’t have a steady spot just yet. His skill was the highlight as the prospect coming over from last year’s Scott Laughton trade with Toronto, but he showed Monday night that he can be plenty tough, too.
TK fire
Travis Konecny showed Monday night that he cetainly hasn’t lost any fire either.
He scored his first goal of the season early into the second period on a slick setup by Michkov and defenseman Egor Zamula that gave the Flyers a 3-1 lead:
Then, in the third period, he got into it after the Kraken took a run at Tippett and left Seattle’s Ryan Lindgren with a bloodied up visor:
Yeah, Flyers hockey is back.
“We’re trying to create a culture of sticking together,” Tocchet said after Monday night’s win.
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Flyers thoughts: Tyson Foerster, Noah Cates, Bobby Brink never missed a beat, remain their best line
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Three games in, and the line of Tyson Foerster, Noah Cates, and Bobby Brink has remained as the Flyers’ best.
Cates crashed the crease and scored the Flyers’ lone goal in Game 1 down in Florida on a perfectly executed offensive zone faceoff.
Brink stepped in toward the faceoff circle from off the wall and fired a shot home in Game 2 against Carolina, and had the would-be winner in overtime later on had goaltender interference not waved it away.
Then in the home opener on Monday night, back up against Florida, Foerster notched the first goal from drifting down to support Sean Couturier, who slipped him the puck to send him skating in toward the net for a clean shot that made it through.
At every turn, that combo has made an impact.
They haven’t missed a beat coming back from last season – might’ve even gained a step, too – and for a team that’s under a new head coach in Rick Tocchet and still very much trying to iron out the early kinks elsewhere, that’s been huge.
Foerster and Cates each have a goal so far, Brink has two, they all have three points and plus ratings, and as a line together, they’ve skated with a 56.25 high-danger chances for percentage, per Natural Stat Trick.
They haven’t missed a beat, especially so for Foerster, who suffered an infection in his elbow over the summer and wasn’t even sure ahead of training camp if he’d be ready in time to start the season.
But he made it, and picked up right where he left off.
“Just do the same stuff,” Foerster said. “Just do the same stuff we did last year. Defense first and offense is going to come with the way we play. Dump it in, we get on the forecheck, we have a good forecheck, and we get the puck back. Make plays, and we take it to the net.”
Sometimes it’s just that simple, but hey, it’s working.
A few other thoughts on the Flyers…
Michkov’s minutes
There’s been an early focus on Matvei Michkov, but not because he’s been putting up highlights.
It’s been the opposite, actually. He’s been quiet, a bit concerningly so, and moreover, he’s been sitting as the initial games have pushed later and later in.
Michkov didn’t touch the ice in the overtime loss to Carolina on Saturday, and with Monday night’s home opener against the Panthers still tied pressing further into the third period, the 20-year-old sat tight on the bench.
He has no goals or points so far, has taken a penalty in each of the first three games, hasn’t skated above 15 minutes in either of them, and has only three registered shots.
Tocchet acknowledged earlier in the week that Michkov suffered an offseason ankle injury that hampered his training and left him needing to catch up on his conditioning as a result.
Michkov spoke after practice on Wednesday in Voorhees, alongside his usual translator Slava Kuznetsov, and had no interest in using the injury as an excuse.
“That I’m not scoring or making any assists in the last three games, it’s not anyhow connected with the injury,” Michkov said via Kuznetsov.
But there have been lapses, too.
![Matvei-Michkov-Flyers-Hurricanes-Bench-NHL-2025.jpg]()
James Guillory/Imagn Images
Matvei Michkov has had a slow start to the season.
On Monday night, for example, Florida was skating down with the puck into the Flyers’ zone within the final minute of the second period.
Michkov chased down to backcheck, trying to help take Gustav Forsling away as the passing option on the initial rush, but as soon as the first shot was stopped, he took a wide turn to start trailing up toward center ice, all while the Panthers still had control of the puck.
Sam Reinhart scored on a scramble around the goal line seconds later to get the Panthers on the board.
“He’s just gotta differentiate when is the time to take off and when it’s the time we need him to hang in there,” Tocchet said of Michkov, who did qualify that he believes his game is improving. “That’s the one thing he’s gotta figure out.
“I get it. He wants to be an offensive player, but you can’t take off when we don’t have the puck.”
It’s a learning process, Tocchet continued, and for the whole team.
“We’re trying to create a culture,” the coach said. “It’s not about one player.
But for Michkov…
“He is obviously a player that is a special guy,” Tocchet said. “We gotta hone his talents, but it’s gotta be somewhat in a team game, and he’s willing to do it because I think his last two practices have been great.
“He did video again today. He came up for us and goes, ‘Coach, I need video,’ and he talked about some other stuff where he felt his legs felt better the last couple days, which is good.”
So maybe chalk it up to a slow start for now.
As for the defensive part, though…
“Should play more in the offensive zone and be more offensive,” Michkov joked. “Then you don’t have to defend as much.”
That is one way to do it.
Built to handle it
Travis Sanheim has skated some incredibly heavy minutes to begin the year, from 25 minutes at minimum to nearly a half-hour in the case of Saturday night’s overtime loss to Carolina.
It’s a lot, but Tocchet has been a fan of Sanheim going back to when they were on Team Canada together in the 4 Nations Face Off last February and trusted him to be able to handle it.
Sanheim has answered the call without issue.
“He works out, he does the right things off the ice, that’s why he can play 30 minutes,” Tocchet said. “The guy came in in unbelievable shape for us. It goes hand in hand. He’s a professional, and that’s why he can play big minutes.”
That said, neither Tocchet nor the rest of the organization are looking to throw that much at Sanheim from game to game.
His usage has been a consequence of the Flyers having such thin defensive depth to begin the season, which wasn’t helped by Cam York going on Injured Reserve when they had to submit their opening night roster.
Until they can get York back – Rasmus Ristolainen, too – the Flyers are going to need to find a way to get more out of Jamie Drysdale, Adam Ginning, and Emil Andrae, at least to get by.
“We gotta develop some guys here to get more minutes off of,” Tocchet said. “We’re in the business of winning, but we’re also in the business of maximizing some players.”
![Travis-Sanheim-Flyers-Goal-Carolina-2025-NHL.jpg]()
James Guillory/Imagn Images
Travis Sanheim has racked up a ton of ice time in the early going.
Speaking of…
York just might be ready to come back, though, for the Flyers’ next game at home Thursday night against the Winnipeg Jets.
He skated through practice in the standard black jersey, and after the Flyers left the ice, Andrae’s name was removed from the roster to indicate that he’s reporting to Lehigh Valley in the AHL, which opens up a roster spot.
“It’s day-to-day,” Tocchet maintained of York’s status. “He’s a possibility. We haven’t penciled him in yet.”
But the signs are lining up.
It’s a big year for York, who is looking to bounce back after a rough 2024-25 season and then some after signing a five-year contract extension in the summer.
It’s just starting on a bit of a delay.
Just fire away
Jett Luchanko has appeared in two games so far, Saturday night in Carolina and Monday night against Florida, skating in a limited 8:49 and then 7:40 of ice time.
Just like last season, the 2024 first-round center has a nine-game trial run before the Flyers have to decide between keeping him as a full-time NHLer or sending him back to juniors in Guelph.
They have seven more games to make a call.
Tocchet said Wednesday that he likes Luchanko’s speed, yet still, he needs to see the 19-year-old shoot, and not hesitate to do it.
“He has to start shooting the puck,” Tocchet said. “That’s one thing if he’s gonna get more ice time. I mean, there’s times he has the puck in the middle of the ice and he’s passing the puck at the front of the net. That’s a mental block for him right now…If he would shoot the puck, it’ll actually make him look faster.”
![Jett-Luchanko-Puck-Flyers-Canes-2025.jpg]()
James Guillory/Imagn Images
The Flyers are still deciding what’s best for Jett Luchanko’s development.
The Flyers are caught between a bit of a rock and a hard place with Luchanko when it comes to his development.
He’s too young still to go straight to the AHL, where he could get valuable and consistent pro minutes, but might not be fully ready yet to stick in the NHL, all while having outgrown juniors.
Sending Luchanko back to Guelph wouldn’t hurt, but it isn’t ideal either. Keeping him up full time with the Flyers, though, but at the cost of sitting him constantly or only giving him limited minutes unless he suddenly breaks out, that could.
“We’ll evaluate as it goes on,” Tocchet said. “I don’t think it’s gonna hurt him for a week or two, but you start talking months and months, yeah, it could hurt the development of a player, 100 percent.”
They have to be careful here.
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Flyers thoughts: About that overturned goal, Sanheim’s minutes, and no Michkov in OT
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The Flyers are 0-1-1 to start the year after Saturday night’s 4-3 loss to Carolina in overtime, but not without some early controversy.
See, the Flyers won initially, or at least they thought.
Just within the final minute of OT, Trevor Zegras carried the puck into the offensive zone, made a move, then slipped a pass to Travis Sanheim crashing in.
Sanheim, with speed, took the puck and cut around the Carolina defenders across the top of the crease. Goaltender Frederik Andersen pushed up to disrupt Sanheim, but as he did, the puck rolled straight to the stick of Bobby Brink, who took an extra glide across and fired home the winner.
Andersen took issue with the sequence, though, and after review, the officials sided with him. They waved off the goal for goaltender interference on Sanheim. The Hurricanes took it the other way and scored for the win soon after.
It’s what it is.
“It’s in the situation room. At that point, you usually don’t get an explanation,” Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet said postgame. “It’s a tough call. Yeah, been on the right side of those and the wrong side of them, so I really don’t have a comment on it.”
But here’s the other way it looks: There is contact between Sanheim, as the puck carrier, and Andersen at the top of the crease, which starts the goaltender interference conversation. However, Andersen appears to initiate the contact by punching his glove out to disrupt Sanheim, and commits to playing him while not registering where the puck actually is until it’s too late, as this replay captured by Nasty Knuckles producer Travis Ballinghoff shows:
The NHL Situation Room explanation on the play and its ruling to disallow the goal, per NHL.com’s Adam Kimelman:
That seems like a lot of onus on Sanheim when it’s pretty plain to see that Andersen made a decision on a move that pulled him out of his crease.
Even if he wasn’t touched, his slide carried him to the left post as Brink was striding across to the right. Andersen never would’ve had a chance at stopping that shot in any scenario.
But hey, it’s the call the league made, and it’s two games into the season. It’s what it is.
“Just trying to make a play to net,” Sanheim said. “I guess incidental contact. Felt like he kind of pushed his arms out, too. It was kind of ‘I have to make a play’ as well, and when I see it, I don’t think he was ever getting back, even if I don’t touch him. So tough call.
“Obviously, it’s not the refs, it’s the league that decided that, so it’s unfortunate and we have to live with it.”
It’s what it is.
A few other quick thoughts on the Flyers…
Here’s a Tipp
The Flyers opened the scoring Saturday night in the first period’s final seconds, and while on the power play.
Travis Konecny fired a shot that ricocheted off the glass behind the Carolina net that took a perfect bounce right back to the front for Owen Tippett to pot home.
The Flyers took a 1-0 lead into the intermission, Tippett had his first goal of the year, and the Flyers had their first power play goal of the year.
And those latter two facts might be key.
The power play has been abysmal the past few years, but in the sequence shown in the clip above, it moved pretty fluidly with Trevor Zegras handling the puck in the middle of the Flyers’ setup and drawing attention. It left Konecny alone at the wall with plenty of space to move in and pick his spot.
The bounce to Tippett is a bit of luck, but you do need to be in the right place, right time to score more often than not, and he was right where he needed to be.
The Flyers need to be better this year on the man advantage, no ifs, ands, or buts about it, and they could really use Tippett getting back to scraping up against or even breaking the 30-goal mark after struggling through long droughts of inconsistency last season.
Saturday night was only one case, but a promising one for both.
A lot of skating for Sanheim
The Flyers had to submit their opening night roster with Cam York and Rasmus Ristolainen both sidelined, and right away, their defense looked concerningly thin without them.
So far, it’s easy to see the strain. You just have to look at Travis Sanheim’s minutes.
Thursday night against Florida, he skated 27:15, and then Saturday night with the overtime period, he totaled 29:34 with 38 shifts taken.
The Flyers have been leaning heavily on their top defenseman in the early going. He’s handled it, and scored the tying goal to push Saturday night into overtime, but they still have 80 more games.
They need some defensive depth to balance themselves out.
Never miss a beat
It’s early, and the Flyers have the benefit of a grace period to fully get acclimated with new head coach Rick Tocchet.
The rough patches have been there through the first two games, but the line of Noah Cates, Tyson Foerster, and Bobby Brink? That trio hasn’t seemed to miss a beat.
They put together the sequence that led to the Flyers’ lone goal in the loss to Florida on Thursday night, and Saturday night, they were all over the ice.
Brink scored in the second period off some strong play along the wall from him, Cates, and Nikita Grebenkin before the latter winger hopped off for a change:
Then in overtime, Brink had the puck, the space, and the extra step inside for the OT winner before it was overturned, while throughout the night, it felt like if a Hurricane had the puck, Cates was instantly bearing down on them.
There’s no quit in that line, and out of the gate, they’ve been chaos for the opposition. Pretty safe to say they’re staying together.
Where was Matvei?
When the Flyers went into OT, Matvei Michkov didn’t see the ice.
Last season, through all the ups and downs for the rookie, it was clear immediately that he can fly with the extra ice available to him at 3-on-3, and rise to the occasion, too, with three overtime winners.
But Tocchet didn’t send him out. Why?
“Just wanted the guys I thought were skating,” Tocchet said.
Michkov has been mostly quiet through the first two games, which maybe lends to Tocchet’s point – though the winger did get scrappy with the Hurricanes after a hit on Konecny with his back turned.
Even so, the counterargument is that you want your best offensive skaters out there in OT, so Michkov’s usage under Tocchet might be an early point to monitor.
Granted, we’re still only two games in.
For now, it’s what it is.
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