Here’s the real problem with the Flyers 0-1-1 start

On the surface, starting 0-1-1 isn’t the worst thing in the world. The Flyers aren’t alone. Won’t be alone. Over the course of the year, there are ebbs and flows. Over 84 games, you’ll witness the apex of the season and the nadir. Perhaps this is just getting that nadir out of the way early.

But it isn’t the record.

It isn’t even the underlying process that has earned Philly that record, though that is ugly.

At 5v5 over the last 2 games, the Flyers are last in the NHL with a 23.5% expected goal share. That’s good for last in the NHL. Of teams who’ve played 2 games, the closest team to them is the Chicago Blackhawks at 33.5%.

No team has had possession shoved as deeply down their throat as the Flyers. For the first 2 games of the season, they’ve been embarassed. Dominated. Completely ran off the ice in humiliating fashion.

They’ve allowed 125 shot attempts at 5v5, and they’ve only managed 65. A disgrace of the highest order.

Now, 2 games over the course of a season do not constitute a fair sample. So, my primary problem with the Flyers’ start isn’t even this… ugly as it is. In many ways, this, too, is out of people’s control.

The Flyers will play better than this. How much better? We’ll have to see.

But over these last 2 games, what I find absolutely unforgivable is the allocation of ice time. It’s the same old story as last year, except now it’s even worse.

Ice time is the easiest thing to control. All there is to it is identifying your most important players and playing them more than the other guys. For the Flyers, there isn’t much thinking or identifying to be done.

Your two most important players are Porter Martone and Matvei Michkov in whichever order you prefer.

And both of them are averaging 13:02 and 14:36 minutes a night over the first 2 games.

Porter Martone has been benched in each of the last 2 games, and I don’t want to hear a word about how he’s played when the whole team is getting bent over on a shift-by-shift basis.

The only forward who has shown any sign of life is indeed Michkov, who again is playing 14:36.

And then Rick Tocchet has the audacity to say he doesn’t know what’s going on. Why can’t his guys make any plays with the puck, he laments?

Rick Tocchet:

"We don't have much practice time. We got to figure it out on the fly here. We need more skill work. We are choppy with the puck." #Flyers

— Jamey Baskow (@JameyBaskow) October 2, 2026

Oh, hold on, let me see if I can diagnose the cause of your team’s inability to make any plays… let me just consult this NHL app really quick…

Oh, here we go.

Your 5 most played forwards last night: Foerster, Couturier, Acciari, Dvorak, and Zegras.

1 of those guys is paid to make plays. Literally just the 1.

Foerster might get comped to Mark Stone, but let me assure you, he is not Mark Stone. When Mark Stone has his opposite winger wide open on a rush and is facing pressure, he makes the cross-ice pass.

When Tyson Foerster has Matvei Michkov wide open on a rush, he dumps the puck softly behind the net and proceeds to try and battle for it because he panicked.

These guys have roles on the bottom-6. As guys you can throw out there when you “need a stop,” so to speak.

But when you need to put pucks in the net, Couturier at this stage in his career is not the answer. Acciari was never the answer.

Foerster is only the answer if you put a perfect pass directly on his tape after doing all of the work to create an advantage for him. Which just isn’t practical.

The best goal scorers in the league take difficult passes and, in extreme cases like Caufield or Pastrnak, still manage to one-time a pass that should’ve bounced in their back skate.

Outside of those mutants, the best goal scorers in the league will at least receive a difficult pass and adjust their mechanics on the fly to get a quick shot off.

With Foerster? A slightly errant pass is a turnover.

And I’m only dwelling on him because this is the guy that they hope will become more. At 25, they still believe in the guy who’s gonna score 40 goals for them.

He paced for 35 while he was shooting 21% and this didn’t alarm anyone, somehow.

If a 40-goal scorer is shooting 21% over a stretch? He’s gonna pace for 70.

But hey, Tocchet doesn’t understand why they can’t make any plays. Must be gripping the sticks too tight.

Rick Tocchet:

"We have a lot of work to do. Some guys are squeezing, I don't know why it's the second game."#Flyers

— Jamey Baskow (@JameyBaskow) October 2, 2026

Now, Tocchet is clueless. We all know that. This isn’t anything new. He’s been clueless for the last decade. It’s not as if this was going to change.

But Briere is supposed to be smart. Briere is an evil genius who sabotaged the Ducks cap situation, hear the Flyers fanbase tell it. Briere is the guy. Briere is gonna find the 1C one day.

But Briere hired Tocchet. Briere stands by Tocchet, while Tocchet continues to make egregious error after egregious error.

And eventually, when you back a guy so many times? It’s your responsibility.

I’ll liken it to the show House. House breaks rules every episode. He breaks laws. He’s a complete renegade. When Foreman attempted to be House for a different hospital, he was immediately fired despite being correct in his renegade behavior.

House gets away with the things he does because he has the backing of management. But with House, he gets the backing of higher-ups because he’s almost always correct. He’s tolerated because he’s exceptionally competent and irreplicable.

Tocchet has the same backing that House does from Briere, but what has Tocchet done to earn it?

He can’t even get the very basics right. And yet he’ll get that backing anyway.

That’s the real problem with the Flyers’ first 2 games. Will they play better? Certainly, eventually. But they’ve demonstrated that they don’t understand what their team is.

Join The Chase