Flyers’ 2025 Home Opener: What Was New & Old?

However, Flyers’ goaltending has rarely been within striking distance of the levels that Parent displayed since his retirement, especially last season. But you mostly wouldn’t have known that watching Dan Vladar between the pipes on Monday night. Yes, Vladar did wind up in an unfortunate position on Sam Bennett’s game-tying goal, stumbling in anticipation of a Sam Reinhart shot only to lose his footing as Reinhart circled the net.

However, his work during the rest of the night made up for that mishap. He made two impressive post-to-post saves early in the game, including one during a Flyers power play, that allowed Philadelphia to build an early lead. He withstood the entirety of a strong early second-period Panthers push, maintaining that 1-0 lead. And Bennett could’ve tied the game earlier in the third if not for Vladar showing more impressive lateral movement, following him across the crease on a forehand-backhand move.

Vladar wasn’t the only new addition to impress, though. The shining light is on Trevor Zegras, and with good reason. His incredible backhand, below the goal-line pass through the slot that put the game-winning goal on a tee for Sean Couturier, is a dish few Flyers are capable of making. Coupled with a strong overall game for Zegras (his 67.06% expected goals share at 5-on-5 was easily his best of the young season, per Natural Stat Trick), the most exciting new addition acclimated himself to the home crowd well.

“Yeah, it’s pretty special. The fans and the atmosphere was awesome,” Zegras said in reflection on his first regular-season home game with the Flyers. “They had us really going in that first period… It’s all the fans. There’s a lot of energy in the building. Made it really easy to play.”

It’s especially intriguing to see Zegras pop in a game he started at left wing, which is not his natural position. Zegras stayed with his previous linemates, Christian Dvorak and Owen Tippett, but this time the former of those two moved down the middle. Dvorak had a solid game himself, drawing a penalty in the first period and then popping on his first shift of the second period, setting up Travis Sanheim for a dangerous look before challenging Daniil Tarasov with a deflection seconds later. He eventually got on the scoresheet, and although it was merely in the form of a sheepish empty-netter, it was a solid night for him as well.

The positive newcomers weren’t just limited to those with significant NHL experience. Nikita Grebenkin popped enough on the fourth line that he skated with Sean Couturier and Travis Konecny late in the game. Jett Luchanko wasn’t quite as impactful but did draw a neutral zone tripping penalty on Bennett, using his impressive skating speed to catch the reigning Conn Smythe Trophy winner flat-footed. The pairing of the recently recalled Emil Andrae and Noah Juulsen was a positive, too, with Andrae posting a perfect 100% xG mark, something no Flyer achieved all of last season.

What’s Not

This section may seem entirely negative at first glance, but it’s not. Though it was an underwhelming performance for the Tyson Foerster-Noah Cates-Bobby Brink line, Foerster continued his hot scoring start to the season by opening the scoring with a wicked wrister in the first period while sharing the ice with Couturier and Matvei Michkov. His three-game point streak to start the 2025-26 campaign ties last season’s high-water mark, and Foerster has the same amount of points in three games this season as he did through 16 contests in 2024-25.

It’s also not a surprise to see Travis Sanheim continue eating monster minutes and doing so at a high level. Sanheim averaged the 12th most ice time last season (24:30) and is currently averaging just two seconds less than the league’s current leader, Zach Werenski (who was also first a season ago). Some reprieve is on the horizon — Sanheim had Tuesday’s practice off, and the Flyers hope to have Cam York (who was second on the team in average ice-time last season) back for their next game.

“Over the last couple of years, he’s really taken a huge step in being a big part of this back end, even his leadership off the ice,” Couturier said about Sanheim on Monday night. “I think he has a huge impact on younger [defensemen] around, and he plays a smart, solid two-way game.
I mean, I’m pretty sure it must be hard to play against a big guy like that that could skate, has a long stick. We’re glad to have him on our side.”

Things aren’t perfect, of course. The most obvious recurring headache on Monday was the momentum-shifting short-handed goal Reinhart scored late in the second period. In five chances (one of which lasted only a minute due to an earlier Flyers penalty), the team only had one consistently strong performance. However, that deserves a bit of an asterisk, as a key reason for the sustained pressure was a broken stick for Florida’s Eetu Luostarinen, turning the situation into more of a 5-on-3.5.

The Flyers are just 1/10 so far this season, tied for 26th in the league. While they rank a respectable 15th in expected goals per 60 minutes on the power play (per Natural Stat Trick), they have also allowed the fourth most expected goals against per 60 on the PP as well. So, there’s still a lot of room for improvement on the man advantage.

However, most of the special teams’ frustration from the 19,421 fans in attendance was directed at the officials. The Flyers have been down a man 14 times in three games, including 10 times in two games against Florida, compared to seven times that the Panthers have been shorthanded in those matchups. Of the penalties, Owen Tippett’s second-period trip against Brad Marchand was a bit soft, though it came during an eternal defensive zone shift for the otherwise productive third line. However, it sure looked like Jeff Petry ushered Garnet Hathaway into Tarasov as the latter drove the net with the puck in the third, only for Hathaway to be called for goalie interference. At least the Flyers managed to kill both of those penalties off.

Penalty trouble wasn’t a significant issue for the Flyers last season, but holding onto leads was. Philadelphia’s 24 losses in games where they had the lead were the fifth most in the NHL, and the 11 third-period edges they let slip away were tied for the third-most. Unsurprisingly, none of the teams with more than them in either category made the playoffs.

What’s Next

Extrapolating this theme into the future, here are two early-season schedule notes for the Flyers. Just like last season, the deck is stacked against Philadelphia early on. In 2024-25, 11 of the team’s first 15 games were against playoff clubs from the previous season; this year, it’s the first five and seven of the opening 11 opponents. Combine that with a new coach (and new systems) and a banged-up defense, and the Flyers are fighting an uphill battle.

This year, though, they at least get a travel reprieve out of the gate. In 2025, the team will reach nine home games played in its 12th overall contest on Nov. 2. Last season, it took the Flyers 19 games to play their ninth home game, which they had to wait until Nov. 18 for.