Postgame RAV4: Flyers Fall Short on Opening Night

The Philadelphia Flyers sustained a 2-1 loss to the Florida Panthers on opening night of the 2025-26 season. Penalty issues, Florida's forecheck and turnovers by Philly made the game an uphill fight.

Longtime nemesis Brad Marchand (1st) broke a 1-1 deadlock in the third period for the winning goal. Anton Lundell (PPG, 1st) and Noah Cates (1st) traded off second period goals.

Dan Vladar had a strong effort in a losing cause, stopping 32 of 34 shots. Sergei Bobrovsky earned the win with 19 saves on 20 shots.

The Flyers went 0-for-2 on the power play..They were 4-for-5 on the penalty kill.

FIRST PERIOD SYNOPSIS

Matvei Michkov took a hooking penalty just 44 seconds into the game. With 1:44 left on the kill, Florida's Evan Rodrigues took a needless slashing penalty to even up the manpower at 4-on-4.

Through the game's first five minutes, Florida had four of the game's first seven shots.

The Flyers went to a power play at 7:54. Luke Kunin tripped Garnet Hathaway along the offensive half-wall.The Flyers were unable to capitalize. With play back at 5-on-5, Vladar stopped a tricky deflection to keep the game scoreless.

Michkov came a whisker away from the season's first goal on a play from behind the Florida net. The Panthers started to surge. Vladar stopped a bang-bang chance from Mackie Samoskevich.

At 16:55, Christian Dvorak went for the puck but accidentally committed a tripping infraction. Vladar came up with a pair of tough saves, including one that knocked the goalie's mask ajar. The game went to intermission tied at 0-0.

Shots: Panthers 13 - Flyers 6
Faceoffs: Flyers 13 - Panthers 9

Notable:

* Vladar was arguably the Flyers' best player in this period.
* Travis Sanheim played 10:17 of the 20 minutes.
* The Flyers were charged with 11 giveaways in the period, Florida with 7.
* Unofficially, scoring chances favored Florida, 8-6 (3-3 high-danger).
* Faceoffs: Noah Cates 3-for-3, Sean Couturier 6-for-8, Trevor Zegras 2-for-7, Rodrigo Abols 2-for-4.

SECOND PERIOD SYNOPSIS

Florida came out fast. Zegras and Deslauriers mixed their signals near the blueline. Zegras took an interference penalty at 3:37.

Florida scored a power play goal for a 1-0 lead at 5:29. With their second unit on the ice Panthers had a 3-on-2 on an entry. On the Panthers' 17th shot of the game, Lundell fired a shot that beat Vladar to the blocker side.The assists went to Rodrigues and Jeff Petry.

On the next shift after the Lundell goal, Dvorak took his second trip to the penalty box. He was called for hooking at 5:57. The Flyers killed this one off successfully.

Noah Cates made a great move toward the net and nearly scored. The shot hit the post and stayed out.

Fourteen minutes into the period. Noah Juulsen temporarily relieved pressure as he broke up a 3-on-2. Shortly thereafter, Vladar made a very tough save on Niko Mikkola (his 23rd on 24 shots).

The Flyers dodged a bullet when Sam Reinhart picked off an Adam Ginning turrnover inside the blueline. Fortunately, the shot sailed over the net.

At the 17:48 mark, the Flyers tied the game at 1-1. Cates won an offensive zone faceoff. Tyson Foerster found a soft area to get off a shot. Bobrovsky made the initial save but Cates deposited the rebound off the pads into the net. Foerster earned the lone assist on what appeared to be a set play.

Shots: Panthers 12 (25 overall) - Flyers 9 (15 overall)
Faceoff wins: Flyers 16 (29 overall) - Panthers 9 (18 overall)

THIRD PERIOD SYNOPSIS

Vladar stopped veteran Brad Marchand with a glove save on a shot off the rush. The Flyers' goalie picked the clear-sighted shot cleanly. However, Marchand struck later on the same shift for a 2-1 lead at 2:19. A seeing-eye shot made its way through traffic and into the net. Luke Kunin and A.J. Greer collected the assists.

Cates came within a whisker of his second goal of the game. At the other end, Carter Verhaeghe nearly cashed in on a Flyers turnover. Shots through five minutes were 5-3 Florida (30-18 overall).

The Flyers had a near tic-tac-toe goal. Off the rush, Zegras and Owen Tippett set up Travis Konecny. A falling Konecny was unable to finish the play into a yawning net.

Shortly thereafter, Marchand sped down the ice in transition. He wasn't able to score. Shots were now 8-4 Florida (33-19) overall. At the other end, Bobrovsky made a save and poke-checked the puck from Foerster.

The Flyers pulled Vladar for a 6-on-5 attack with an empty net. After a Florida icing, the Flyers called a timeout. Right off the next faceoff, Foerster was called for an interference penalty on Marchand at 18:44.

Vladar came back into the net with the faceoff coming back into the Flyers zone. The Czech netminder stopped a point shot from Eetu Luostarinen. The Flyers got Vladar off the ice again but ran out of time.

Shots: Panthers 9 (34 overall) - Flyers 5 (20 overall)
Faceoff wins: Flyers 12 (41 overall) - Panthers 8 (26 overall)

Notable:

* The Flyers were charged with a total of 24 turnovers (22 charged giveaways, two takeaways credited to Florida).
* The Konecny point-blank scoring chance was as close as the Flyers got to tying the game.
* Unofficially, final scoring chances favored Florida, 24-17.
* Final Faceoffs favored the Flyers 41-26 (61 percent). Couturier went 19-for-28 to lead all players.

FLYERS STARTING LINEUP

Christian Dvorak – Sean Couturier – Matvei Michkov
Owen Tippett – Trevor Zegras – Travis Konecny
Tyson Foerster – Noah Cates – Bobby Brink
Nicolas Deslauriers – Rodrigo Abols – Garnet Hathaway

Nick Seeler – Travis Sanheim
Adam Ginning – Jamie Drysdale
Egor Zamula – Noah Juulsen

Dan Vladar
[Samuel Ersson]

Scratches: Jett Luchanko (healthy), Nikita Grebenkin (healthy), Dennis Gilbert (healthy).

POSTGAME 4 (RAV4 Things Revisited)

1. The staples.

The Flyers still need to clean up some of the turnovers they make and cross-seam passes they allow. It's never advisable to put the Panthers on the power play five times in a game. Vladar was the main reason the game stayed in striking distance. However, the Flyers generally improved over the latter half of the game.

2. Game management.

Philly had to go into bend-but-don't-break mode a little too often. The volume of turnovers needs to decrease as well, starting on Saturday against Carolina.

3. Flyers blue line: Sanheim and Drysdale

Sanheim was a workhorse, playing 26:52. He tried to do a little too much early in the game (charged with three first period turnovers) with Florida pressuring him. Overall, however, the defending Barry Ashbee Trophy winner played a strong game atop the Philly blueline. Drysdale played 22:31. He attempted two shots on goal. There weren't many opportunities for him to jump into the attack. Florida made it tough to get through the neutral zone.

4. Flyer power play.

Philly only had one full length power play in the game. The other was very abbreviated and time expired with a single Florida clear of their defensive zone.