Playing their first road game of the 2026-27 season, Rick Tocchet's Philadelphia Flyers (0-1-0) are in Newark on Thursday to take on Sheldon Keefe's New Jersey Devils (0-0-0). It's New Jersey's season opener.
Game time is 7:00 p.m. EDT. The game will stream on ESPN+, Hulu, and Disney+.
The Flyers enter this game coming off a humiliating 7-0 defeat at the hands of the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday night. Philadelphia got outplayed in virtually every facet of the game, across all three zones, Moreover the Flyers made some glaring mental mistakes (such as line changes) and discipline lapses (ill-timed and unnecessary penalties).
Here are the RAV4 Things to watch.
1. New Jersey's speed
The Devils play a fast-paced style. Through most of the preseason and certainly in Wednesday's debacle, the Flyers were reactive and a stride behind.
"Play north" has become a cliche, but that's something the Flyers need to establish: better breakouts, connectedness moving up ice, quicker reads and reactions in the defensive zone, taking away the middle of the ice, controlling the neutral zone, forcing turnovers and counter attacking, wall play, small area plays, etc.
In the opener, the Flyers never gave themselves a chance to compete. They were far too easy to play against. The Devils are fully capable of duplicating what Pittsburgh did on Wednesday if Philadelphia doesn't answer the bell.
2. Woll's debut
The road opener marks new Flyers goaltender Joseph Woll's first expected start with the Orange and Black. Unlike Vladar, who played less than one period of one preseason game before suffering an upper-body injury, Woll had the benefit of a full training camp.
The team in front of Woll has to do a much better job helping him out than they did for Vladar in the opener. In turn, the goalie cannot allow goals that go through him, find the short side, etc. New Jersey has to earn whatever goals they get. Everyone on the Flyers has a part to play to earn a much better outcome in the season's second game.
3. Special teams
In the opener, the Flyers' play on both ends of special teams was every bit as flawed (except for one notably strong penalty kill) as the 5-on-5 play.
On Wednesday, the Flyers were 0-for-3 on the powerplay with a shorthanded goal allowed. They went 2-for-4 on the penalty kill.
4. First goal
The Flyers struggled mightily last season to play from ahead 1-0. Philly was a very good comeback team, but they need to score first a lot more often in 2026-27. Wednesday's issues weren't just a slow start that proved fatal. It was a poor start that never got much better.
Nevertheless, it's extremely important for Philadelphia to make an early push, and grab the game's first goal (preferably in the opening period).
