Rick Tocchet's Philadelphia Flyers' (5-10-6) complete their five-game road trip on Saturday. They are in Ohio to take on Rick Bowness' Columbus Blue Jackets (7-10-0). It's the first game of a weekend back-to-back set for the Flyers, and the second of their four games against Columbus this season.
Game time at Nationwide Arena is 7:00 p.m. EST. The game will be televised on NBCSP.
The Flyers last played on Thursday. They put together one of their better 60-minute performances of the season to date but settled for one point in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Edmonton Oilers. Philly erased a 2-0 deficit with goals from Tyson Foerster (PPG, 4th) and Travis Sanheim (3rd). Dan Vladar stopped 21 of 24 shots.
Meanwhile, the Blue Jackets have lost three games in a row in regulation. On Thursday, they suffered a 3-1 home loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Matthew Knies (PPG, 3rd) notched the lone Columbus tally. Jet Greaves made 25 saves in a losing cause.
Saturday's game marks the statistical start of the second quarter of the Flyers' 2026-27 season. Tocchet's squad is still searching for its first divisional game win this season.
Back on October 27, the Flyers recovered from a 3-0 deficit but a Kent Johnson overtime goal on a two-man breakaway sent Columbus to a 4-3 road win at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Johnson scored two goals in the game,
Here are the RAV4 Things to watch on Saturday.
1. Puck possession and shot suppression
The Flyers trended in a positive direction in both of these areas for the first 40 minutes of their win in Vancouver and the decided majority of the match in Edmonton. Philly needs to continue in this direction. Their neutral zone play and offensive zone forecheck have been much better the last few games. That has enabled them to play with the puck on their sticks a lot more often.
2. Trevor Zegras
Zegras (4g, 10a) enters Saturday's game one point behind Matvei Michkov (10g, 5a) for the Flyers scoring lead. He had not recorded a point in his last four matches. A breakout game against Columbus could go a long way toward helping the Flyers skate off with a win
Zegras, after a rough first period, was key to the Flyers' three-goal comeback against the Blue Jackets the last time the two teams played each other. He notched a goal and an assist amid the comeback and played inspired hockey during the third period in particular.
Zegras has also been a key factor in Philly's power play improvements over the last 12 games. Overall, if he can find a consistent groove from game-to-game and period-to-period, Zegras represents one of the team's prime threats to create offense.
3. Special teams
The Flyers tallied another power play goal in the game against Edmonton but they also yielded one on the only penalty they took in the game. Overall, Philly enters Saturday's match ranked in a tie for 24th on the power play (18.8 percent success rate) and 12th on the penalty kill (79.4 percent).
The Blue Jackets rank 26th on the power play (18.6 percent) and 24th on the PK (73.9 percent).
4. Offense from the defense
Columbus blueliner Zach Werenski (2g, 12a) is his team's key to triggering offensive plays, along with Johnson (8g, 9a). Werenski was central to two of his team's goals the last time the Blue Jackets played the Flyers. Philly needs to be vigilant in how they track Werenski when he puck. Make him work hard defensively with forecheckers in his face as much as possible.
On the Flyers' side, Sanheim has goals in back-to-back games. With nine points apiece, Sanheim (3g, 6a) and Jamie Drysdale (1g, 8a) are tied for the most points by a Flyers defenseman this season.
