Rick Tocchet's Philadelphia Flyers' (3-7-3) are home Tuesday evening to play Rick Bowness's Columbus Blue Jackets (4-5-0). This is the first of four meetings between the Metropolitan Division teams.
Game time at Xfinity Mobile Arena is 7:00 p.m. EDT. The broadcast is on NBCSP.
On Saturday afternoon, the Flyers saw leads of 2-0 and 3-2 slip away against the Anaheim Ducks. Ultimately, Philadelphia suffered a frustrating 5-4 loss in regulation. Ill-timed turnovers and a rare subpar outing for goaltender Joseph Woll added up to a defeat in regulation.
With only nine games played to date -- seven at home, two on the road -- Columbus has played the fewest matches so far of any team in the NHL. By comparison, the Flyers have already played 13 games.
On Saturday, the Blue Jackets pulled out a 2-1 home overtime victory against the Vegas Golden Knights. Adam Fantilli scored a 4-on-3 power play goal in sudden death to win the game. Veteran goaltender Cam Talbot turned away 26 of 27 shots, including 13 in the third period. Denton Mateychuk notched the other goal for Columbus.
Here are the RAV4 Things to watch on Tuesday evening.
1. Flyers Young Guns
Matvei Michkov matched a career-best five-game point streak after his two-goal afternoon on Saturday. Overall, he has six goals and eight points in that span. On Monday, he'll look to establish a new career-high point streak.
Michkov and fellow youngster Porter Martone -- who just celebrated his 20th birthday on Monday -- have begun to establish dynamic chemistry as linemates. Martone had a slow start to the season but he has two goals and four points over his last four games.
Veteran two-way center Noah Cates (0g, 2a to date) has lined up in the middle of late between the young wingers at 5-on-5.
2. Special Teams
The Flyers have scored at least one power play marker in each of the last four games. The adjustment to move Travis Zegras from the right half boards to the left side has given the power play a shot in the arm so far.
Among the 10 points Zegras has posted to date (3g, 7a), five have come on power plays. He has one power play goal and four power play assists.
Meanwhile, Michkov has four power play goals and one power play assist. Martone has two power play tallies and one assist on the man advantage. Defenseman Jamie Drysdale has posted a pair of power play assists.
Overall, the Flyers rank 26th in the NHL with a 16.3 percent success rate. The low overall number reflects the team's scuffles (8.3 percent) during the first eight games of the season. The Blue Jackets are 71.0 percent (ranked 24th) on the penalty kill so far.
Philly allowed a power play goal to Buffalo in Wednesday's game and then another to Anaheim on Saturday. Overall, the Flyers rank tied for 11th in the NHL at 82.6 percent success. The struggling Columbus power play has connected at a 11.5 percent success rate (30th).
3. Between the Pipes
With the Flyers playing a back-to-back on Tuesday against Columbus and on Wednesday in Washington, the team will split the goaltending chores between Dan Vladar and Woll.
Vladar's overall numbers (2-3-1 record, 3.15 goals against average, .900 save percentage) are still somewhat skewed by the opening night debacle against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Keep in mind that, due a preseason injury, Vladar had less than one period played before the regular season opened.
Since that time, the Czech netminder has regained his Bobby Clarke Trophy form of 2025-26, In his five October starts, Vladar is 2-2-1 with a 2.38 GAA and .921 save percentage.
On the Columbus side, Jet Greaves was a revelation last season. He's been uneven so far in 2026-27 apart from notching a 31-save shutout against the New York Rangers on October 17. Overall, he's 2-3-0 with a 3.34 GAA and ,884 save percentage to date. Talbot is 2-2-0 with a 2.82 GAA and .891 save percentage.
4. Werenski Watch
The Blue Jackets are a team that relies heavily on generating offense from the back end, especially via superstar defenseman Zach Werenski.
Werenski is still looking for his first goal of the young season. However, he's already racked up a half-dozen assists in nine games. He also has a team-high 28 shots on goal (one more than Fantilli).
Meanwhile, former Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov is on Injured Reserve for the first time in his NHL career. He's week-to-week with a lower-body injury suffered when blocking a shot in a Sept. 26 exhibition game. Fellow former Flyers defenseman Emil Andrae has dressed in five of the team's nine games to date (2a, +3).
