Rick Tocchet's Philadelphia Flyers (0-6-3) are home on Sunday to take on Travis Green's Ottawa Senators (6-2-0). This is the second of three meetings this season between the teams, and the second in October.
Game time at Xfinity Mobile Arena is 7:00 p.m. EDT. The game will be televised on NBCSP.
The Flyers played one of their better games of the early 2026-27 season in their 2-1 loss in Ottawa on October 8. The difference-maker: Philadelphia failed to convert a third period power play. Ottawa scored on their next power play, as Carter Yakemchuk blasted home the game-winning goal at 13:01.
Two nights ago, the Flyers took a 1-0 lead over the Detroit Red Wings in a low-event first period. The Red Wings took over the game in the middle stanza. The match entered the third period tied at 1-1. The Red Wings scored in the latter stages to skate off with a 2-1 victory.
Through nine games, the Flyers have scored a mere 11 goals. Matvei Michkov leads the squad with three tallies. He also had the lone successful attempt during the Flyers' shootout loss to Seattle. Christian Dvorak (2g) is the only other Flyers player with more than one goal to date. Despite missing the last four games due to injury, Travis Konecny remains tied for the team lead with three points and is the only Flyers with more than two assists to his credit.
The Senators, meanwhile, have gotten into a good groove since the last time they played the Flyers. Ottawa has won three of its last four games, although two of the victories were via shootout. On Thursday, Linus Ullmark's 20 saves backstopped a 2-1 (1-0) shootout victory over the New York Islanders. Shane Pinto netted the shootout winner while Ridly Greig (1st) scored in regulation.
Here are the RAV4 Things to watch on Saturday evening.
1. Oliver Bonk
The rookie defenseman struggled in his season debut against the defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes. Since then, however, Bonk has been a bright spot. He's been using his feet well and making solid adjustments from game to game.
Bonk, of course, is the son of longtime Senators player Radek Bonk. His dad is a Czech national but Oliver was born and raised in Ottawa, representing Team Canada internationally.
2. Special Teams
Michkov and Porter Martone are the only Flyers players to score a power play goal so far this season. Overall, the club is 2-for-26 (7.7 percent). They rank 31st in the 32-team league. Ottawa is 5-for-37 so far (13.5 percent, 28th).
The Flyers penalty kill has been a bright spot over the past week or so after a rough start. Overall they are 29-for-35 (82.9 percent, ranked 13th). The Senators, meanwhile, are 25-for-31 (80.6 percent, ranked 16th).
3. Attention to Detail
This has become a recurring theme throughout the first month of the seasons: errors of commission and errors of omission on execution and routine reads. The general compete level -- small area plays, winning 50-50 battles, battling through checks, answering the bell in the first period, not letting one bad shift snowball into multiple ones, etc. -- has not been up to par.
That's the technical side mostly. But there's also the emotional side. Trever Zegras' feisty performance against Seattle -- just as much as his goal in that game -- stood out because it provided an emotional spark.
Sometimes an emotional spark can galvanize a team and get them on the path to correcting a lot of other problems that plague them. It needn't be a fight. It could be a big clean hit, a clutch save, a penalty killed with gusto, or whatever. The Flyers have had a handful of such moments like a penalty shot stop by Dan Vladar but they need to build and sustain momentum.
Too often, the Flyers stall their own momentum with a turnover or a power play that fails to put chances on net.
4. Claude Giroux
The Flyers former longtime captain has recorded 3 goals, 10 assists (13 points), and a +5 rating in 12 career regular-season games against Philly. In the October 8 game in Ottawa, Giroux set up the game-winning goal by Yakemchuk.
