The calendar year is almost over, the New Year’s Eve parties are being planned, and people are preparing to make 2026 the best year ever. Well, at least one can hope. And the Philadelphia Flyers are no different. So far, the Flyers have been one of the better (and surprising) stories of the 2025-26 season. Here then are five resolutions that Philadelphia could try to adhere to starting on January 1, particularly if they want to play more than 82 games this season.
Start scoring first
Heading into the last two games of 2025, the Flyers have allowed the first goal 25 times in 37 games. That works out to just over two-thirds of the season so far. At this rate, they could end up being scored on between 53 to 55 times in 82 games. It’s an insane statistic, especially considering the team is still in a playoff spot. Leading the league in come from behind wins might be seen as a feather in their cap, however, it’s a lot easier for the Flyers to have a handful of laughers the rest of the way than continuously trying to find another gear to simply tie the game and start from scratch again. That’s a lot of energy spent for no real good reason.
If the glass is half full, Philadelphia could roughly hit the 50 per cent mark the remaining 45 games, that could be a huge bonus in helping them secure post-season hockey. After all, when two teams play, generally you should have a 50-50 chance of scoring first. Scoring the opening goal just under one-third of the time is a trend you hope they curtail when January 1 rolls around.
MM4MM (More Minutes for Matvei Michkov)
Thus far, with two games left in 2025, Matvei Michkov has seen his minutes drop. It’s not just a little bit, but compared to his rookie season in 2024-25, it’s nearly two minutes per game so far (16:31 last year compared to 14:34 this season). Of course he hasn’t made things easy on himself given the offseason and the lack of a proper training regimen. Yet he hasn’t yet won the complete trust of head coach Rick Tocchet and the staff to end up with 16 to 17 minutes on average each contest. If he can start scoring a bit more, or go on a streak like Owen Tippett, Travis Konecny or even (gasp!) Carl Grundstrom is capable of, then maybe Michkov starts feeling better about his game, and things start coming a bit more naturally to him.
Michkov will probably end up in the 45-point range if this pace continues all season. That doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world for the player and organization’s future, yet it would be nifty to see him start to string (or stack as Tocchet likes to say) together a few multi-point games to give him a bit more confidence than he does now. Michkov is one of the few players who has consistently done what Tocchet has asked of most of his forwards. And that’s to drive to the net. He did it a lot the last few games and seems to thrive on getting into the dirty areas near the goal crease. Regardless of how the rest of the season plays out, one hopes Michkov is able to stay in the Philadelphia area with his family and train with some teammates for a more effective offseason. We just hope he gets more minutes at some point this coming calendar year.
The ABCs last the rest of the way
The sample size has been small for two of the three we’ll talk about here. Yet for Philadelphia to be successful this season in terms of playoff seeding and wildcard possibility, the trio of Emil Andrae, Denver Barkey, and Carl Grundstrom need to look as strong as they have thus far. Andrae has established himself as one of the Flyers’ top-four defenseman as Egor Zamula looks to get out of town. Andrae has more points (10) through 27 games than he did in 42 games last year (9). And he’s rarely appeared to be struggling for any conceivable length of time. He might have had the odd bad game from time to time, but he hasn’t been run out of town in terms of underlying metrics for three or four consecutive games. If he keeps playing this well, and seemingly finding a nice home along with Jamie Drysdale, then it should mean good things for the Flyers come March and April.
As for the “B,” Denver Barkey has three games under his belt, but he has two assists and probably could’ve been awarded a penalty shot against the Kraken on Sunday night. While still looking for his first National Hockey League goal, Barkey has been a surprise. He’s energized both Owen Tippett and Sean Couturier. And he’s been fantastic in just the basics of the game both with and without the puck. He seems to have high hockey IQ despite not being mistaken for Andre the Giant. Barkey thankfully avoided getting injured after a scrum on a hit against Chicago before the holiday break. If he can continue looking as good as he’s been thus far, it should make Barkey a forward who will be hard to take out of the lineup. And possibly make the loss of Tyson Foerster not quite as gigantic as it first appeared to be.
Last, but certainly not least, is forward Carl Grundstrom. Grundstrom has six goals in 11 games to go with a lone assist. He’s halfway to tying his career high of 12 goals back in 2022-23 when he was with Los Angeles. And he’s currently a +6 when it comes to plus/minus, which is currently a career high for him over previous completed seasons (he was +4 with the Kings back in 2021-22). Perhaps most importantly, he has given the fourth line a much-needed kick in the pants with some production. Grundstrom is steadily distancing himself from Garnet Hathaway and Nic Deslauriers while having the bottom line chip in from time to time like most decent fourth-lines do.
If all three of these players continue honing their game and contributing as they have thus far, it should make the Flyers far more formidable than anybody could anticipate. The Flyers could probably survive a slight regression from one of the trio, but if two or all three start slumping, the results will speak for themselves.
Zegras scores in the shootout
This might sound insane, especially considering we’re talking about the best (or second-best all time) shootout scorer since the league decided some games were worth two points while others were with three points. Zegras was a lock most of the season, but in the last few games he’s come up short. It shouldn’t be a thing to fret about, but the longer the streak goes on, the more it could be a case of Zegras second-guessing himself while zeroing in on the opposing keeper. Ideally, the Flyers win all their games in regulation the rest of the way, eliminating a loser point opportunity for divisional rivals and gaining a little bit of distance in these ridiculously tight Metropolitan Division standings. Here’s hoping the next chance he’s the first shootout player for Philadelphia, he puts the puck in the net and gets any “zero for…” streak out of the way.
Keep winning at home and away
Right now, with two games left in 2025, Philadelphia have 11 home wins to go with eight victories on the road. With 20 home games played to just 17 road tilts, the Flyers have a chance to do something they haven’t done in some time on both sides of the ledger. With 21 home games remaining, the Flyers have a chance to perhaps be in the range of 21 to 23 wins at home. That is a number they’ve been around back in 2017-18 (22) and 2015-16 (23) with 25 wins in 2019-20 being their high water mark the last decade plus. Meanwhile, if the Flyers ended up .500 the rest of the way on the road (winning 12 of their last 24 away games), they’d hit the 20-win mark for the first time since 2017-18. Philadelphia hit 25 wins on the road back in 2010-11 and again in 2011-12, their highest road win total in franchise history. It’s doubtful the Flyers play .750 or .800 on the road the rest of the way, but 20 wins is probably looking more like a safer bet.
With the Flyers at 45 points, it’s probably going to take another 25 wins (or 50 points) to have them in the ballpark for a playoff or wildcard spot. If Philadelphia can keep splitting up the wins both home and way, it should take the pressure off the Flyers when it comes to extended road or home trips, knowing they’d have to sweep them in order to stay in the hunt. Tocchet has them playing rather consistently despite the obvious snags (power play, giving up the first goal). With more wins (and ideally regulation ones), the Flyers should be on a good run well into the new year.
