It feels weird to say after the Philadelphia Flyers just played back-to-back games to start the season where they looked like they had their feet lodged in cinderblocks and thrown into the Delaware, scrambling to try and swim to the surface as they keep on sinking towards the bottom, their lungs filling with water — but it could have been just so much worse.
After suffering the incredibly embarrassing result of losing 7-0 in your season opener to your archrival, the Flyers were looking to sweep that game away just 24 hours later as they visited the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night. It was a game that at least had potential to turn the tide of the season very early on. They could have easily come out and make us all believe that loosing the shot battle 38-19 and getting blown out in your own building, was a complete fluke.
Unfortunately, they did not do that at all. They looked like the same exact, porous team defensively and had zero connection offensively to actually put the puck into the net. Fortunately for them, the end result was a 3-2 overtime loss to their other rivals and they got to get one single loser point out of it to save face.
The only reason why they were able to not get blown out once again and have every single one of us go into a manic episode was down to one man: Joseph Woll.
Joseph Woll rescued Philadelphia from mass panic
The 28-year-old goaltender was making his first official start for the Flyers. After coming over in an offseason trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Woll was seen as someone who is purely an upgrade on Sam Ersson and can maybe provide Dan Vladar some relief from his heavy workload. Now, we’re dreaming of maybe something more.
Woll stopped 41 of the 44 shots he faced through the 60 minutes of regulation and overtime. That alone is extremely impressive and the sole reason why the Flyers were even able to play some extra hockey and not finish their first two games with zero points earned.
It goes even a step further. Woll faced a total of 12 high-danger scoring chances against and allowed just one goal from that — and it was the overtime goal, so does it even really count since every chance in that extra frame would be high-danger? Woll was a perfect 7-for-7 in high-danger scoring chances against at 5-on-5, and a perfect 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.
The newest Flyers goalie was wiping away chances that some goaltenders would easily let in behind them. Most notably, this early contender for Save of the Season while killing a penalty to keep the game tied in the third period.
Woll absolutely robbed Jesper Bratt from getting his first goal of the season in this hyperathletic save. He didn’t get all of it or glove it down in some big, overdramatic show. It was a pure deflection to keep it out of his net and his mechanics are good enough that he was covered while sprawling out like that.
Flyers express ultimate gratitude for their new goalie
This stolen loser point — so that the Flyers aren’t heading to the arena before facing the reigning Stanley Cup champions on Saturday with the real potential to come out of the first week of the season 0-3-0 — had the Flyers praising Woll after the game. They perfectly understood just how terrible they were defensively Thursday night and how Woll really helped them not look even more disastrous.
“If it wasn’t for Woller there, it could have been a lot worse,” Travis Sanheim said. “He kept battling all night. We wouldn’t have been in this game without him and the performance from him. Obviously it’s good to see and happy for him in the way he was able to play.”
“Obviously, Woll was outstanding. He was terrific,” coach Rick Tocchet said. “We’re lucky we got a point because of Woller,” Christian Dvorak added.
Lucky is the right word to use.
If they had anyone else who wasn’t capable of going perfect on every high-danger attempt in regulation, or just any average NHL goalie performance, this would have been a disaster. The Devils would be scoring four or five goals no problem with league-average goaltending. But instead, the Flyers got this new guy in town who appears to be capable of stealing games like this.
Hopefully, the Flyers don’t have to rely on their goalies to steal games very often this season, but as they continue to try and figure out the major problems facing them this first week of the 2026-27 NHL season, it’s something good to have.
It feels extremely weird for the Flyers to have a capable goaltending tandem. Dan Vladar was far from good on Wednesday letting the Pittsburgh Penguins of all teams score a touchdown on you, but we will (for now) blame rust and his previous injury preventing him from getting a real training camp. If Vladar can return to even 80% of what he was last season, and Woll just be an above-average netminder with a few performances like he had in Newark, then there is really something special cooking.
The Flyers have another chance to try and not embarrass themselves on Saturday night as they face the Carolina Hurricanes. They never win against these guys so we are perfectly fine accepting a loss and then some real panic settling in. Won’t that be fun?
