Flyers’ varied offensive approach against Kraken bodes well for future success

The Flyers\' win over the Kraken last night was, in a number of ways, a big one. It gave the team a nice little boost as it kept their momentum rolling with their second win in a row and pulled them up to even in wins and losses on the season, which is good news for their aspirations of climbing up the standings, but even more critically, it saw them manage their highest true scoring output of the season, to date.

Scoring five good goals over the course of the game -- that is, five goals scored on a goaltender, setting this game apart from their home opener against the Panthers, wherein they scored five but had the final two come as empty netters -- the Flyers were able to bring a level of pop and cohesiveness in their offensive game that we hadn\'t yet seen from them this season. Indeed, the question loomed large over them heading into this game just when their offense would break out and begin to finally start piling up some goals, and the team did well in this game, their sixth of the season, to finally put it to rest.

Tippadelphia. #SEAvsPHI | #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/wHAnUqogOZ

— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) October 20, 2025

The Flyers got this one rolling on a bit of a slapstick-style play, capitalizing on a misplay of the puck behind the net by Joey Daccord, and while there is a degree of the old \"they don\'t ask how, they ask how many\" effect at play here, it\'s also true that this goal wouldn\'t have happened the way it did were it not for the strength of their forechecking game, the pressure Sean Couturier was able to create by following Daccord down below the goal line, Nick Seeler\'s heads up play to jump into a soft area to receive the pass, and his decisiveness to get it over to an open Owen Tippett. Every chance isn\'t a slow developing, intricately plotted play, and a willingness to break out of the game plan can mean a grade-A chance created off of breakdowns like this one, so long as the Flyers are able to keep their level of concentration up.

But while the breaking open of this game ended up being a little unconventional, once it was done, the Flyers\' offense really began to come to life, and it would be an effort that would prove difficult for the Kraken to slow down.

Tys in his veins. #SEAvsPHI | #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/QLzaFWP1od

— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) October 20, 2025

The Flyers were able to double up on their scoring later in the first period, putting together an effort not dissimilar to the one that bought them their first goal of the night. That is, a bit of good work done along the boards -- and a real willingness to go in for a battle therein by Bobby Brink and Tyson Foerster -- and a couple of short passes exchanged help to create a bit of in-zone pace for the Flyers on the power play, and as Brink was able to draw two Kraken penalty killers to him and still come up with the strength to come out with the puck, this left Foerster wide open in the left circle in a prime shooting position. And even with the beat taken -- no panic in that shot creation -- to dust off the puck after receiving the pass, Foerster was still well placed enough to beat Daccord cleanly with the strength of his shot.

No. 1️⃣ for No. 1️⃣1️⃣! #SEAvsPHI | #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/Ya0d2cVaG1

— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) October 21, 2025

It was a similar level of patience which allowed the Flyers to set up their third goal of the evening, as they get into the second period of the game, but this time, as a product of getting their transition game working for them. With the Flyers able to make a clean breakout from their own zone, and Matvei Michkov jumping on a loose puck in the neutral zone and skating it in over the blue line, the Flyers were able to get into the offensive zone with control, and get themselves to work. Michkov was able to thread a pass cross-ice to a trailing Egor Zamula, who, resisting the defenseman urge to fire the puck on net from the perimeter, instead held on to it for a few seconds longer, and instead used that time to maneuver a bit and get himself to a more dangerous area, and to a spot where a better passing lane had opened up to get the puck over to Travis Konecny in front.

The Power Play is COOKING. 🔥 #SEAvsPHI | #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/nVZ055Z90O

— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) October 21, 2025

On their fourth goal of the night, though, the Flyers found some success in a more traditional type of in-zone maneuvering. Back on the power play, the Flyers were able to get some crisp passing movement going around the perimeter while a pair of players -- Foerster and Noah Cates -- cycled down and got themselves parked in front of the net, in a perfect spot to go looking for a deflection in on net by the time Cam York\'s shot from the point made its way to them. So perfectly placed in front of the net were both of them that the league scorers had a bit of trouble awarding the goal, it went back and forth a couple of times before they finally agreed that Cates had gotten the final touch. All the same, it\'s a little trite, but it is true what they say -- get to the front of the net, create a bit of traffic and havoc, and good things will happen.

The Red Lettuce is Red Hot. 🥵 #SEAvsPHI | #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/DUayIrt30x

— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) October 21, 2025

Their final goal of the evening, though, saw the Flyers getting back a bit more to their finesse game. After winning a sequence in the neutral zone and turning the Kraken\'s would-be breakout around on them, the Flyers were direct in their attempt to bring that rush right to the net, and with a quick-up bank pass into the offensive zone and a bit of back and forth passing on the go from Tippet and Couturier, Tippett ultimately ended up with the puck back below the left circle, and was able to get another shot past Daccord from a sharp angle, capitalizing on both the quickness of his shot and the continuity of his momentum to keep the pressure on the Kraken, even as it felt pretty clear that the Flyers had this game under control by that time.

This was, all in all, one of their more complete showings of the season, and an encouraging waking up of their offensive game. When the Flyers have looked the most stifled in their offense is when they\'ve at once looked like they were trying to do both too much and not enough, working hard but not necessarily smart. One of the major through lines in the team\'s comments to the media last night is that how they\'re approaching generating their offense is situational -- this isn\'t a case of them getting tunnel visioned to the net and skating themselves into trouble because they think that\'s they only way they can get good chances, or leaning on low percentage plays and throwing every puck on net as soon as it touches their stick just to try to see if some chance, any chance will stick eventually. The Flyers played a well-rounded offensive game last night, leaning on the pillars of their system to boost them where possible, but also departing from it to capitalize on broken plays when the door opened for it, letting their offense come to them in a variety of ways, and looking all the more dynamic and dangerous for it.

The Flyers still have some ground to make up, as they\'re sitting 14th in the league standings at 5-on-5 goals and 15th in goals scored across all situations (19th and 17th, respectively, when adjusted for games played), so their work is far from done, but last night\'s showing was a promising preview of what this team is able to do when their offense is finally closer to finally going on all cylinders. After all, it\'s still very early in the season, the team is still getting completely comfortable with the plan and expectations from their new coaching staff, while that coaching staff is still looking for the best arrangement of their forwards up front. It\'s a work in progress all around, but the uptick in skill that the Flyers have been able to foster up front is beginning to become apparent. The next step is to figure out how to keep it rolling, now that they\'re approaching that optimal arrangement.

All stats via Natural Stat Trick.

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