The Philadelphia Flyers historically have had no issue sitting in the penalty box. Their reputation in the ’70s during their Cup wins was that the sin bin was just an extension of their own bench. Regardless of the infraction, they did more of their fair share of sitting for two, five, or ten minutes depending on the infraction.
Heading into the Nashville game Thursday night, the Flyers find themselves sixth overall on the penalty kill at 87 per cent. Philadelphia would’ve found themselves bit higher in the rankings, but giving up two shorties to the Canadiens on Tuesday night only brought that percentage down. They are also ninth regarding net penalty kill (again at 87 per cent). The Flyers have killed 40 of 46 power play opportunities against them. Only Montreal (twice), Florida (twice), Seattle (once), and Winnipeg (once) have been successful. Philadelphia also has two short-handed goals this year: one against the Islanders and one in the home opener versus Florida.
Although the personnel is essentially the same foundation or core with just a few additions over the summer, the Flyers in 2024-25 ended up in the middle of the pack at fifteenth (79.4 per cent) and seventeenth in terms of net penalty kill (81 per cent). They gave up 45 goals on 201 opportunities while scoring 10 short-handed goals. A lot of those goals could be laid quite easily at the feet of Sam Ersson, Ivan Fedotov, and Aleksei Kolosov as they weren’t very good last year. Simply put, the Flyers seemed to be at a disadvantage right from the start. But there are a few factors why the Flyers are looking better 13 games into this season down a man then they were all of last season.
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