It can be hard to find silver linings after a loss. But for new Philadelphia Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet, his club’s first defeat of the 2025-26 campaign didn’t come without some bright spots.
The Flyers fell to the reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers by a score of 2-1 Thursday night at Amerant Bank Arena, and despite some sloppy play in the season opener, Tocchet’s squad provided reasons for optimism.
“There was some good stuff,” Tocchet told the media after the game.
“It’s a good measuring stick. The one thing with Florida I respect, they believe in what they do. They dump a lot of pucks, they have a great forechecking game. We gotta make sure we believe in what we’re doing [for] 60 minutes. Pucks turned over, things like that, we’ve gotta clean up. But for the most part, the effort was there. Can’t really get too upset.”
The Flyers were outshot 34-20 and struggled to generate high-danger scoring chances against a Panthers club missing two of its top players in Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk. But when the Flyers had their back against the wall, they were often bailed out by goaltender Dan Vladar, who performed exceptionally in his Flyers debut.
Vladar made 32 saves on the night, and had it not been for his stellar performance, the score likely would have looked considerably more lopsided.
“Nobody’s happy after tonight’s game, so I think it’s a good thing for our team. I’m pretty sure that next game we’re gonna come out even better,” said Vladar after the game.
“We’ll learn from this one and try to get better for the next one.”
Tocchet was pleased with Vladar’s night, calling his performance “solid” after the game. Vladar was not expected to earn the start in net over Sam Ersson in the season opener, but after this strong outing, the pressure is mounting for Ersson to prove he is capable as serving as the Flyers’ No. 1 goalie.
Another player who stood out to Tocchet was forward Noah Cates. Now in his fourth season as a full-time NHLer, the 26-year-old center scored the Flyers’ only goal of the night, cleaning up a rebound off a faceoff to tie the game at one apiece. He nearly scored another goal after making a smooth move to fool star Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, but his shot rang off the post.
“[Cates] is invested in what we’re doing. He’s around the puck, he stops on pucks. When there’s no play, he makes the right play,” said Tocchet. “He was really good today.”
It wasn’t just Cates who caught Tocchet’s eye, though. Unsurprisingly, the entire line of Cates, Tyson Foerster, and Bobby Brink had Tocchet raising his eyebrows.
“They’re connected. They stop on pucks. And if there’s no play, they’ll get it in deep and get off, things like that. There’s certain guys we have to clean up when it comes to that. It’s only our first game, but it’s been happening in camp a little bit.”
It’s safe to say the Cates line won’t have much to clean up after the season opener. Per Natural Stat Trick, the trio of Foerster, Cates, and Brink finished the night with sterling 5-on-5 play-driving numbers, including a 68.42 Corsi For percentage and 94.97 Expected Goals For percentage. The Flyers’ other three lines often looked disjointed for much of the game, but that third line — the only line to remain intact from the 2024-25 season — was consistently noticeable.
The Flyers may need to lean on the third line again Saturday night when they visit the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh. Like Florida, the Hurricanes are a terrific play-driving team that thrives in the possession game. The Hurricanes lack the nastiness that Florida is known for, but do boast an immensely skilled lineup that features the likes of Sebastian Aho, Seth Jarvis, and offseason pickup Nikolaj Ehlers.
It won’t shock anyone if the Flyers end up being outshot once again Saturday, but if they limit Carolina to the perimeter like they did against Florida, they’ll put up a strong fight.
“For the most part, what I liked, when [Florida] did have puck possession, we didn’t panic. We stayed in our spots, gave them the outside. So that’s a positive. I think early in the camp, we were running around a bit, but I didn’t see as much of that, so that is a positive,” said Tocchet.
