For the sixth time in franchise history, the Philadelphia Flyers began their home stretch of a season by hosting the Florida Panthers. It’s safe to say the challenge in those first five games wasn’t as great as it was Monday night, considering Florida’s status as two-time defending Stanley Cup champions, an unerring 3-0-0 record entering the night and its 2-1 win over the Flyers last Thursday.
However, Philadelphia came out of the gate as the sharper team, taking an early lead and controlling the game for much of the first two periods. So when Seth Jones took Florida’s fourth penalty with 1:55 left in the second, it felt like a potential turning point. The Flyers had made one attempt to gain a quality man advantage earlier in the period (although Eetu Luostarinen played without a stick) and had a chance to come quite close to burying their opponents.
Instead, they opened the door for a Florida comeback, conceding a sloppy shorthanded goal to Sam Reinhart. Sure enough, the Panthers eventually brought it back, even in the third period. But the Flyers responded as Sean Couturier’s second goal of the game was the game winner. get Philadelphia in the win column for the first time in the 2025-2026 season.
Summary of the game
After opening the season with two road games against contending teams, the Flyers came out energized in front of a large home crowd. Although they failed to convert after an early power play, a couple of big saves from new goalkeeper Dan Vladař got the crowd into action. They didn’t really have a chance to break loose until nine minutes in, when a smooth feed from captain Sean Couturier found Tyson Foerster in the slot. A quick stick grab and later release, and Van Halen’s Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love blasted from the speakers of the newly named Xfinity Mobile Arena, marking Foerster’s first goal of the 2025-2026 season.
It endured as the lone highlight of the opening period, in which Philadelphia largely dominated. The Flyers held the Panthers to just five shots, their fewest of the young season, and collected more than 80% of expected goals at 5-on-5. Florida came out strong in the second period, taking it to the Flyers in the first shift and getting an early penalty. But the Flyers gradually began to tilt the ice back in their favor, culminating in Travis Konecny’s stretch pass that sent Couturier on a breakaway. After being stymied by a number of strong chances earlier, Couturier buried a perfect wrist shot past Florida’s Danil Tarasov, making his season debut in the net, to double Philadelphia’s lead.
Of course, that wouldn’t be the end goal of the second period, as Reinhart’s aforementioned shorthanded goal slid over the goal line with 38 seconds left. His eleven shorthanded goals since the start of the 2023-24 season are by far the most in the NHL (four players, including Travis Konecny, are tied for second, but are four goals behind Reinhart).
Sure enough, the Panthers would make that goal matter as another special team tied the game about halfway through the third. This came on the power play, with Florida finally breaking through a tough, short-handed group for Philadelphia. As in his first start, Dan Vladař’s strong night was marred by a glaring hiccup. Last Thursday, it was his failure to collect a seemingly innocuous shot from Brad Marchand that became the winning goal. On Monday it was his stumble in the crease that left him out of position and an easy goal from Sam Bennett leveled the score.
But Bennett’s happiness wouldn’t last forever. He and Aaron Ekblad were unable to separate Trevor Zegras from the puck after a shortened Flyers power play ended, allowing the 24-year-old to make his first highlight reel as a Flyer. His backhand pass reached Couturier for his second goal of the night, restoring Philadelphia’s lead with 4:10 remaining in regulation. An aggressive goalie with 3:04 to go yielded no results for Paul Maurice as Bobby Brink and Christian Dvorak both buried empty-netters to put the game away.
“You can go either way, right?” said head coach Rick Tocchet about the team’s reaction after Florida’s tying goal. “You can crush your team and feel sorry for yourself, but then you want to break the momentum… our fourth line went out, did a good job and then you can get back in the game. I didn’t see us sink.”
It was important for the Flyers to win for a number of reasons. To break the disappointment of Saturday’s extra-time winner for Brink. To secure Tocchet’s first victory as head coach of his former team. And to give the Flyers some much-needed points in an early-season gauntlet. Opponents won’t have it any easier as the Flyers host the reigning Presidents’ Trophy-winning Winnipeg Jets on Thursday night, although Monday’s game did start nine of the 10 games at home.
Florida is on the opposite end of the travel spectrum as they began a five-game road trip with this game. Their first back-to-back of the season awaits them when they visit the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday and the New Jersey Devils on Thursday.
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