PHILADELPHIA – After a rather dismal preseason, the Flyers gave coach Rick Tocchet cause for more than a bit of concern.
His crew certainly hadn’t looked like the one which raced to a 3-0 lead in the first round of last year’s playoffs against Pittsburgh before eventually winning the series, 4-2.
So when it was announced over the summer that Pittsburgh would be the Flyers’ opponent on opening night for the 2026-27 season, no doubt Tocchet had to frown a time or two.
As it turns out, the worry was justified.
The Penguins skated into Xfinity Mobile Arena on Wednesday night and basically humiliated the Flyers to the tune of a 7-0 score. It tied the worst opening night loss in Flyers’ history.
The original record was set on Oct. 21, 1971 when they were defeated by the Los Angeles Kings, 7-0, at the Spectrum.
At the start, a soldout crowd made plenty of positive noise. But by the end, the boos were raining down.
Tocchet isn’t the type to launch into a John Tortorella rant but he was clearly displeased with the performance.
“We were down four-nothing and we were still making some disturbing plays,” Tocchet said. “So we have to figure this out quickly. Since I’ve been here, that’s the worst D-zone I’ve seen.”
The coach didn’t stop there.
“Obviously this is a test of character,” he said. “We’re looking for people to step up and do the right thing. The D-zone was what we built on last year. And we were just runnin’ around. The first couple goals, we lost battles along the wall. You just can’t do that. . .I don’t think we won a battle.”
Dan Vladar started in goal for the Flyers and didn’t get much support. But Tocchet chose to leave him in the game rather than go to No. 2 netminder Joseph Woll. The Flyers play the Devils on Thursday night and the coach didn’t want to use the backup in back-to-back games.
Tocchet was asked if the players are relying too much on what they accomplished last year?
“I hope not,” he said. “Better not. That’s not the message. We have to play the game inside, not outside.”
The players themselves know this effort wasn’t good enough in a number of areas. It’s no accident the team’s three leaders – captain Sean Couturier and alternatve captains Travis Konecny and Travis Sanheim – were the only ones called in for post-game interviews.
“We have to wake up, the last exhibition game (a lopsided loss to Washington) we played the same way,” Couturier said. “Everyone’s like, ‘Aw, it’s training camp, we’re going to ease our way into the season.’ But we have to wake up here. I mean, there’s no panic but we have to realize that we’re not that good. What happened last year is last year. We have to keep working to try to get points.”
Added Konecny: “I mean it’s frustrating. Also, it’s great in this league you get an opportunity to flush it down (on Thursday). There’s been some tendencies we’ve had in preseason, I think we need to get on those right away. You know it’s not going to be easy. I think it was a little bit of a wakeup call today.”
Sanheim spoke in a very low volume voice. He sounded quite disappointed but what had just taken place.
“I think it was as ugly as it could have gotten,” he said. “The fortunate thing is it’s game one. We’ve got 83 more of these. We’re playing a team we played in the playoffs. They just wanted it more and battled harder. It’s unfortunate.
“We’ll see about the approach we take after this. We’ve got a game tomorrow night and we can bounce back and forget about this. We shot ourselves on a couple of them, probably gave them half their goals.”
The Penguins jumped off to a 2-0 lead as the Flyers looked a step slow throughout much of the first 20 minutes.
In fact, the Flyers did not register a shot on goal for the final 12:25 of the opening period.
Nicholas Robertson struck first, guiding a Kris Letang entry past Vladar at 7:26.
Then it was Ville Koivunen’s turn. He took a pass from defenseman Sam Girard, broke behind the defense and slid a short backhand shot between Vladar’s pads at 15:44.
Meanwhile, the Flyers failed to apply virtually any pressure on Pittsburgh goaltender Arturs Silovs.
Things didn’t get any better at the start of the second. The Flyers didn’t get a shot for the first 4:37, running the no-shot streak to 17:02.
Porter Martone took an ill-advised penalty and Evgeni Malkin made the home team pay with a bullet from the slot at 5:03.
The scoring parade continued at 7:26 when Hendrix Lapierre skated down the left side and beat Vladar short side.
>Short shots
Couturier began his 15th season, tying Bob Clarke and Claude Giroux for the Flyers’ team record. Couturier has played in 953 games; Clarke has the alltime mark with 1,144 with Giroux at 1,000. Bill Barber is fourth at 952.
x
Be the first to comment