The Rick Tocchet era will begin for the Flyers on October 9th. But it’s not going to be an easy start for either of them.
Kicking off the season, the Flyers will head to Sunrise to take on the Florida Panthers. Four days later, the teams will face each other again as the Panthers come to Philadelphia for their home opener.
The Flyers didn’t fare well in a three game series against the Panthers last season, claiming victory in only in the December matchup with a narrow loss in the both the November and January games finale. The two sides played close games each time as the Panthers outscored Philadelphia 14-12
Two of the games were decided by one goal and the same score as Florida took the 4-3 victory in the first game and the Flyers won by the same score in the third game. The second game was a track meet as the two sides combined for 12 goals in a 7-5 Panthers victory.
Matthew Tkachuk went off as he had a point on five of seven goals. Owen Tippett played well against his former team, scoring two goals in the loss.
So opening the season against the back-to-back champions means it can’t get worse, right?
Well, in between those two games, the Flyers will head to face a Raleigh team that beefed up during the offseason. They traded for K’andre Miller and signed Nikolaj Ehlers to a massive deal. Carolina also extended some key players and figure to be a contender in the division once again.
The Hurricanes swept the three game series last season, winning by a combined scored of 15-5. They claimed a 5-0 shutout in the final game and never quite let Philadelphia get close enough in the other two games. It was a 6-4 win to start, the closest game the Flyers had against Carolina. Travis Konecny opened the scoring, before three straight goals by the Hurricanes. The Flyers did tie it at 3-3 and 4-4 before giving up the final two goals.
The latter took a convincing 4-1 victory in the second matchup. That was after Ryan Poehling tied the game at 1-1 in the first before Carolina scored three straight in the third.
Okay, it can’t possibly get worse, right? Think again. After the Flyers face Florida at home, they have a date with the President Trophy-winning Winnipeg Jets. The two sides didn’t meet until March last season and split the season series. An Ivan Fedotov masterclass in goaltending helping Philadelphia eek out a 2-1 shootout victory. After giving up a goal 10 minutes into the first, Fedotov shut it down from there.
Five days later, the Jets got their revenge in a 4-1 win in which they scored the first four goals of the game. Matvei Michkov broke the shutout bid early in the third period for Philadelphia’s only goal.
It gets a little easier later in the month with matchups against Seattle, Ottawa, and Pittsburgh, but the Flyers will also see the newly revamped Islanders.
It’s not going to be an easy test to start the season, but Tocchet will find out early what this Flyers team is made of.