That’s all she wrote: Flyers wrap up the season with 5-4 loss in Buffalo
Apr 17, 2025; Buffalo, New York, USA; Philadelphia Flyers right wing Matvei Michkov (39) celebrates his second goal of the game with teammates during the second period against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center. Mandatory Credit: Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images
Officially 82/82.
The Flyers ended their season with a 5-4 loss to the Sabres. Unfortunately for the Flyers, this season has been over for months now.
This game wasn’t entirely meaningless, however. Despite it being between two of the worst teams in the league, the lottery implications on tonight’s game were drastic. Heading into the game, there were 3 scenarios
IF the Flyers won in regulation: 7th best lottery odds (6.5%)
IF the Flyers lost in regulation: 4th best lottery odds (9.5%)
IF the game went to OT, no matter the result: 6th best lottery odds (7.5%)
With the regulation loss, the Flyers own the 4th-best lottery odds (9.5%) in the 2025 NHL Draft. The NHL hasn’t announced a date for the draft lottery yet. Last year’s event was on May 7.
It’s no secret that the hope around this team and the future of it revolves mainly around just one man, Matvei Michkov. In the final game of what was an electrifying rookie season, Michkov was outstanding.
He ended his night with 2 goals and an assist for his 18th multi-point game of the season and 7th with 2 goals. He’d strike first late in the first period at the 15:09 mark on the power play, and got his second 7:11 into the 2nd period of action on the 5 on 5, assisted by Sean Couturier and Travis Konecny. He also picked up an assist in the final moments of the season when Bobby Brink scored a goal off a pass from Michkov.
In the process of tonight’s game, Michkov overtook San Jose’s Macklin Celebrini to become the rookie goal leader in the NHL.
Tyson Foerster also ended his season well, getting a goal and an assist in the final act. Foerster has been incredible down the final stretch of the season for the Flyers with 11 points in the final 9 games of his season. His goal came extremely early in the 3rd period at the 0:15 mark, and he picked up an assist on Michkov’s power-play goal in the first period.
Bobby Brink, like Foerster, also got 2 points against Buffalo. Brink has had a great season and is much improved from what he looked like a year ago, and he ended his season right. He scored the last goal of the season at the 19:41 mark in the 3rd period and picked up the assist on Foerster’s goal to open up the 3rd.
While it appeared Ivan Fedotov was going to get the start at goalie for tonight’s game, it ended up being Aleksei Kolosov in the net. Kolosov was suboptimal, letting 4 shots get by while making 26 saves.
Even if this Flyers team wasn’t great, it still won’t be fun having to wait for hockey to return to Philly. Daniel Briere has a lot on his plate this off-season, and it will be a big litmus test of how good he really is. He’ll need to name a new head coach, find a goalie, and have a premium draft pick to work with.
Unfortunately for us, the NHL draft isn’t until late June, and the lottery isn’t for about another 3 and a half weeks. The only things left to do are spin the wheel on Tankathon and root for Claude Giroux and the Senators to make things happen in the postseason.
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Ethan Whitney
Ethan is a writer for Philly Sports Reports and a Color Commentator for Rally Sports Network. He has been a massive fan of all Philly Sports for as long as he can remember and wants to share that passion with the world. He is looking for a long career in the sports media sphere.
