Flyers Shots Go Missing In 2-1 Letdown to Flames
Nov 2, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Calgary Flames left wing Joel Farabee (86) tries to deflect puck against Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Cam York (8) and goaltender Aleksei Kolosov (35) during the first period at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images
The Philadelphia Flyers welcomed in the Calgary Flames tonight, in a bit of an offensive rut and battling to get shots on goal. After missing a game, captain Sean Couturier returned to the lineup, and with Daniel Vladar getting the night off, Aleksei Kolosov started between the pipes for the first time this season.
Compounding the recent offensive issues, general manager Daniel Briere announced that Tyson Foerster will miss a few games. This breaks up the Flyers’ most successful line of Foerster, Noah Cates, and Bobby Brink, at least for a couple of games. The Foerster-Cates-Brink line has 21 points per season. Rick Tocchet said Owen Tippett will slide into Foerster’s spot in the top line to start the game.
The first 2 periods were marked by something that has been a concern so far this young season: the Flyers weren’t getting enough shots on goal. They only had 9 in the first 2 periods, while Calgary had 10 in the first period alone. Granted, the Flames were playing suffocating defense in front of their netminder, Dustin Wolf, but the Flyers just couldn’t seem to penetrate the zone, and the passes just weren’t finding friendly sticks all game.
After the Flames went up 2-0 in the third, off of a second Jonathan Huberdeau goal, Travis Konecny took a shot above the circle off the faceoff, which snuck under Wolf’s glove for a goal to cut the Flames lead in half, at 2-1, but that was as close as they’d get, closing out the homestand with a 2-1 loss.
The real concern reared its head early in the game for the Flyers. In the first period, they were outshot 10-3; however, in those 3 shots, they clanged it off the post twice, the first shot by Trevor Zegras looked like it went in, making the frustration even worse for the Flyers. The coaching staff understands that this is an issue, as Tocchet said that the whole morning meeting today focused on getting pucks to the net and working on shots in the power play.
After a lackluster first period, the Flyers doubled their shot total in the second period, but Calgary still outshot the Flyers 7-6, leaving it 17-9 going into the second intermission, which made it obvious that the meeting missed the mark. Tocchet started the third by putting the lines on shuffle and came up with the lines as such: the first line was Zegras-Christian Dvorak-Tippett. The second line was made up of Nikita Grebenkin-Cates-Konecny, and the third line of Matvei Michkov-Couturier-Brink. In the end, this helped to get the shot total to 9 in the third.
Granted the defense that Calgary played tonight really handcuffed the Flyers, and kept the shots to a minimum, but the real story is told by the fact that the Flyers are second to last in shots on goal, and truthfully, the only reason that is the case was their 19 shot third period last night when they turned up the heat down by 3 in that period. That kind of play isn’t sustainable, nor would we expect 19 shots per period, but getting 9-11 shots per period will give these creative wingers and centers more chances, which will definitely result in more points. It’s possible that the line shakeup helped, but I would actually like to see Michkov play on the second line in place of Konecny, or possibly give him some rotations with the first line, if you’re throwing spaghetti at the wall. His time on the ice per game has gone down this season, and when he’s playing, the puck seems to move better.
I don’t know if that is the answer, but I will say that from an entertainment perspective, this was not a great hockey game. The third period had moments, but moments can’t make up for the first two periods, trying to figure out how to crack Calgary’s defense. Kolosov played pretty well in this game and deserved a better fate than what he got tonight. The Flyers head on the road, going to Montreal on Tuesday, and if the Flames’ defense boggled the Flyers, things aren’t going to get easier if Jakub Dobes starts for the Canadiens. Let’s see if Tocchet will tweak the lines more, or if he wants to go with these groupings to see if they can find some continuity.
Steve Hamilton
Steve may have been born in California, but don’t let that fool you. After dating a local woman and clashing with her and her family over sports for decades, he has an affinity for Philly sports. Balancing love for Philly and Bay Area sports teams may seem impossible, we can all agree that the Cowboys are the true evil.
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