Flyers Fight Back but Fall in Overtime to Senators
Philadelphia Flyers' Noah Cates, left, skates the puck past Ottawa Senators' Jordan Spence during the second period of an NHL hockey game, Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP News/Derik Hamilton)
The Flyers returned home from a short 2-game road trip, welcoming the Senators to Xfinity Mobile Arena for the matinee of a dual-sport day in South Philly.
Samuel Ersson got the nod between the pipes after his short stint on the shelf, and in the blink of an eye, he made 2 very good stops and then gave up 2 goals. Of course, Claude Giroux was in on a helper for the second goal. Before everyone got comfortable in their seats and before Ersson could establish his rhythm, the Flyers had a 2-goal deficit.
For the first three minutes, the puck was played nearly exclusively in the Flyers’ zone. While this was happening, the Flyers’ bench looked to be scrambling. Initially, I thought it was to get Daniel Vladar ready to come in, but there were some changes to the lines. Jamie Drysdale joined the Noah Cates unit with Trevor Zegras, Owen Tippett, and Bobby Brink. On the power play, Travis Sanheim went on with Cam York, Travis Konecny, Sean Couturier, and Matvei Michkov. These shakeups made a difference because the first period came to an end without any further incident.
This continued into the second, but the Flyers started putting more pucks on the net and playing on the other side a bit more, and it paid off when Konecny found Christian Dvorak, who passed it to Michkov, who got his own bounce pass off the board, brought it into clean ice, and wristed a shot past Sens goalie Linus Ullmark top shelf.
In the third, you could feel the momentum was fully on the side of the Flyers. Ottawa went more than 25 minutes without a shot, which was continuing from the second period. At 9:55 in the third, Dvorak found Drysdale to the left of the goal after Ullmark overcommitted, and Drysdale banged it home for the tying snap shot.
The third ended with several near-misses by the Flyers. In the OT period, the Flyers sagged back too much, and they allowed Ottawa to get behind them in the zone after missed hits on he backcheck. The first time, they recovered from it, but the second time when Tim Stutzle banged home his second goal of the night to send everyone home. The Flyers did get a point, but they were less than a minute away from taking it to a shootout, and lost 3-2 in OT.
In this game, the Flyers were much more physical, especially in the back end of the pairings. Noah Juulsen was all over the ice playing physically, which was important for overcoming the slow start for the Flyers. As impactful as the physical play of Juulsen was, he did take a roughing penalty on Dylan Cozens, after Cozens was called for boarding, and he got up and pushed and threw a punch while the linemen were separating the teams. This was a loss of emotional control that cost the Flyers a power play, which they have had some success with so far this season. Granted, that is a very emotional moment, especially when Juulsen was slow getting up, but emotional control has to take control in that moment.
Because of this physical play, the Senators went more than 25 minutes from the second period into the late moments of the third without getting near the goal or having clear passing lanes. The physical play woke the team up, and they responded to both the line shuffling and the hitting. Not a surprise, Garnet Hathaway had 7 hits in the game, and Konecny added 3 hits. This is important, especially when Giroux comes back to play his former team. He was a pest all game, even past the assist on the second goal.
In the OT period, the Flyers seemed to play a little more tentatively, and that cost them in the end. Stutzle’s game-winner came after Trevor Zegras lost Drake Batherson momentarily, which allowed him to find Stutzle, effectively hanging Travis Sanheim out to dry. This could have been avoided with Zegras applying pressure on Batherson. This will definitely be studied in the tape session with Rick Tocchet, which is the first step to correcting this kind of mistake.
I like the way the Flyers fought today. They just came up short because they softened up on what brought them back into the game, the forecheck and backcheck. While we’ll always take a point, this was a game where they had all of the momentum, and a momentary lapse in pressure allowed the Senators to steal a win. Let’s take the point and the lesson, and leave the rest on the ice for now.
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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