Flyers Clamp Down Blackhawks in Chicago to Take a 3–1 Win Into Holiday Break

Tonight, the Flyers travelled to Chicago to take on the struggling Chicago Blackhawks in the last game before the holiday break. This matchup is two of the youngest rosters in the NHL, yet two teams headed in different directions lately. The Flyers, fresh off a 5-2 win over Rick Tocchet‘s former team, the Vancouver Canucks, and the Blackhawks have lost 5 straight after Connor Bedard went down with an injury and Frankie Nazar took a shot to the face a few days ago.

Samuel Ersson got the start in net and looked to improve on his .867 save percentage, trying to rebound from his less-than-stellar last start. His play would go a long way in determining the Flyers’ happy flight home, as he stopped 20 of Chicago’s 21 shots, leading the Flyers to a 3-1 win to go into the break.

In the first period, Trevor Zegras took a penalty and came out to reward the penalty kill by taking a great pass from Sean Couturier and turning it into a perfect pass on the tape to Travis Konecny, who deposited the puck past Spencer Knight. This was a perfect example of how fast the Flyers can score when they control the neutral zone.

The second period was moving along fast, until the Blackhawks got a penalty for too many men on the ice, their 8th bench minor of the season, the most in the NHL. In the ensuing power play, Konecny paid it forward from his goal by finding Noah Cates, who blasted the puck past Knight to put the Flyers up two. It was Konecny’s 300th assist in the NHL. After watching the play a few times, it may have been a missed shot, but I am choosing to call it a beautiful pass and an even better shot.

TK put it on a platter. 🍽️#PHIvsCHI | #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/hi3o9P2TlZ

— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) December 24, 2025

The Hawks cut the lead to one on a Ryan Donato 4-on-4 stint, where two Flyers players screened Ersson, who couldn’t see the shot.

The third period was a fast-paced one but featured several scums, as the Flyers were getting under the skin of the young Blackhawks, and getting them to take some penalties. An unforced error caused the third goal, when it looked like there was a miscommunication with Knight heading to the bench when they didn’t have possession, giving Carl Grundstrom a clean look at the empty net after a beautiful pass from Couturier. Though the Flyers have struggled with leads this season, tonight that was not an issue as they kept playing hard until the final horn.

Flyers Young Defensemen Stand Out

Tonight, the play of Cam York and Jamie Drysdale really stood out. The defensemen, in general, played well in Chicago, but York and Drysdale did the little things all game to keep the Blackhawks off kilter all night.

The passes from the Hawks were off, and that was because York and Drysdale were clogging the passing lanes all game. Any time Chicago would start to push the pace, the defensemen would be in the way when they were trying pass out of presses.

Nikita Grebenkin was under the skin of the forwards all game, including goading Colton Dach into a penalty, which didn’t result in a goal, but gave the power play a chance to gel.

In the second goal, Drysdale set up Konecny for the second assist, and the pass he made was perfectly timed and drew Connor Murphy out of position to get the puck to Konecny in front of Cates goal. Drysdale, who got praise from his head coach in the presser after the morning skate today, and he showed exactly why Tocchet chose to spotlight his play this season. Where York and Drysdale stood out tonight was in the way they handled the little things, and they both are unsung heroes in tonight’s win.

Tocchet Shows Trust in Michkov

In the game against the New York Rangers, there was a heated exchange between Tocchet and Matvei Michkov, which has been a topic of discussion all week. So much so that in his presser earlier this week, he snapped at the number of questions about his young star winger.

After being a lightning rod in the win last night, along with Owen Tippett, with key goals to solidify the win. Tonight, Tocchet showed trust in Michkov in putting him and fellow young forward, Denver Barkey, on the power play early. The power play has been stagnant all season, which is a complete contrast to the penalty kill of the Flyers. Tocchet is trying early pairings to try and spur some movement. Tonight, they got a chance early, and though there was no goal, there was some spark, and Michkov was the spark plug. I saw life on the power play when they were on the ice, and maybe it was youthful exuberance, but their passes were crisp, and I saw some life in the power play, which there hasn’t been all season thus far.

I know that the relationship between Michkov and Tocchet has been under a microscope since the game in New York, but I have a different take on this situation, and it appears that I’m in the minority here — I think that Tocchet sees what Michkov can be, and that he’s not there yet. Some elements of his game need improvement. It’s obvious that Tocchet is an old-school guy and not handling Michkov with kid gloves. There is no chance that he doesn’t see the special offensive talent that Michkov has, but it appears that he is trying to mold him into the image of a Flyers superstar, talented with grit. Michkov’s minutes tonight in important moments in the game should tell you how Tocchet feels about his talented winger; he’s trying to mold him into a complete player, and Michkov is truly showing that the ‘brick by brick’ motto is something that Tocchet is steering into. Just to show that Michkov is growing in grit, he leads the team in penalty minutes after tonight with 36 PIM.

Ersson Played Well In Relief

So far this season, one of the reasons that the Flyers have been so successful has been the play between the pipes of Daniel Vladar. He has proved to the league why Daniel Brierre and Tocchet had so much faith in Vladar after the preseason. His play has forced Ersson into a backup role. Last season, Ersson played pretty well, but he was outplayed in the preseason, and that has continued so far this season.

In this morning’s presser, one of the things that Tocchet talked about was that Vladar wasn’t able to play today, and though he was very cryptic about the reason, it sounds like it is something that he can recover from before the extended break through the Christmas holiday.

In tonight’s game, Ersson played very well, and the only goal he gave up happened because his own players accidentally screened him.

Ersson’s play has truly been up and down this season, but in the end, he is taking on a backup role, and it’s pretty obvious he’s not adjusting well to that so far. His .867 save percentage is well under his career average of .886. More importantly, you can tell early on which Ersson we’re going to see in the game. In the starts where he is shaky, he looks incredibly uncomfortable, and gives up too many rebounds, which have ended up in the goal too often. This is something that Vladar has taken great strides in, along with his lateral movement. That isn’t an issue for Ersson, but I can see the way he controls the puck after a save. If he is allowing big rebounds, he is not going to have a good night. Tonight, he controlled the rebounds and made quite a few high-intensity saves.

If you told me going into the season that the Flyers would be second in the Metropolitan at the break, I would have been very happy, though a bit skeptical. Yet, here we are. There are some things to clean up, but we have to be happy with how the team is coming together. Tonight was the perfect example of where the Flyers could be when we see the Blackhawks. We need to keep it all in perspective, and let’s enjoy it until we see the Flyers on the ice on the 28th.

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