Flyers’ inability to ‘handle prosperity’ keeps them on outside looking in

The Flyers were shut out for the second time all season Monday night in South Philadelphia, following their best win of the year across the country just three days prior. They were booed off the ice. They deserved it.

“We just got our butts kicked on home ice in a game where it’s probably tough to get to, and a lot of fans in the building,” Jamie Drysdale said following the Flyers’ 4-0 loss to the New York Islanders on Monday. “We have to be better, and we will be better.”

The Flyers were coming back to a snowy Philadelphia following an impressive 2-0-1 West Coast trip, which concluded with the team’s best win of the season — a 7-3 stomping of the NHL’s top club, Colorado Avalanche. Rather than building off the momentum, the Flyers produced a dud in front of 17,942 at Xfinity Mobile Arena just a day removed from a snowstorm.

Not stacking wins is a problem that has haunted the Flyers. They are a measly 3-10-4 after a regulation win and contain just two three-game winning streaks all season, and just one in the calendar year of 2026.

“You’ve got to handle prosperity,” Rick Tocchet said postgame. “You win a game or feel good about yourself, you’ve got to be even-keeled. To be a really good team, or a good team, you’ve got to handle prosperity. Let the game go, even if it’s a good game for you. Let it go and get your business hat out for the next game. Obviously, we didn’t.”

The Flyers had two days off between their game on Friday in Denver and their defeat on Monday night back at home. They had the time to rest, readjust to Eastern time, and recoup ahead of the home stretch prior to the Olympic break. Instead, no one showed up. They came out with no juice and were lifeless by the time the third period began.

“We knew it was a big game, a four-point game in the division,” Trevor Zegras, who has just two goals and three assists in his last 10 games, stated. “We just kind of came out and thought it would be easy, I guess. They played a good game; they didn’t give us much. Just wasn’t our best [Monday night].”

The Flyers sit now at 24-18-9. They missed an opportunity to move back into playoff position on Monday, and are now four points behind the Islanders for third place in the Metropolitan Division. 51 games in, and there is yet to be a sustained run of success. Why?

“If I had the answer, we’d have a better record, I guess,” Captain Sean Couturier, now goalless in 24-straight games, said. “That’s something we don’t need to focus on. We just need to focus on ourselves, playing the right way, showing up every night.”

The Flyers have done a good job avoiding losing streaks throughout this season, outside of their six-game skid earlier this month. But perhaps more glaring: they have been unable to pile up victories. That 0-5-1 rut earlier this month knocked them out of the playoff picture, and though painting themselves back in recently, the inability to stack wins keeps them on the outside looking in with five games to go until the break.

“It’s in this locker room, we’re the only people that can figure it out at the end of the day,” Drysdale said. “We have to better, and we will be better.”

Handling prosperity, as Tocchet anoints it, is going to be a big key for the Flyers over the next five games, and especially after the 20-day hiatus. If this team wants to reach the playoffs for the first time in five years or make a big splash ahead of the March 6th trade deadline, they are going to have to start going on some runs and piling victories. Or else, the bricks they are building this year could block them from entering late-April hockey.

“That’s on me, I’ll wear it, I’ve got to get these guys ready to play after a win,” Tocchet said.

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