Flyers Nearly Find Their Pulse, Comes Up Short In 3-2 Shootout Loss to Kraken

As one of the three remaining teams without a win this season, the Flyers can’t afford morale victories. While victory came up short, losing 3-2 in shootouts to the Kraken, what they did do was show a spark of pulse, just barely missing out on their first win.

With the second game of a short homestand, the Flyers needed a 60-minute effort to get their first win of the season, and with the Seattle Kraken coming in, Rick Tocchet is trying out many different lines to find the one that can get anything started on offense.

Bobby McMann got the scoring started for the Kraken on the power play, scoring his third goal of the season, eight minutes into the game. In the second period, Ville Ottavainen snuck a slap shot past Dan Vladar, who was screened by Simon Benoit and Matty Beniers, making it 2-0 Seattle.

In the third, Oliver Bonk finally put some life into the Flyers, carrying the puck up the left wing and making a perfect pass to Christian Dvorak to finally get one past Phillip Grubauer, making it a one-goal game. A minute later, on a 4-on-4, Travis Sanheim streaked in and held the puck for a flying Trevor Zegras, who banged the puck past Grubauer to tie the game, for a bit of payback for their scrum earlier in the game.

Following a Kraken-dominated back half third period and five minutes of overtime, the game went to a shootout, the first instant for the Flyers this season. Matvei Michkov managed to score a goal for Philadelphia on a triple deke in front of Grubauer and pushed the shot through his five-hole, but goals from Beniers and Bobby McCann secured the Kraken the two points, winning 3-2.

Flyers And Zegras Show Life And Aggression In Shootout Loss

In the second period, it appeared that the Flyers finally woke up, as their play started to look considerably better than it had all season. Though they lost the period in goals, they outshot the Kraken 12-10, which would by itself be noteworthy, but showed some fire in other ways. Trevor Zegras and Seattle goalie Phillip Grubauer got into a shoving match as the whistle blew, which ended in a questionable penalty against Zegras.

After this penalty ended, on a play where Grubauer froze the puck, he flung it at Zegras, who pushed it back to him, and words were exchanged; then the goalie threw a left cross to the face of Zegras, ending in both being assessed a penalty. This was the moment that the Flyers started finishing checks and playing with intensity. The third-period flurry doesn’t happen if Trevor Zegras doesn’t wake up the team in an unorthodox way.

Vladar Rebounds For His Best Outing Of Season

Dan Vladar has not gotten off to the best start in 2026, and as much as any one player needs to have a rebound game, Vladar is at the top of the list. He had many shots where he was beaten on the first move, but what he didn’t have in those games was the secondary effort in saves where he kept the pads behind him to make the saves that became his signature last season.

While the Flyers led in shots for the majority of the game, in the last five minutes of regulation, the Kraken started pouring shots on Vladar. The more pressure they put on Vladar, the stronger he got, and it held up in overtime and the shootout as well. Even though this is a loss, in the end, the Flyers got a point and proved that there is a pulse.

Grinding Physical Play Wakes Up Flyers Roster

While Zegras and Vladar will get the attention for waking the team up, there were several players that need to get kudos for doing the unsung work. Nick Seeler single-handedly kept the Flyers in the game in the overtime period, blocking a shot that Vladar didn’t seem to see, making sure that it never got to him. He had two other huge breakups and great physical play to maintain that edge that they found in the second period.

Oliver Bonk also had an incredible game, not only playing a physically dominant game, but he also dragged the puck up the wall, holding it the whole time into the zone to get the puck to the stick of Dvorak for the first goal.

His confident play was on the ice throughout the preseason, and this game is something that he and the rest of the Flyers can build on. His game and the poor passing of David Jiricek down the stretch in this game will complicate things as Rasmus Ristolainen inches closer to his return.

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