After the Flyers’ successful road trip out west, the team returned to Philly, only to be kept off the ice for the next two days, thanks in part to the weekend’s snowstorm.
The team didn’t practice Saturday and canceled practice Sunday, so Monday’s morning skate marked the first time the team had been on the ice since Friday’s 7-3 win over Colorado.
The Flyers this season are 9-10-4 following a win, which coach Rick Tocchet described as “not that great.” The challenge of coming back after a win is mental, not physical, he said, and doubly so with the time off.
“If you’re off for two days, first of all, what are you doing on the days off?” Tocchet said. “First of all, you’re resting your legs, which is great. Are you doing something? I’m sure some guys did something to move around, not lay on a couch, but there’s a mental game. You should use these two days as actually a rest. You should have a lot of legs instead of the opposite, rusty.”
Although some of the guys may have spent their Sundays shoveling snow in their driveways, which Tocchet approved.
“You get the squats in there, I mean, why not?” Tocchet joked. “I don’t want them doing it for four hours or something, but yeah, why not? I think a lot of people were out there shoveling yesterday.”
Tocchet said Monday’s divisional matchup with the New York Islanders (7 p.m., NBCSP), who are currently third in the Metro, is a “maturity game” for the group.
After earning five of a possible six points on the road trip, the Flyers hope they can maintain that level of play during the upcoming stretch, when they play three teams in the Islanders, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Boston Bruins that they could be competing with for a playoff spot come April.
“I think we just needed a reset,” Travis Konecny said. He pointed to Colorado, the league’s top team, losing six of its last nine before Sunday’s win over Toronto. “Every team goes through a little streak, and we just had a little reset and got back to it.”
Flyers goaltender Dan Vladar is getting close to returning from his lower-body injury. He has not played since Jan. 14.
The schedule has not been friendly to the Flyers so far this year in terms of getting in more practice time, Tocchet said, and there won’t be many opportunities before the Olympic break (Feb. 6-24) to get back on the ice for practice, with the upcoming back-to-back on Wednesday and Thursday, and the Flyers’ charity carnival on Sunday.
The young Flyers roster is improving in the mental aspect of the game, but the weeks to come will be a test of how much progress the group has made.
“Every team’s got to go through it, and you’ve got to be ready for it, and that’s mental reps, when you don’t go on the ice, being ready,” Tocchet said.
Dan Vladař was on the ice for morning skate. The goalie hasn’t played since Jan. 14 against Buffalo, and is on injured reserve with a lower-body injury. Tocchet said he is likely to make a start this week. … Rasmus Ristolainen was also on the ice for skate and is expected to return to the lineup against the Islanders after missing six games with an upper-body injury.
After ripping off two wins to start the year over the New York Knicks, the Sixers lost their first game against them on Saturday, 112-109.
Despite the close score, the Sixers ultimately let the game slip away in the third quarter, going from up four at halftime to down 13 by the end of the quarter. It was the Sixers’ lowest scoring quarter since a 12-point fourth quarter against the Bulls on Jan. 2, 2024.
“I thought our physicality defensively was there,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “We started getting it up into the basketball and made it a little bit harder for them to try to make plays and/or move freely.”
Key to that defensive transformation in the third was backup center Mitchell Robinson, whom Brown anointed as the defensive player of the game. With Karl-Anthony Towns already in foul trouble, Robinson entered the game early in the third and immediately started making an impact.
Robinson was +14 in his 27 minutes, grabbing six offensive rebounds. The Knicks secured 19 offensive rebounds compared to just six for the Sixers, and turned them into 26 points.
He played a key role in keeping Joel Embiid, who’d dominated the first half with 28 points, off the scoresheet in the third.
Mitchell Robinson (left) proved to be a thorn in Joel Embiid and the Sixers’ side for most of the game on Saturday.
“I know he got it going early on, and you know he’s an All-Star player,” Robinson said postgame. “What you do with a guy like that is, he‘s going to come out there and fight, you make some adjustments in the [offensive] zone, show your hands. He draws a lot of fouls, so you know you have to be careful.”
Brown also praised guard OG Anunoby’s defense on Embiid down the stretch. Embiid scored just 10 points in the second half, going 3-for-9 from the field.
Anunoby said the key to grappling with Embiid was his lower-body strength, to maintain leverage going for the ball.
“Try to steal the ball, we always try to steal the ball,” Anunoby said. “We try to make it as difficult as possible. He’s a great player, so just trying to make him as uncomfortable as possible.”
“Just fight him, and then if he turns and someone flashes to the middle, know that they’re trying to go over the top,” Anunoby continued. “Just communication on the backside.”
These two teams met one another in a first-round playoff series just two years ago, and with both teams back in the top 8 of the Eastern Conference standings, they could be on track to meet one another again in the playoffs later this year.
Knicks forward OG Anunoby passes the basketball from the floor past Sixers forward Dominick Barlow (right) and guard VJ Edgecombe during the second quarter on Saturday.
So far, the season series is 2-1 in Philadelphia’s favor. But Saturday’s matchup was the first this year with both teams mostly healthy. Embiid and Deuce McBride missed the first matchup, and Josh Hart missed the second.
Despite their successful halftime adjustments, the Knicks know that both teams will need to execute better down the stretch to win a playoff series.
“I mean, we played well, but our execution last couple minutes, I don’t know if we deserved to win the game,” Hart said. “I don’t know if they deserved to win the game either. We could have just tied, honestly, at that point, all the miscues that we did.”
Laila Edwards, the first Black player to make the U.S. women’s Olympic hockey team, could become one of the breakout stars of the upcoming Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina, Italy.
She’s also from Cleveland Heights, Ohio, the hometown of Jason and Travis Kelce. The brothers experimented with hockey growing up before committing to football, and they remain fans of the game.
In November 2023, when Edwards first made the women’s national team, they gave her a shout-out on New Heights.
“I thought, ‘I’ll just message them thanking them, they’ll never see it,’” Edwards told People. “And then Travis and I had a full conversation over DM, and that was super cool. He was a really down-to-earth, humble guy who was super supportive and had really good things to say. They shouted me out again recently for making the Olympic team.”
Their support didn’t end there. Edwards told People that Travis made a large donation to her family’s GoFundMe page, which has raised over $50,000 to help her family fly to Milan to support her and the U.S. women’s national team.
Kylie Kelce will be on-site in Milan, after NBC named her as part of its Creator Collective. Jason and Kylie attended the Paris Olympics, and supported field hockey, volleyball, and women’s rugby. This time, Edwards hopes to see them at some of her games.
“Travis was saying that Jason and Kylie are big fans of mine, and I’m hoping to meet them all in Italy,” Edwards said.
Jason and Travis Kelce did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Jackie Endsley has been named director of the PGA Championship ahead of the tournament in May at Aronimink Golf Club, the PGA of America announced Wednesday.
Endsley has worked for the PGA for nine years and served as the championship director for six major PGA championships, including the 2020 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, which also was at Aronimink.
On Friday, Ryan Ogle announced on social media that he would step down as tournament director, a role he held for a year and a half.
“We are especially excited for Jackie to lead our talented on-site team and continue the fantastic momentum surrounding the 2026 PGA Championship,” said David Charles, senior director of championships for the PGA of America.
“This championship has received exceptional support from the club, as well as from local business and community leaders, putting our planning efforts in a great place for a successful week in May. Jackie’s extensive experience in leading major championships, along with her familiarity with Aronimink, strong organizational skills, and commitment to excellence, will be instrumental as we prepare to stage the 108th PGA Championship.”
The PGA Championship will be held from May 14-17 at Aronimink in Newtown Square, and is the first major men’s PGA Championship in the area since the U.S. Open was at Merion Golf Club in 2013. The Philadelphia Cricket Club hosted the Truist Championship, a sold-out signature event, in May.
“Returning to Aronimink and joining this outstanding team at such a pivotal moment is an incredible opportunity,” Endsley said. “The 2026 PGA Championship is poised to be truly special thanks to the dedication of our staff, the support of our partners, and the rich tradition of championship golf at this venue. As we ramp up preparations for championship week, our focus remains unchanged: delivering an unforgettable experience for players, spectators, and the entire community.”
Online speculation about whether Maxey and Edgecombe liked each other started after a defensive miscommunication in the first quarter of Friday’s loss to Cleveland led to an open Donovan Mitchell three. Maxey and Edgecombe were caught on the bench having what appeared to be a heated conversation after the play.
But on Monday, after Maxey was named an All-Star starter, Edgecombe was the first person to reach out to him — telling reporters he set a 2 p.m. alarm just to make sure he found out right away whether Maxey had been named a starter so he could congratulate him.
Edgecombe woke up Maxey from his pregame nap trying to call him.
“I’m like, why is he calling me?” Maxey said pregame. “And I answer, and he’s screaming and showing me the TV. And I’m like, ‘OK.’ We chopped it up a little bit.”
And postgame, the two Sixers guards were having fun after the 113-104 win over the Pacers.
If there’s anyone who understands the position Broncos fans are in right now, it’s the Eagles.
So, naturally, Nick Foles offered a few words of encouragement to Broncos fans on Sunday, after Denver learned it had lost starting quarterback Bo Nix for the rest of the season with a broken ankle he suffered in the closing moments of Saturday’s win over Buffalo.
“Note for the Broncos and their fans: I know it has been an emotional 24 hours. I feel for Bo and the team, and I’m sending prayers for a strong recovery,” Foles wrote on X. “A positive note going into the game vs. the Patriots is that they struggle against backup QBs in championship-type games.”
Note for the Broncos and their fans: I know it has been an emotional 24 hours. I feel for Bo and the team, and I'm sending prayers for a strong recovery.
A positive note going into the game versus the Patriots is that they struggle against backup QBs in championship-type games.
Foles, of course, famously took over for Carson Wentz in 2017, after Wentz suffered a torn ACL in a Week 14 win over the Rams. Foles led the Eagles all the way to Super Bowl LII against the Patriots, and threw for 373 yards and three touchdowns, plus his one receiving touchdown — the Philly Special. Foles was named Super Bowl MVP.
Nix finished the 33-30 win over Buffalo, but coach Sean Payton revealed after the game that he would miss the rest of the Broncos’ playoff run. Jarrett Stidham is expected to replace Nix for the AFC championship game against Drake Maye and the Patriots, which will be played in Denver.
Broncos fans can only hope that Stidham puts up anywhere near the caliber of performance Foles turned in. Stidham has been a backup for five seasons, including two in New England, appearing in 20 career games. The AFC championship game will be his fourth career start.
Two games into their six-game homestand, the 76ers took time for a community event at their practice facility, where they brought in in 40 local kids from Breakthrough of Greater Philadelphia.
The Sixers often attend community charity events individually or in small groups. Saturday’s event, in honor of Martin Luther King day and Mentorship Month, was a rare full team event, something the players said helped them decompress after Friday’s loss.
“It’s cool to see the entire team here, entire staff, that’s a really cool scenario,” Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey said. “I’ve never done this since I’ve been here.”
The team split into small groups with the students and competed in a series of different games, including a basketball obstacle relay course, knockout, a math station, and a rock, paper, scissors challenge featuring a few hula hoops, which many of the Sixers chose to bypass.
Through each of the four stations, the teams worked to earn points, which ultimately led to a win for star rookie VJ Edgecombe’s team.
Sixers big man Dominick Barlow enjoyed the down time with the students and his teammates.
“[I love] just being around the guys, I like these events,” Barlow said. “Obviously, when we’re around like the youth and the community, we get to show them that they mean a lot to us, and we try to give that back to them.”
Breakthrough of Greater Philadelphia is a non-profit that helps put students from underserved parts of the Philadelphia area on the path for top high schools and colleges, and helps educate and inspire the next generation of teachers through a teacher-in-residence program.
The organization was a Sixers Youth Foundation grantee and served 211 total students across grades five through 12 in 2024-25.
“Seeing the smile on some of these kids faces, obviously, some guys on the team are their favorite players, like Tyrese, VJ,” Trendon Watford said. “It’s just good to see the smile on their faces, and take a little time out of our day to make their day.”
The 76ers nearly pulled off their first win over the Cavaliers this year, after Wednesday’s blowout loss. But in the final moments, the Sixers just couldn’t close it out.
After Wednesday’s loss, Nick Nurse changed his strategy entering Friday’s game, electing to match Cleveland’s two-big lineup of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen with his smaller lineup instead of trying to equal their size.
“The choices are, go big and try to match their size or make them match yours,” Nurse said. “For the most part, I think the guys we had in there were the guys we wanted in there.”
Quentin Grimes and Kelly Oubre Jr. both got a lot of run off the bench, while Jabari Walker got just four minutes, and Andre Drummond and Jared McCain didn’t play at all. Grimes scored 14 points with seven rebounds and four assists, and Oubre scored 12 points and grabbed two offensive rebounds.
Nurse also turned to Trendon Watford for two key stretches in the second and third quarters. Watford scored just four points on two shots, but grabbed two offensive rebounds, and the Sixers were plus-five with him on the floor.
“We had just a little bit of a rough patch in the second with execution and ball handling, and decided to go with him for that,” Nurse said. “I liked them having to play our smaller lineup [more] than I did our bigger lineup.”
McCain, the Sixers’ 2024 first-round pick, has mostly played limited minutes since returning from a meniscus tear and a torn UCL in his thumb. But Friday, McCain had his first DNP since November. Before his season-ending injury last year, McCain was named Rookie of the Month and showed promise, but even with Nurse open to a smaller, guard-heavy lineup, he didn’t factor into the game.
Maxey struggles
After putting up just 14 points on 5-for-16 shooting in Wednesday’s blowout loss to Cleveland, Tyrese Maxey didn’t fare much better on Friday. Maxey shot 9-for-23 from the field and 2 of 8 from three-point range, ultimately scoring 22 points in the loss.
Maxey said that the back-to-back set’s two games felt a bit like a playoff series, with both teams making adjustments after Wednesday’s “Game 1,” turning Friday into something like a Game 2.
Most of the Sixers’ defensive adjustments worked, especially on Cavs star Donovan Mitchell, who shot 4-for-13 from the field after a 35-point game on Wednesday. But Maxey couldn’t find a way to break free offensively.
“They do a good job on all my ball screens, they put a lot of attention on me,” Maxey said. “A lot of times, even when I come off a ball screen with Joel and Jarrett Allen’s guarding him, I’m just stringing them out, he stays on me, and I’m throwing it back to Joel. And then, I missed some good looks tonight.”
The Cavaliers threw a lot of bodies at Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey to confuse him on offense.
Nurse agreed that Maxey wasn’t as accurate as usual, especially from three-point range.
“They got some great size,” Nurse said. “They did a pretty good job of putting two on him a lot. He didn’t get a whole lot, I thought, at the basket.”
But despite Maxey’s struggles, the Sixers were able to keep the game competitive until the final moments, getting the ball to the weak side and giving more opportunity to the Sixers’ other stars, like Joel Embiid, who had a team-high 33 points.
Defense
The Sixers focused their game plan heavily around Mitchell on Friday, especially with Cavs guard Darius Garland out with a foot injury he suffered on Wednesday.
Unlike in the previous matchup, they kept Mitchell in check. Jaylon Tyson ended up doing the most damage, scoring 39 points on 13-for-17 shooting, including making 7-of-9 three-point attempts. But despite the ultimate result, the Sixers made progress defensively, Sixers forward Paul George said.
“We held Donovan to a rougher night, Mobley to a rougher night,” George said. “We didn’t predict Tyson would go for 40, but that’s basketball. It was his night tonight …But when you go into a game and we follow the game plan to make it as tough as possible for Donovan, I thought we executed that.”
Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell was held to only 13 points in Friday’s Sixers loss.
That defense also led to more offense. The Sixers had 11 steals, and scored 32 points off of 18 Cavaliers turnovers, with 21 of those points coming in the first half.
But the final, game-losing possession, with Evan Mobley getting the ball from Tyson for an easy dunk in the paint, was an example of where the Sixers still need to grow defensively.
“There’s still steps,” George said. “There’s a long way. I still think we’ve got to get to where we’re not giving up so many layups and baskets at the rim. I thought we did fairly good.”
Unrivaled has sold out its upcoming Philly takeover event at Xfinity Mobile Arena, a Comcast Spectacor official confirmed to The Inquirer on Thursday.
The 3-on-3 women’s basketball league, which launched last year in Miami, is taking its season on the road in Year 2. The first Unrivaled event outside suburban Miami will be Jan. 30 in Philadelphia.
Xfinity Mobile Arena, which has a capacity of 21,000 and is owned by Comcast Spectacor, will be by far the biggest venue Unrivaled has played in. The league’s usual venue in Medley, Fla., Sephora Arena, was built just for Unrivaled and holds just 1,000 seats.
Philly is Unrivaled. One night only. In the City of Basketball.
The event, which features a doubleheader between four of Unrivaled’s eight teams, Breeze vs. Phantom and Rose vs. Lunar Owls, is set to bring young stars like Paige Bueckers (Breeze) and Cameron Brink (Breeze), along with Philly natives Natasha Cloud (Phantom) and Kahleah Copper (Rose), to South Philly.
The doubleheader comes on the heels of the WNBA’s announcement in June 2025 that Philadelphia will be home to an expansion franchise, with play set to begin in 2030.
If you missed out on purchasing, tickets are available for resale on platforms like StubHub and Ticketmaster, starting at $111.15 for the upper deck as of Thursday afternoon.
The biggest crowd pop at Xfinity Mobile Arena during Monday’s Pride Night was for Christian Dvorak’s breakaway goal, the Flyers’ only goal of the game.
But the second-biggest was for “All the Things She Said,” a song that, only two months ago, was just another early 2000s club hit — until Heated Rivalry turned it into a phenomenon.
Heated Rivalry, the hit Crave original series that quickly became an international sensation during its six-episode run on HBO Max, is an adaptation of a novel by the same name, written by Rachel Reid. It’s the love story of two fictional hockey superstars, Canadian Shane Hollander and Russian Ilya Rozanov, who were the top two picks in the same draft.
The show has become one of HBO Max’s top series in the two months since its first episode aired, jumping from 30 million streaming minutes in its opening week to 324 million streaming minutes by its sixth. Casey Bloys, HBO Max’s CEO, described the show as a “word-of-mouth sensation” to the New York Times.
“There are so many ways to get hooked on hockey and, in the NHL’s 108-year history, this might be the most unique driver for creating new fans. See you all at the rink,” an NHL spokesperson said in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter.
A small cottage industry of hockey podcasts analyzing the show has emerged, with What Chaos! and Empty Netters earning hundreds of thousands of views on episodes about the show, including interviews with the cast and creators.
But has the show — which wouldn’t exactly win awards for an accurate on-ice depiction of the game — led to real growth in hockey fandom?
According to StubHub, it has. The ticketing site said last week that it saw a 40% increase in interest in hockey tickets during the show’s run and there’s no shortage of fans online who claim they found the game through Heated Rivalry, which has already been renewed for a second season.
The LGBTQ+ community has had a challenging relationship with the NHL over the last several years, following former Flyer Ivan Provorov’s decision to opt out of wearing a specialty jersey on Flyers’ Pride Night in 2023, which led to a brief ban on optional Pride tape and a ban on wearing any specialty jerseys on the ice.
The Flyers hosted their annual Pride Night on Monday.
But other former Flyers, like Scott Laughton, were extremely involved in Pride initiatives, something Philly natives Trish Grow and Autumn McCloskey, both lifelong Flyers fans, said helped them feel like the Flyers community was inclusive. The explosion of the show helped draw in more of their friends.
“I have people who would never come near a hockey rink texting me like, ‘You’ve watched this, right?’” Grow said. “I’m like, ‘Oh, honey, do you want to come to a game? You can see them do the stretches, but you’ve got to learn the rules.’”
One of their friends took them up on their offer, and, after reading the book and watching the show, attended his first-ever hockey game for Pride Night.
He wasn’t the only one. Dale Lyster, who is from Coatesville and came to the game wearing a Rozanov jersey, said he’d attended a few games over the years, but after hearing friends talk about Heated Rivalry on social media, he decided to tune in and quickly fell in love with the show — and then with hockey.
“I’ve always liked it, but I’ve never really been into it,” Lyster said. “Now, seeing more representation in the hockey world, it opened my eyes more.”
Newlyweds Kary and Kate Van Collins of Fairmount feel similarly. Their last hockey game was Flyers Pride Night a year ago, and Heated Rivalry renewed their interest in the sport. Kary made them custom Hollander and Rozanov sweatshirts to wear to the game.
“I am a queer, neurodivergent, half-Asian person, so I really saw myself in the character of Shane Hollander,” Kary said. “I think it’s just very needed right now, especially in the political climate, to have these positive stories surrounding queer love.”
Added Kate: “It’s also reassuring that queer people belong in sports. I think a lot of people in the community maybe don’t feel welcome in the sports scene, so maybe it’s a door that’s open so people feel more welcome.”
The show’s viral success has even caught its stars off guard. Connor Storrie, who plays Rozanov, said Tuesday on Late Night with Seth Meyers that one of the biggest surprises was the show’s reach, and how it hasn’t just been gay men who have enjoyed it.
“You think of male romance, you think it’s for gay men,” he told Meyers. “But there’s been all walks of life, predominantly women, who enjoy it.”
Groups are even popping up to help bring fans together. Shannon Herbst of Mount Laurel has loved hockey and been a Flyers season ticket-holder for years, so she knew Heated Rivalry would be right up her alley.
“There’s actually a group of us through Threads that got together that are from Philly and South Jersey, and there’s so many people on there that really want to get into hockey, specifically the Flyers, and really want to learn more about the game from the show,” Herbst said.
Hudson Williams (left) and Connor Storrie star as hockey players who fall in love in “Heated Rivalry.”
Heated Rivalry also has reached the world of professional athletes. Hudson Williams, who plays Hollander, told Andy Cohen on his radio show that multiple closeted athletes have reached out to him and to Reid since the show’s premiere to share how the show has impacted them. No NHL player has ever come out as gay, although NHL draft pick Luke Prokop, who came out in 2021, currently is playing in the American Hockey League with the Edmonton Oilers’ organization.
That might not change any time soon, but fans felt that the success of Heated Rivalry was a first step for improving inclusion in the sport for players and for fans.
“It’s definitely opened the door,” Herbst said. “Obviously, there’s still more work that needs to be done, but I think it really planted that seed and made more people comfortable with having that conversation within the NHL and the sport itself.”
