Author: Jackie Spiegel

The Flyers entered Monday’s matchup with the Pittsburgh Penguins with the league’s fourth-best penalty kill. When the night was done, the Flyers were handed a 5-1 loss to snap a three-game winning streak, and their penalty kill slipped to ninth.

In some ways, it made sense. The Penguins started the day with the NHL’s No. 2 power play and an impressive 30.2% effectiveness. Even with that, no one expected them to score three times in four opportunities.

The Penguins now have the NHL’s No. 1 power play at 33.3% — which is ridiculous when you think about it. But maybe not.

“Well, they’ve got a championship pedigree, right?” Flyers coach Rick Tocchet said. “They’re well-coached. They stuck to their game plan. They went north on us. First period, actually, we had some chances, [but] not much velocity on the shots. I don’t know, we weren’t assertive enough. And then obviously the PK, which has been good all year, struggled tonight.”

Tocchet knows the Penguins. He was an assistant coach on former Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan’s staff and won two Stanley Cups. And he ran the power play.

Yes, the Penguins’ power play boasts Sidney Crosby, who is 23rd in NHL history with 191 power-play goals and scored one on Monday night. And, yes, there’s Evgeni Malkin, who is four spots below Crosby and has 185.

But the Flyers coach also hasn’t liked his group’s penalty kill the last five games, noting the structure. It was exposed to the utmost degree at Xfinity Mobile Arena.

“We’ve been running around lately,” he said. “We’re an aggressive diamond … and if you look at the goals, after the shot, two guys ran out of position, opens up the middle. Twice. Those are killers.”

The diamond pattern is just that, a diamond shape. It allows there to be a defender, usually a defenseman, in front of the goalie with the other defenseman as one of the points on the side of the diamond picking up someone in the circle, aka on the flank. There is one forward opposite that defenseman and another at the top of the diamond shape.

The aggressiveness comes with the unit moving together as one of the penalty killers puts pressure on the opposition’s power play. Does it leave open the middle of the ice and the person in the bumper? Sometimes, but an active stick and closing lanes are critical to this type of penalty kill.

“If you give them the flanker shots, you can live with it,” Tocchet said. “I think the [Bryan] Rust flanker, [Travis Sanheim’s] got to get out there. That’s his flex. He was backed in too much.

“He flexes out; his job is to take the weak side away so [Dan Vladař] can see it. Things like that. But that’s just, maybe that’s guys being tired, mentally tired. I don’t know.”

The Flyers’ penalty kill has been a strong suit for a while. Over the first 24 games, the Flyers had killed off 100% of the penalties they faced in 14 games, had allowed just one power-play goal in nine other games, and, before Monday night, had allowed two goals on the man advantage just once all season, against the Montreal Canadiens in a wild 5-4 shootout win in early November.

“All year, PK has been great for us,” captain Sean Couturier said. “Tonight we didn’t have it. They picked us apart. It happens. We’ve got to fix it and get back on track next game.”

The structure has fallen by the wayside a bit. The New York Islanders had the second-worst power play entering Friday’s game, and Anders Lee could stand in front of the net and deflect a point shot in. Against the New Jersey Devils, Timo Meier was allowed to crash the net down the middle and clean up a loose puck.

On Monday night, Crosby buried the puck from just above the slot “because we cheated on one of them,” Tocchet said. Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson carried the puck from the left to the right and down the boards, causing the Flyers to overcommit. It opened the ice for Rust, who sent a backhand pass to Crosby coming down the middle — and Crosby isn’t going to miss from there.

The Penguins added a third power-play tally after Malkin put a shot on goal, Kris Letang retrieved the rebound along the boards, and set up Tommy Novak for the shot past Vladař. The Flyers were out of their structure.

Initially, when Malkin shot the puck from the point, they collapsed into an I formation, meaning everyone straight down the middle. When the puck went to the boards, Owen Tippett went to him, which is fine, but Noah Juulsen and Nick Seeler were too low to step into Novak or play a possible pass to Ville Koivunen, who was sitting wide-open across the crease.

“They snap it around, and they get a lot of shots from the middle, and that’s what we’re trying to get our guys to do,” Tocchet said. “It’s actually a good learning lesson … get that shot in the middle.”

Returning from a productive four-game road trip and with a six-game homestand beginning on Monday, the Flyers placed Adam Ginning on waivers on Sunday.

To be placed on waivers, the defenseman was first recalled from his conditioning loan to Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League, which began on Nov. 18. Conditioning loans are for 14 days, with the player remaining on the active 23-man roster.

By placing Ginning on waivers, it opens up a roster spot for the Flyers, and, not that he needed any more confirmation, but it’s pretty clear Emil Andrae is sticking around for the long haul.

After some movement between Philly and Allentown, as one of three players on the roster who are waiver exempt — Nikita Grebenkin and Matvei Michkov are the other two — Andrae has been back with the Flyers since Nov. 3. He has played in every game since, and with each passing day, has garnered more responsibilities from the coaching staff.

Originally on the third pairing, he is now alongside Jamie Drysdale on the second unit. According to Natural Stat Trick, since becoming partners during the Flyers’ 3-2 overtime win against the St. Louis Blues on Nov. 20, they have played 85:28 together and have been on the ice for five Flyers goals for and four against.

In the past eight games, Andrae’s ice time has jumped, and he is averaging 18 minutes, 45 seconds. It is the fourth-most on the team, behind defensemen Travis Sanheim, Cam York, and Drysdale, as he has also been getting time on the power play and in overtime. Across 14 games this season, he has one goal and five assists with a plus-minus of plus-4.

Since being loaned, Ginning has played in five games with the Phantoms, registering one assist, five shots on goal, and a minus-2. The Swede, who turns 26 in January, made the Flyers out of training camp and played five games this season on the third pair. He averaged 15:20, and although he did not register a point, he did have two shots on goal. At the time of his loan to Lehigh Valley, he was one of 11 skaters with at least an even plus-minus (minimum five games played).

There is a chance the Swede could be snagged on the waiver wire. A big blueliner at 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds, Ginning is a defensive defenseman who will be an unrestricted free agent on July 1. Drafted by the Flyers in the second round of the 2018 draft, he has 16 NHL games under his belt, with one goal scored during the 2023-24 season.

NEWARK, N.J. — The calendar is set to turn to December, and while some will say it is too early to look at the standings, it doesn’t hurt to peek. Right?

Right.

Because the Flyers are not only in a playoff spot, but third in the Metropolitan Division. Entering Sunday, they sit two points ahead of the second wild-card team, the Pittsburgh Penguins, whom they play on Monday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena (7 p.m., NBCSP).

And in a tight division, they are just two points behind the leaders, the New Jersey Devils, a team they have beaten twice in a week. The latest was a 5-3 victory in Newark on Saturday night. It closed out a four-game road trip with a pretty solid-looking 3-1-0 record, including the first win on the second night of a back-to-back this season.

Here are two big things we learned from the Snowbird connection trip that saw the Flyers go from sunny Florida to the New York metro area.

I’ve been the teacher

There are different ways of coaching. Some coaches can be fiery and use that to spark their team. Other coaches, like Rick Tocchet, appear to maintain a cool, calming presence — unless, for example, one needs to yell at the referees, which seems warranted lately for the Flyers.

Watching the bench, Tocchet seems levelheaded. The owner now of 300 wins in the NHL after Saturday night, he knows it is just 24 games into the season, and there’s a long road ahead. And although every moment is important, he doesn’t get too wrapped up in the ups and downs and momentum shifts of every game.

Sure, he may have been spotted by the TV cameras saying a choice word or two when an unsuspecting Emil Andrae turned the puck over to Kyle Palmieri in Friday night’s shootout win against the New York Islanders — on a goal that actually should have been overturned for too-many men on the ice — but he wasn’t being demonstrative with his body language.

But he didn’t bench Andrae, who finished the night with the third-most minutes, with an overtime shift. It’s important for a young team to have a coach who keeps his cool and lets them learn and grow from their mistakes.

Plus, it helps that Tocchet is a guy who loves to teach. Instead of going crazy and yelling or benching players, he either talks things over or pulls out the whiteboard to show them. As Jon Cooper, the Tampa Bay Lightning and Hockey Canada coach who worked with Tocchet at 4 Nations and will do so again at the Olympics, told The Inquirer on Monday, Tocchet is known for his in-game adjustments.

His adjustments and demeanor are translating to the ice as the players are playing connected but loose.

“The one thing I love with this group is they always want to learn, whether we win or lose, or it’s a bad period, it’s a good period, they’re asking questions,” Tocchet said. “They’re trying to learn. And that’s what we’re doing every day, and trying to build some blocks here.”

Brick by brick is the motto right now. After a dismal performance against the Lightning to start the trip — they were shut out for the first time this season — Trevor Zegras said the group held a meeting “on things that we wanted to do to get better, to play tighter, to play more connected, and I think the last three we did that.”

Learning is critical for a team that boasts one of the youngest rosters in the NHL at an average age of 27. Although they’ve scored the first goal now for two straight games, they’ve won nine of 16 games where they’ve trailed early. They lead the league with 10 comeback wins, including a 4-2 win against the two-time defending champion Florida Panthers on Thanksgiving Eve, and they are 7-3-3 in one-goal games.

Tocchet sees positives and steps forward in his group. They are much better at executing under pressure. Do they need to clean up some things? All teams do, but “whether we’re battling back, or we’re giving up leads, there’s not a lot of panic on the bench. There’s a lot of resolve,” he said.

And that starts from the top.

I’ll Be There For You

The last two seasons, there’s been talk about how tight the Flyers locker room is. It’s still tight, but now the words family and love are being used more and more often.

And it’s showing on the ice with how they are playing. Alternate captain Travis Konecny has spoken often about the little details in the game that players are doing that are actually critical to success.

Before the goal that was eventually credited to Matvei Michkov to make it 3-1 — Konecny took the shot, and it went in off the Russian winger in front — captain Sean Couturier threw a hit on Devils forward Paul Cotter in the defensive zone. It allowed the Flyers to get possession and skate out of their end. Just 27 seconds later, after some sustained pressure, the puck was behind Jacob Markstrom.

“That’s the stuff I’m talking about. When it’s your turn, it’s your turn,” Konecny said. “And I think that’s something that Tocc’s been preaching a lot. [Tyson Foerster is tied for] the most goals on our team right now, and this guy blocks a shot every other game, and he’s a competitor.

“Like those are the examples right there of guys that, you just show up for your teammates and whatever your job is, in that moment, that play, that game, you execute it to the best of your abilities. And if everyone does that over the course of 82 games, you would think it’d put us in a pretty good spot.”

The Flyers are getting some pretty balanced scoring right now. Across the four-game road trip, 11 players recorded at least a point, and while Noah Cates did not, he still boasted an impressive plus-minus of plus-3.

Michkov led the way with three goals and tied Owen Tippett — who notched the 100th goal, 100th assist, and, therefore, 200th point, of his NHL career — atop the leaderboard with four points. The pairing of Andrae and Jamie Drysdale may have had a few hiccups, but they are rounding into form. Couturier snapped a long goal drought with a pair of goals, Foerster continues to impress with his 200-foot game that more often than not sees the puck find the back of the net, and Nikita Grebenkin played in three games.

“We’re all contributing in different ways. And if it’s your turn to be on the score sheet, that’s what you do. If it’s your turn to have a big block or big save from the goalies, like everyone’s just stepping up,” added Konecny, who noted the leadership in the room, too, like when veteran defenseman Nick Seeler spoke up during intermission on Saturday about the importance of points now for down the road.

“We love this group. It’s a lot of guys that just want to play for each other and do the right things.”

And what else can one say about the play of Dan Vladař, except that we told you so.

Among NHL goalies with a minimum of 12 games, he ranks tied for sixth in wins (10) with guys like former Flyers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who he just bested on Wednesday, sixth in goals-against average (2.43), and tied for seventh in save percentage (. 912). And according to Money Puck, his goals saved above expected ranks seventh in the NHL at 11.3.

But, of course, while he said he worked on his lateral plays — like when he robbed Nico Hischier with 16 seconds left in the first period backdoor off a cross-crease pass during a penalty assessed to Michkov — the netminder will give credit to his team.

“I feel comfortable overall, but it’s also the biggest thing is those … 18 to 20 guys that are playing in front of me every single night,” the Czech goalie said. “You see [that] guys are willing to block shots, making not comfortable plays but those plays that really matter for our team to come [away] with those two points.

“So very proud of the group, but we know that we got a lot of hockey left, so got to keep going for sure.”

NEWARK, N.J. — The Flyers closed out a four-game road trip with win No. 3, defeating the New Jersey Devils, 5-3.

After losing 3-0 to the Tampa Bay Lightning to start the road trip on Monday, the Flyers closed it out with three straight wins. Philly has now won five of its last six and is 14-7-3 on the season.

Owen Tippett scored the 100th goal of his NHL career and earned his 200th NHL point when he gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead just 5 minutes, 18 seconds into the first period. The goal showed off some silky hands as he caught the pass from Christian Dvorak on his forehand and scored on a backhand.

The goal was Tippett’s second in the past 17 games, and his eighth of the season.

Šimon Nemec tied the game up later in the first period on a one-timer from between the circles. It was a bit of a wonky play as the Flyers seemed to be in control after an offensive-zone faceoff, but the puck ended up bouncing at the blue line and off the body of Travis Sanheim.

The Devils broke out three across as Sean Couturier lost his stick after it hit Bobby Brink, who got back to even up the numbers. Nemec trailed the play and was open to receive the pass from Jesper Bratt for his sixth of the year.

But in the second period, the Flyers scored a trio of goals.

Matvei Michkov took a cross-checking penalty with 75 seconds left in the opening frame. When his penalty expired in the second period, he left the box and right into a two-on-one with Travis Konecny.

Sanheim fed his buddy from deep in the Flyers zone up the wing with just Nemec back. Konecny got the puck over, and Michkov, despite Devils captain Nico Hischier on him, put the puck on net, and it slid past goalie Jacob Markstrom. The goal was Michkov’s seventh of the season and sixth in the past 11.

Michkov was credited with another goal less than 3 minutes later, when a shot by Konecny went off him in front. Cam York skated away from New Jersey winger Stefan Noesen at the blue line and dished the puck on the backhand to Konecny, who fired the one-timer. Couturier and Michkov were in front, creating traffic with two defenders.

It is the Russian winger’s first multi-goal game since the 2024-25 season finale.

Later in the period, Zegras gave the Flyers a 4-1 lead with a one-timer off a nice feed from Tippett, who broke out of the Flyers’ zone with the puck and took off down the left wing. His speed led to a two-on-one and finished with a cross-crease pass to Zegras for his ninth goal of the year.

The goal came after Bratt hit the post at the other end on a breakaway. But while Dan Vladař didn’t make the save on that one, he did come up big despite allowing three goals.

With 16 seconds left in the first period, he robbed Hischier backdoor off a cross-crease pass during Michkov’s penalty. In the middle frame, again with the Flyers shorthanded, he stoned Dawson Mercer on another two-on-one.

Vladař did eventually allow a power-play goal to Timo Meier with 27 seconds left in the second period. And in the third period, Mercer scored to cut it to a one-goal game.

But it was Markstrom who made the most spectacular save of the night as he robbed Noah Cates with the glove during an odd-man rush with 3 minutes, 26 seconds left.

Tippett was credited with a goal with 1:15 remaining when he was tripped by Arseny Gritsyuk on a breakaway with Markstrom pulled for the extra attacker. It was his second multigoal game of the season, the last coming on Oct. 20 against the Seattle Kraken, and he now has eight goals on the year.

Breakaways

Forward Nic Deslauriers and defenseman Noah Juulsen were the healthy scratches. … Vladař finished with 28 saves, and the Flyers put 32 shots on Markstrom.

Up next

The Flyers return home to host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday (7 p.m., NBCSP).

NEWARK, N.J. — Flyers forward Tyson Foerster sat down for locker clean-out day in April and noted that despite finishing with 25 goals and 43 points in 81 games yet again, it took some time to find the back of the net consistently.

Last season, it was Game 33 when he scored his ninth goal of the season. It was a step up from his rookie year, when it took him 49, despite scoring three times in eight games in March of the previous season.

“I think I was getting chances earlier before, too, [but] I just wasn’t able to score. But finally, the puck started going in for me in waves,” Foerster said back in April about his end-of-season surge.

Right now, the waves are coming in hot and heavy, like there’s a hurricane brewing off the coast. Foerster has scored nine goals so far this season, including five in the past five games.

Skating in just 19 of the Flyers’ first 23 games this season due to a lower-body injury, Foerster is becoming the sniper everyone envisioned when he was drafted 23rd overall in the 2020 NHL draft.

“His release of his shot is really elite … but when he gets that puck in the slot or these prime areas, his release, really, it’s an elite shot, so I give him a lot of credit,” coach Rick Tocchet said.

Foerster will credit his scoring prowess to the bounces he’s been getting, but he’s also creating opportunities. His goal in the first period on Friday in the Flyers’ 4-3 shootout win against the New York Islanders was because of the forward, who is known for his high hockey IQ, poked the puck away from Emil Heineman of the Islanders after he couldn’t handle an errant pass by Travis Konecny.

He had the perfect shooting lane, and he beat goalie David Rittich glove side easily.

“He’s a scrappy [player],” Tocchet said. “Even on that goal, there’s a blind pass in the middle, the Islanders had it, but he knocked it off the guy and scored. I mean, that’s a big, huge play for us. I call him, he’s just a hockey player.”

Foerster didn’t spend time working on his shot over the summer; he spent the majority of the time recovering from an elbow infection. And his linemates have shifted from Noah Cates and Bobby Brink to Cates and Konecny.

According to Natural Stat Trick, the trio has played 63 minutes, 34 seconds together at five-on-five. Although the opposition has 61 chances to the Flyers’ 55 when they are on the ice, they have outscored other teams, 5-0.

Tocchet credited Foerster for being someone who can find the open space to maintain the foundational triangle. It is one of the most basic offensive-zone strategies in hockey, having forwards create the shape of a triangle, as it is not only about puck support and having a high man, but also creating a bit of turmoil for the team defending.

They also have chemistry.

“I feel like I can read off Catesy and TK,” Foerster said. “TK likes to go high sometimes, and I like to go high. And Catesy is usually in the corner battling it up and getting the pucks up to us, so he’s done a great job of that. But, if I see TK going high, I usually try and go to the net and, you know, hopefully bang one in that way.”

Former coach John Tortorella heavily relied on Foerster when he was behind the Flyers bench. Now Tocchet is doing the same.

Foerster plays power play, is now on the second pairing for the penalty kill, and in the last minute of a game, unless Tocchet puts three centers out on the ice, “He’s probably the next guy, so he’s a guy that we really rely on, and he wants that responsibility.”

Breakaways

Dan Vladař will start in goal. He was in the net when the Flyers beat the New Jersey Devils, 6-3, last Saturday.

ELMONT, N.Y. — Despite giving up a 3-0 lead, the Flyers turned the lights back on when it mattered most Friday to defeat the New York Islanders 4-3 in a shootout.

Trevor Zegras and Travis Konecny scored in the shootout, and goaltender Sam Ersson stopped Islanders’ Bo Horvat to clinch the game.

The Flyers are a perfect 5-0 in shootouts this season. They have won two straight and four of their past five games overall.

“There’s going to be ups and downs throughout the course of a game and a season,” defenseman Travis Sanheim said of the Flyers’ resiliency. “Just resetting and getting your head back on straight and sticking with what’s been working for you, and just get back to your game.”

Pressure

Ersson allowed three goals on 13 shots in the second period, but he came up big in the third, stopping all nine, and saved three more in overtime. Then, he stopped the final shot in the shootout to seal the win. The Swedish netminder is now 12-3 in the skills competition.

“Yeah, there could be some prescout on him,” coach Rick Tocchet said about Ersson’s expertise in the shootout. “He looks big when you go down, and I’m watching like, I don’t know much about Erss this year, but he looks big in the net on those breakaways. He just looks big, it looks like there’s not room, and there could be some psychology when it comes to that.”

But it was the saves that Ersson made across the first 60 minutes that kept the Flyers in the game. He made a nifty save on a Jonathan Drouin tip-in attempt off a Scott Mayfield shot from the point in the first period, before robbing Horvat’s one-timer at the right post in the second; Ersson slid across to make the split save off the tip of his left pad with the Flyers up 3-1.

In the third period, he made the biggest save of the night during a two-on-one. Islanders forward Anthony Duclair skated up the ice and made a move that saw Noah Juulsen fall. Flyers defenseman Nick Seeler went to Duclair, but he was able to drop the puck around Seeler to Calum Ritchie, who was stopped by Ersson.

After the save, Matvei Michkov carried Ritchie into the boards and hit him up high with his stick, resulting in a four-minute power play for the Islanders. The Flyers entered the game with the fourth-best penalty kill (86.2%) and held the Islanders, who entered the day with the 31st-ranked power play (12.6%) — but did have one power-play goal already — to six shot attempts. Ersson stopped two shots, one being a tricky tip-in attempt from Ritchie.

“You’ve got to give guys credit, because we’re hanging in there. That’s a [heck] of a PK,” Tocchet said. “It’s four minutes, that could be the game, and to me, that shows a lot of character. Those six guys with the four D, and Erss making those stops. You’ve got to be proud of the team for that, that PK.”

Ersson made a nice save on Drouin in the extra session before stopping his countryman, Simon Holmström, with the blocker. And then he did what he does best in the shootout — but not before Zegras did what he does best in the shootout.

Among players who have at least 15 shootout attempts, Zegras ranks No. 1 all-time at 68%. He has 17 goals on 25 shots, and has scored 70.6% of his shootout attempts on the road. Zegras is 4-for-4 this season.

“Especially when you have Trevor Zegras on your team, you start almost with one up. So we like our odds in shootouts, but at the same time, we don’t want to always be going to that point,” captain Sean Couturier said. “Regulation wins are huge down the road, so we’ve got to find a way to close those games out, and not give out points to, especially, divisional opponents, but at the same time, it’s a huge win.

“The way the game kind of went, we were all over them early, and then they get a goal there early in the second. And we kind of lost our cool for a little bit there. But, we regrouped in the third and stuck together and found a way to get that extra point.”

Just The Way You Are

Long Island’s Billy Joel famously sang, “Don’t go changing,” and while the Flyers made one significant change — it’s only the seventh time in 23 games this season they scored first, snapping a nine-game streak — there’s one aspect they shouldn’t. For the second straight game, Tyson Foerster and Couturier scored seconds apart.

On Wednesday, it gave the Flyers a 4-2 win against the two-time defending champion Florida Panthers when they scored 21 seconds apart. On Friday, their goals 22 seconds apart gave the Orange and Black a 2-0 lead.

Foerster opened the scoring 8 minutes, 30 seconds into the game. Sanheim got the puck in his own end, skated around the net, and carried it up the left wing with Islanders forward Emil Heineman hounding him.

He entered the zone and dished the puck to Konecny, who sent a turnaround pass right to Heineman. But it wasn’t a clean pass, and Foerster poked it away as the Swede fell. It gave Foerster the perfect shooting lane, and he beat Islanders goalie David Rittich glove side for his ninth goal of the season.

“Obviously, we’d like to do it more often,” Sanheim said about scoring first. “And, in saying that, when you get out to a good lead, you want to be able to keep your foot on the gas and not allow a team to get back into it. So just continue to keep growing and get better as a team.”

Couturier snapped a 17-game goal drought on Wednesday and scored in consecutive games for the first time since March of last season. His goal came after Juulsen defended New York’s Mathew Barzal against the wall in the Flyers’ zone, allowing Michkov to scoop up the loose puck.

Bobby Brink put pressure on Tony DeAngelo, causing the former Flyers defenseman to turn the puck over to Couturier, and the Flyers captain scored past the glove of Rittich from the left face-off circle.

An Innocent Man

Before getting to one of the worst calls this season — and there have been plenty to choose from — the Flyers looked in control when Zegras extended the lead to 3-0 on a power play 1:55 into the second period.

The New Yorker took the puck off the wall after Emil Andrae carried it deep and was stopped by Rittich. Zegras curled in the left circle and scored off the skate of Islanders defenseman Ryan Pulock.

But then things started to go awry.

Heineman exacted some revenge and scored to make it 3-1. Andrae got the puck and skated backward into his own zone. He didn’t realize that Kyle Palmieri was still in the Flyers’ end after getting tangled up with Jamie Drysdale. Palmieri picked his pocket and fed Drouin, who dropped the puck for Heineman to finish.

The referees missed a call as the Islanders had six guys on the ice when Palmieri played the puck as he was skating to the bench.

Rookie sensation Matthew Schaeffer cut the Flyers’ lead to one with his eighth of the year. He got the puck at the left point and skated down into the left circle before firing off a wrister past Ersson. There was a delayed penalty on Garnet Hathaway, but the Islanders didn’t have the extra skater on yet.

And then, with the momentum swinging in the Islanders’ favor, Konecny was called for a phantom hold on Holmström during a Flyers power play.

The call was questionable as Holmström sold it and the referee above the blue line — not the referee standing right in front of the players — made the call.

After skating four-on-four on the ensuing power play for the Islanders, Schaefer put a point shot that Max Shabanov tipped up and off the body of teammate Anders Lee past Ersson.

“Obviously, the second was a little bit, you know, some penalties, a couple of misfortune plays, but hung in there,” Tocchet said. “Little bit ugly, but give the guys credit for scratching and clawing. That’s a big two points for us.”

Breakaways

Palmieri did not return after playing a role in the Islanders’ first goal due to a lower-body injury. … Forward Nic Deslauriers and defenseman Egor Zamula were healthy scratches for the second straight game. They did participate in warmups. … Couturier played in his 896th NHL game, all with the Flyers.

Up next

The Flyers get right back to it on Saturday against the Devils in New Jersey (7 p.m., NBCSP).

Terrence Wallin stood on the home team’s bench at the PPL Center for warmups in early September.

He looked around the arena in Allentown, the home of Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League, and saw the Flyers logo everywhere. It was on the jerseys that the rookies were wearing as they prepared to play their New York Rangers counterparts. It was on the clothing that fans donned in the crowd.

That’s when it started to sink in for Wallin. In a few short weeks, the 33-year-old would stand on that same bench as the new assistant coach for the Phantoms, playing a key role in the Flyers’ rebuild.

But then he peered across the rink and saw his 2-year-old son. For Terrence, it was an unforgettable moment, but not just because his son, who loves the rink, was there. Little Wes Wallin was wearing a Flyers jersey. Terrence’s Flyers jersey. The same one he wore when he was 4 years old growing up in Yardley.

“The Flyers have always kind of been in the background of who I am as a person growing up here,” Wallin said, sitting at the Flyers Training Center in Voorhees during rookie camp.

“Growing up a Flyers fan, you dream of being a part of it somehow,” he added. “Obviously, when you’re young, you hope it’s as a player, but to get the opportunity to do it now as a coach is something that I don’t take for granted.”

For Terrence Wallin, he is home.

Love and Memories

Chris Barcless’ excitement poured through the phone even via text. The hockey director at the Ice Land Skating Center in Hamilton Township, N.J., was looking forward to speaking about one of his favorite players across his 31 years with the Mercer Chiefs organization.

“I loved coaching him [and] he loved to play,” said Barcless, who is coaching the 2013 and 2014-born players this season for the Chiefs, over the phone. “At a young age, not only was [Wallin] one of the best kids, but he absolutely loved to play. [He was the] first guy on the ice, last guy off the ice type of player, eager to learn, listen, real coachable, worked hard, and we had a lot of success together.”

Raised about 30 miles outside Philly, Wallin’s older brothers, Tim and Chris, played hockey, so it’s no surprise that the youngest of Mike and Alice’s three boys was thrust into it, too. Terrence Wallin joked that he didn’t have much of a choice, but he fell in love with the sport.

Wallin skated for Pennsbury at a young age before switching to Mercer around the age of 10. He spent his childhood playing hockey all over New Jersey and Pennsylvania, even hitting the ice in Voorhees.

Skilled offensively, he was also known as a responsible 200-foot player. His strong work ethic and never-quit attitude stood out to Barcless, specifically during a championship game for the Atlantic Youth Hockey League. With a minute or two to go, and Mercer up by one, Wallin was one of the team’s two forwards on the ice during a six-on-four.

“For the first minute, they killed the penalty. They’re dead tired, and they can’t breathe. There’s a whistle and the other coach changes lines, puts their second power play on,” Barcless recalls.

“… I’m like, ‘Listen, guys, we got one minute to go. I know you’re tired. If you cannot go for the next minute, I’ll use my timeout, because I’m not changing lines. So if you cannot go, we’ll use the timeout. But I strongly urge you to get back out there and just kill the last minute without calling a timeout so their first power play can’t get back on the ice.’ And they did. … We ended up winning the championship that day.”

Before moving to Connecticut to play at The Gunnery (now known as the Frederick Gunn School), the forward brought that same mindset to La Salle College High School. Wallin was so committed to his game, he would often go to La Salle’s practices and then, driving in his hockey gear, head to Jersey to skate with Mercer.

Although he played only two years at La Salle, the school competed in the Flyers Cup twice, winning the Class AAA Flyers Cup and the state championship in 2008. A sophomore on a team loaded with upperclassmen, he played a big role in the Explorers’ success as a playmaker, whether on the wing or at center, while skating on the penalty kill and power play.

“He was very skilled, and his hockey IQ was off the charts, and his compete level was high,” said Wally Muehlbronner, his coach at La Salle. “So the three of those things certainly blended together made for a really good hockey player. When he was with me at La Salle, he hadn’t had a growth spurt yet. He’s still not the biggest guy, but back then, he was definitely a little bit smaller. But made up for that with his IQ, his skill level, and his compete level.”

Listed at 6-foot, 204 pounds, Wallin went on to play four years of Division I hockey at UMass-Lowell. Across 138 games, he had 16 goals and 34 assists and helped lead the River Hawks to two Hockey East championships. Named Hockey East’s rookie of the week three times, he scored in UMass-Lowell’s 4-2 loss to Union College and Shayne Gostisbehere in the 2012 NCAA regional final.

Between 2015 and 2020, Wallin played as a pro, skating in the Southern Professional Hockey League, ECHL, and AHL. In September 2018, he was acquired by the Maine Mariners of the ECHL in the franchise’s first-ever trade.

The guy who pulled the trigger on the deal was current Flyers general manager Danny Brière.

I Go Through

The trade began a relationship that has now spanned almost a decade between Brière, Wallin, and the Flyers’ director of player development, Riley Armstrong. In 2018, Brière was the Mariners’ vice president of operations — i.e., general manager — and Armstrong was the head coach.

“He was one of our leaders. He was one of our best players in Maine, and had scored the most goals the year before,” Brière said of Wallin, who tied for the team lead with 23 goals in 2019-20.

But the then-28-year-old Wallin decided he was ready to begin his climb up the coaching ranks.

“We didn’t want to lose him, and he came to us [to say] that he wanted to get into coaching,” Brière recalled. “So that showed how much he wanted to get into the coaching side of things that he was willing to leave his career when he was one of the best players in the league, in the ECHL at the time, and played some games in [the AHL] … to get into coaching. So it was a big career move for him, and showed a lot of passion for the coaching side.”

After spending a year working with youth hockey in Maine, he was back with the Mariners as an assistant coach. A year later, he was running the show.

“If you told me way back that he was going to eventually be a coach, I would say I could see that,” Barcless said. “He was a sponge. He listened. He played in all aspects for our teams. … His IQ was good. He learned the game. I remember when he first started with me, he was all about offense and skill. But for many years, and sticking with it … he became a really well-rounded hockey player.”

Wallin was behind Maine’s bench for three seasons, leading the squad to its best season in franchise history in his first year (42-27-3). His first two seasons, the Mariners made the postseason, losing in the North Division semifinals, and he finished with a 107-94-15 record.

This past summer, after going through the interview process with new coach John Snowden and Flyers assistant general manager Alyn McCauley, who runs the Phantoms, he was hired as Lehigh Valley’s newest assistant coach. “They came back to me and said they felt Terrence was the guy for the job, so that made my life a lot easier, knowing that it was him … and obviously I was on board right away,” Brière said.

Of a Revolution

Heading into Thanksgiving, Wallin certainly has a lot to be thankful for. It probably also helps that the Phantoms have the sixth-best record in the AHL (11-5-1-1) and that he’s coaching the next generation of Flyers stars.

Wallin runs the forwards, including prospects like Alex Bump, Denver Barkey, and Karsen Dorwart, as well as the power play for Snowden, who also made the jump from the ECHL as a head coach to the AHL as an assistant. Wallin runs video with the groups and “is a calming influence” on the bench.

As Muehlbronner said, “I think he gained a lot of wisdom along the way, but it’s his personality and the way he sees the game that I think probably is making him a very effective coach.”

Coaching is obviously in his blood, but so are the Flyers.

“I think there’s an extra passion there with the Flyers organization,” Brière said of Wallin, who listed guys like John LeClair, Jeremy Roenick, Peter Forsberg, Scott Hartnell, and Claude Giroux as his favorite players.

“He understands it, knows it having grown up with the Flyers in his backyard. So yeah, that’s a big plus.”

Added Snowden: “I do think there’s a sense of pride for him, knowing that this is what he kind of grew up watching and knowing, and now he gets to put himself in the middle of it and really try to help the Phantoms win a championship and develop the best players possible for the Flyers. I would assume, as a kid from the area, that’s a great opportunity and a big moment, and he’s done a really good job at grasping on and taking advantage of it.”

There is a massive thread that ties Wallin to the organization, one that’s been getting thicker and thicker since those days as a 4-year-old wearing the jersey his son Wes sported in September. And he’s looking forward to playing a role in helping the Flyers get back to being a contender.

“They dropped the article that I was the assistant coach, and I got a couple of texts from kids growing up like, ‘Wow, that’s so awesome to see how all your hard work has paid off,’” Wallin said.

And then came those other texts.

“I did get [those] texts like, can you help turn this around?” he added with a chuckle.

“I hope so. And I think that we can, I think there’s a lot of fun prospects in this organization, too.”