Author: Jackie Spiegel

NEW YORK — At 11:59 p.m. on Friday, NHL rosters are frozen until 12:01 a.m. on Dec. 28.

During this time, the Flyers are unable to waive, trade, or loan players. The lone exception is an injury that prevents them from dressing a full roster.

With time ticking down, the Flyers made a move and waived defenseman Egor Zamula on Thursday. He cleared waivers on Friday and will be assigned to Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League.

The writing was on the wall for the Russian, who struggled to find his footing this season. Coupled with Rasmus Ristolainen finally being healthy and returning to the lineup Tuesday in Montreal, and eight defensemen on the roster, it had become clear that Zamula was the odd man out.

In 13 games this season, he has one assist and a plus-minus of plus-4, boosted by a plus-5 night when he returned to the lineup on Nov. 22 against the New Jersey Devils. Across 168 games with the Flyers, since being signed as an undrafted free agent in September 2018, Zamula has 41 points (eight goals, 33 assists) and is minus-12.

A long-standing criticism, dating back to former coach John Tortorella, has been Zamula’s pace of play. Coach Rick Tocchet also said he wanted to see the 6-foot-3, 200-pound defenseman move the puck more quickly.

“I call it awareness,” Tocchet said in October. “You’re looking where to go instead of catch it, skate, and then have awareness. And I think if he can get that in his game … [because] for him, five feet is a big difference.

“Like, skate five feet to open up options, because when you first get it, the options aren’t usually open — there’s a stick in your lane, there’s a player in your lane — but once you escape, the other team has to react off you, and that means somebody should be open.”

Zamula will be a restricted free agent on July 1. He will get a chance to work on his game with the Phantoms and assistant coach Nick Schultz. He last played for the Phantoms in the 2022-23 season and has 54 points (five goals, 49 assists) and a minus-1 rating in 127 career AHL games.

The move comes after Zamula was jumped in the depth chart by Emil Andrae, Noah Juulsen, and, more recently, Ty Murchison, who made his NHL debut on Dec. 9 and played well in three games.

“He’s knocking on the door. The hard part for the guys who come up for a couple is going down. … I’ve seen it go the other way, where a guy comes up, and he goes down and doesn’t play as well,” said Tocchet in Buffalo on Thursday. At Tuesday’s morning skate in Montreal, Tocchet and Murchison spoke at length, hours before the defenseman was sent back to the Phantoms.

“So I kind of warned him, hey, you’ve got to be who you are. Sometimes a guy gets here, they go down, they try to hold the puck more, they try to be something they’re not. And I don’t think that’s going to be a problem with him; he knows who he is. … And he’s knocking on the door. I mean, who knows, with the [way the] NHL is, he could be up in 48 hours. That’s just the way it works. So that was my message to him.”

Sending Zamula down also solidifies Juulsen’s spot as the team’s seventh defenseman.

“Noah’s a pro. I had him in Vancouver. He knows the deal. He’ll be ready when his number is called upon. A popular guy in the room, that’s the culture that we’re building here,” Tocchet said in Buffalo.

“I was actually talking to players today, there’s some guys that maybe they don’t play as much, they’re the first guys cheering guys on. So that’s how you build culture, and Noah’s one of those guys who does that.”

BUFFALO ― Of course, there was no rookie lap for Rasmus Ristolainen on Tuesday in Montreal.

The hulking defenseman entered the night with 776 NHL games under his belt, but that doesn’t mean his season debut didn’t come with some nervousness.

“Yeah, almost felt like the first NHL game in some ways,” said the 31-year-old Ristolainen, who made his debut on Oct. 2, 2013, with the Buffalo Sabres, whom the Flyers play on Thursday (7:30 p.m., ESPN+, Hulu).

“Obviously, long time to be out of the game, and happy the first one is over. So now I can start building on and actually, like, focus on hockey.”

Ristolainen’s first game since March 11 — he missed the first 31 games of this season and the final 16 of last season — was eventful. Across 19 minutes, 18 seconds of ice time, Ristolainen had three shot attempts, two blocked shots, one takeaway, and three hits.

One of those hits sent Canadiens forward Juraj Slafkovský to the ice in the first period. Ristolainen took some cross-checks, including one or two to the arm, from Ivan Demidov, as the Canadiens forward took exception to the hit.

“Before the game even started, I knew something like that would happen,” defenseman Cam York said with a grin. “He likes contact, I don’t know how else to put it. He likes the physical part of the game, and it’s not fun to play against as an opposing guy.”

When you ask Ristolainen about the hit, he’ll say he wasn’t searching it out and that they “bumped” into each other. But that hit, and the others he threw, did help him get into the game after skating on his own for months, then practicing with the team for a little over a week.

“I felt better, actually, in the game than I’ve been in the practices,” he said Wednesday after practice in the visitors’ locker room at KeyBank Center, “because some of the practices can be somewhat chaotic and obviously not gamelike.”

It’s been a long, winding road back for the Finnish defenseman.

“So basically, three surgeries in the same elbow,” he disclosed of the injuries that cut short his 2023-24 season. “Obviously started with a pretty bad infection, which I played with for multiple weeks until I couldn’t anymore. And then we found out there is some infection and a torn triceps tendon. So obviously, did those two things separately, and then tried to get back.” He played just 31 games that season, getting shut down in mid-February.

“Probably the schedule was pretty too quick, looking at it now, after doing two [procedures in 2024],” he said. “So came back pretty quick, played some decent hockey for 50, 60 games, and then it suddenly snapped, and not sure when or where it happened again.

“Obviously, second time the same tendon [was] torn. So saw a different doctor this time, and his timeline and recovery were a lot longer, which I think was the key and helped. And, yeah, right now I’m here and feel pretty good.”

Ristolainen got back onto the ice in June in Finland, where he was limited to skating. He didn’t start using pucks until September, when the Flyers were in training camp.

“I mean, obviously it’s tough,” he said about dealing with another tear and a third procedure. “But I’m more like a person [who thinks] I can’t control that anymore. So it’s no point to be too down. And just then you look at the road ahead and just do everything and work hard, and try to make it better than it was before.”

Well, his game definitely looked good on Tuesday night, and it impressed the new bench boss.

“Guys got to keep their heads up, because he is a good hitter, open-ice hitter,” coach Rick Tocchet said Wednesday. “It’s always good to have guys like that. Just a long stick in the corners, squashing plays, squashing a cycle, cutting off a reset.

“Those are big plays. They’re unnoticed plays, but they go a long way. Instead of defending 20 times a game, you’re only defending 14, because he’s squashing a player and gets his stick on a puck or something like that.”

And having Ristolainen back helps solidify the defensive corps. According to Natural Stat Trick, he skated with Nick Seeler for more than 15 minutes at five-on-five. They may have been on the ice for more shot attempts against (13) than for (seven), but they weren’t on the ice for a goal against.

They were also able to eat some of the minutes along with some of the stress on the other pairs.

In the last six games, Jamie Drysdale averaged 23:17 of ice time, with his partner Emil Andrae at 20:14 — even after being moved down to the third pair for half of the game on Sunday in North Carolina. Nick Seeler was at 21:04 while skating primarily with Travis Sanheim, who played 25:59, with York missing four games.

On Tuesday, the time was more evenly spread out, notably with Sanheim getting 22:20 of ice time. As York mentioned, having Ristolainen “balances out a lot of things for us” and will only help the defense maintain a high level of play across the remaining 50 games.

“Yeah, just obviously a big piece of our D corps that we’ve been missing for a while,” Sanheim concurred. “And just the way he plays adds that physical presence and a really good defender. So it’s been nice having him back, and it means a lot to the team.”

MONTREAL ― Entering the small visitor’s locker room at the Bell Centre two seasons ago, every stall was filled with bodies as the Flyers were amid a disastrous ending to the 2023-24 season.

On Tuesday night, and for the second and final time this season, smiles crossed crowded rooms as the Flyers beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-1. They also won 5-4 in a shootout on Nov. 4 in Quebec.

It is just their third win of December, but the 3-2-3 record isn’t truly indicative of how they’ve been playing of late. Yes, the Flyers snapped a three-game losing streak, but each loss came after regulation. The win extended their point streak to five games.

Comeback kings

For the 22nd time in 32 games, the Flyers trailed 1-0. And for the 12th time in those 22 games, they won (12-6-4). It is also their 13th comeback win.

How did they get into a hole this time? Travis Konecny fed a standing Christian Dvorak above the Canadiens’ blue line, and the center tried to shovel it into the offensive zone, but it hit Montreal defenseman Alexandre Carrier and went the other way.

Montreal had a three-on-two that turned into a four-on-two with forward Alexandre Texier firing the wrister past Dan Vladař from the high slot to take a 1-0 lead.

But, as commonly said here, the hockey Gods do giveth and taketh, and the same line gave the Flyers a 2-1 lead.

“You make a mistake, and you don’t have your head down. And it’s happened a lot this year where we’ve kind of … you can’t make that play, but they come out, and they produce the next period, or whatever,” coach Rick Tocchet said. “So, guys have done a nice job when it comes to that.”

Konecny knocked the puck away from Ivan Demidov in the Flyers’ end, and defenseman Emil Andrae got the puck and chipped it to Trevor Zegras as he and Konecny broke out two-on-one. After a give-and-go, Zegras got the puck back and fired it five-hole past Montreal goaltender Jacob Fowler.

“If you’re going to give one up, you’ve got to get one,” Zegras said. “That’s kind of the mindset, mentality that we have. Obviously, we don’t want to be giving them goals or odd man rushes, so something we’ve got to clean up for sure.”

Zegras leads the Flyers in goals with 14, and now has 33 points — one more than his point total in 57 games last season for the Anaheim Ducks. The New York native is on a four-game goal streak and a five-game point streak with seven points.

New lines here

Tocchet switched two of his lines. Winger Carl Grundström moved up to play with Owen Tippett and Sean Couturier, and Matvei Michkov shifted to the line of Noah Cates and Bobby Brink.

“I think it was a little more balanced,” Tocchet said postgame. “I saw some more juice. I thought Tipp had a really good game tonight. Tipp was going tonight. Obviously, Grunny [had a] goal, and he skates. He can skate, and I think that helps Coots out. Yeah, I thought it was a good switch for us.”

It paid off twofold.

First, Grundström tied the game 1-1 just 39 seconds after the Canadiens opened the scoring with a minute remaining in the first period.

Couturier got the puck on the right wing and sent a leading pass down to Tippett in the circle. The winger then sent the puck across to Grundström as he crashed the net backdoor.

“I try to bring a lot of energy to the team and play physical and be direct. So I think that’s my style,” Grundström told The Inquirer after the morning skate, adding that the Flyers’ style fits his game well overall.

Since re-entering the lineup on Dec. 9, the Swede has three-two goals and an assist in five games.

Then in the second period, Fowler went out of his net to play a dump-in. He waited behind the goal and ended up leaving it — right for Michkov. The Russian picked up the puck and fed Brink in the slot for the easy goal.

Brink now has nine goals on the season, three shy of his career-high set last season in 79 games.

Ristolainen returns

Rasmus Ristolainen returned to the lineup with authority. Playing in his first game since March 11 after undergoing surgery on a right triceps tendon rupture, he didn’t miss a beat.

“It’s a long time, a lot of work, a lot of hours, obviously, and, you know, it’s fun to feel really good,” Ristolainen said of returning to the lineup. “Obviously, the team’s playing pretty good and excited to play with the guys.”

Tocchet talked about Ristolainen’s big shot, and he almost scored in his first seconds of action in more than 280 days. On his first shift, the big blueliner sent a point shot on goal before sending another off the crossbar later.

Across 19 minutes, 18 seconds of ice time, Ristolainen had three shot attempts, two blocked shots, one takeaway, and three hits. But none of the hits were bigger than the one that sent Montreal’s Juraj Slafkovský flying at center ice in the first period. And for the record, he wasn’t searching out the physicality early in the game.

“Phenomenal. Double nickels,” Zegras said of Ristolainen, who wears 55. “He’s an absolute moose out there. And that was an awesome hit that he had.”

Demidov took exception to the hit, and Ristolainen drew a penalty as the Russian winger kept cross-checking him away from the play.

Tocchet thought the defensive corps as a whole played well, but pointed out that Ristolainen “was really good for us.”

“Yeah, he brought some physicality, especially in the first period, that big hit,” Couturier said. “Made his presence felt, and it’s nice to see. He played well, and he jumped right back into it, playing his physical style of play, simple. [He] just brings a little more size to, I think, on the backend there. So it’s nice to see he’s doing well.”

Breakaways

Konecny added an empty-netter for his ninth of the season. … Defenseman Ty Murchison was loaned back to Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League to make room for Ristolainen on the roster. … Zegras played in his 300th NHL game. … Vladař was masterful, especially in the third period with the Canadiens pushing. He made a toe save on Slafkovský from the right circle and then slid across to stop Lane Hutson on the rebound. The Czech netminder stopped 21 of 22 shots, including 12 in the third period. … The Flyers went 0-for-3 on the power play.

Up next

The Flyers head to Buffalo, N.Y., to take on the Sabres on Thursday (7:30 p.m., ESPN+, Hulu).

MONTREAL ― It’s been 280 days since Flyers fans have had a look at Rasmus Ristolainen in a game sweater.

It’s been more than 10 weeks since Flyers general manager Danny Brière said the defenseman would miss the first six to eight weeks of the season while recovering from triceps tendon surgery.

It’s been exactly six weeks since Brière said, “We’re hoping next month, in about a four-to-six week range, hopefully he’s back with the team.” And it’s been eight days since Ristolainen has been a full participant in practice.

Now on Tuesday, the big blueliner will finally suit up and make his season debut.

“He’s a big defenseman who can skate — they’re hard to find — [and a] great shot,” coach Rick Tocchet said after morning skate at the Bell Centre. “Just from talking to people last year, he had played well for [the Flyers] before the injury. So yeah, we’re excited.”

The 31-year-old Finn will skate alongside Nick Seeler on the third pairing against the Montreal Canadiens (7 p.m., NBCSP). According to Natural Stat Trick, since the start of the 2022-23 season, they have played 537 minutes, 37 seconds together at five-on-five.

Although the Flyers have a 46.82% Corsi For percentage with them manning the blue line, the team has outscored opponents (28-24) and generated more high-danger chances (101-82).

“We’ll see if this works. I don’t know,” said Tocchet. “They both have the [same] qualities. They’re both tough. They can stop cycles. Risto’s got a great shot. Two big guys back there; it’s tough to get to the net.”

Since being acquired from the Buffalo Sabres in July 2021, Ristolainen ranks fourth in hits — first among defensemen —on the Flyers with 545 in 234 games. Seeler is right behind him with 516 in 299 games.

“Obviously, we know Risto and how he plays. His physicality, his first touches on the puck,” said Seeler, who likes the predictability of Ristolainen’s game.

“We’re both obviously a little bit more defensive. I think that’s totally fine. I think we feed off each other,” he added. “We want to be able to shut plays down when it’s there and be above and hopefully kill a lot of plays. So that’s kind of what we’re going to hopefully do tonight, and just get some chemistry back.”

The addition of Ristolainen helps to solidify the defensive corps with Cam York and Travis Sanheim as the top pair and Jamie Drysdale and Emil Andrae back together.

Drysdale and Andrae were separated during the second period of Sunday’s shootout loss to the Carolina Hurricanes, but Tocchet isn’t giving up on the duo.

“I thought they’ve been good together. I thought Emil, in the last few games, has struggled a little bit. And that’s going to happen. He’s getting some full-time minutes, he’s been playing a lot, and sometimes you hit the wall,” Tocchet said.

“Thought [breaking them up] really worked for us, too, when we did. It was a good in-game adjustment. But that doesn’t mean you stay with it; you go back to it and give the guy a chance again.”

For now, it doesn’t look like Ristolainen will be on a power-play unit, although the bench boss has hinted in the past week that he wouldn’t mind seeing the 6-foot-4, 208-pound defensman with a booming shot on the point.

But baby steps for the Finn as he gets his legs under him in his first game since March 11 after undergoing surgery on a right triceps tendon rupture 15 days later. It followed a pair of procedures in 2024, which also repaired a ruptured triceps tendon. Brière said in April 2025 that the injury was similar, although he wouldn’t confirm whether he suffered a torn tendon again.

“I talked to Todd about this,” said Tocchet, noting his conversation with assistant coach Todd Reirden, who is in charge of the defense.

“You’ve got to target — is it 15, 16, 17 minutes? I mean, I’m not sure it’s smart to play him 23 minutes, that kind of minutes, but that’s the target range you’re looking for.

“But, you know, [once] the game gets going, who knows? He’s been out nine months. I’m not sure [to] red line it the first game is the smartest thing.”

Breakaways

Dan Vladař (11-5-3, .908 SV%) will start in goal. He was in goal for the Flyers’ 5-4 shootout win in Montreal in early November. … Forward Nic Deslauriers, who hails from nearby LaSalle, Quebec, will return to the lineup after being a healthy scratch for four games and play on the fourth line. Nikita Grebenkin will draw out for the first time since Nov. 24. … Forward Carl Grundström has been moved up from the fourth line to play alongside Sean Couturier and Owen Tippett. Matvei Michkov is now alongside Noah Cates and Bobby Brink.

RALEIGH, N.C. — The Flyers are getting an early present for the holidays.

Cam York will return to the lineup on Sunday when the Flyers take on the Carolina Hurricanes (5 p.m., NBCSP).

“Play a simple game early. That’s the way you get back in the game, I think,” coach Rick Tocchet said about the defenseman who has missed four games. “So hopefully, he just does whatever the first pass is, makes the first pass, and just lets the game come to you.”

York has been out with an upper-body injury since Dec. 3, suffered against the Buffalo Sabres. The exact moment when the injury occurred has not been revealed, but he did not return after being involved in a scrum following Trevor Zegras being boarded by Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin with 3 minutes, 10 seconds left in the second period.

It’s also possible that the high hit by Buffalo forward Jason Zucker behind the Flyers’ net with 13:50 left in the period is what Tocchet referred to postgame. The hit was a little late as the blueliner skated back for the puck.

“He’s going to have a really hard practice today,” Tocchet said about York at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Thursday before the Flyers lost in overtime to the Vegas Golden Knights. “Not hitting, but like a lot of pushing and shoving on the ice, and see how he reacts off it. I think this is the day we’ll know how close he is to playing.”

And it looks like he’s good to go.

York will be back alongside Travis Sanheim, with Nick Seeler dropping back to the third pairing with Noah Juulsen. Jamie Drysdale and Emil Andrae remain as the second pair.

Ty Murchison, who made his NHL debut Dec. 9 in the Flyers’ win against the San Jose Sharks, will come out of the lineup. A fifth-round pick in 2021, the 22-year-old looked steady on the blue line while averaging 15 minutes of ice time and earning a plus-minus of plus-1.

“It’s huge,” Tocchet said of York coming back to stabilize the defense before adding unprompted: “It’s really organizational depth when you’ve got a guy like Murchison comes up and plays well for us.”

At the time of his injury, York was averaging 23:31 a night, ranking him 25th in the NHL. Sanheim was fifth at 25:16 with 11 points in 26 games and is one second more in the four games without his partner, notching three assists.

According to Money Puck, Sanheim and York are among only 31 pairs in the NHL that have skated at least 300 minutes together. Although they rank 29th in expected goals for (12.9), they are tied for seventh with the Washington Capitals’ Jakob Chychrun and Matt Roy in expected goals against (14.1) while playing against the league’s top lines.

There’s been a ripple effect without York as Drysdale went from 21:34 to 22:45, Andrae from 16:16 to 21:41, and Seeler from 19:09 to 22:04 alongside Sanheim. York should help balance that out — and could help the power play.

“Yeah, 100%,” Tocchet said when asked about that. “We got Sanny, himself, and [Drysdale] and put Emil on the second unit. So we’re looking for somebody to step up. York is a guy who, early on with, especially with Trevor [Zegras], they had some chemistry, so, yeah, we’re looking at all options.”

In his 23 games this season, York has one goal and 12 points, with his lone goal and six points on the power play. The Flyers’ power play is tied for 23rd in the NHL with the Nashville Predators, and it has scored 14 times this season, tied for the third fewest in the league.

Breakaways

Defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen is also on the road trip, and Tocchet again added that “Risto is coming [back] soon, so going to add two quality good depth.” … Goalie Dan Vladař will start in goal for the Flyers. It is his first game against the Hurricanes this season.

There’s been a lot of talk recently about the fourth line’s struggles and lack of contributions in the goal column on the scoresheet.

Enter Carl Grundström.

Recalled on Dec. 2, after Tyson Foerster went down with an upper-body injury the night before against the Pittsburgh Penguins — he will be out for 2-3 months — the Swede sat patiently waiting for his turn to enter the lineup. It came on Dec. 9, and he made his case known with a sweet deflection goal — the game-winner — against the team the Flyers acquired him from, the San Jose Sharks.

Two nights later, against the visiting Vegas Golden Knights, he put pressure on defenseman Brayden McNabb, creating a turnover along the boards in the offensive zone. Seconds later, the puck was in the back of the net off a one-timer by defenseman Noah Juulsen to tie the game, 2-2, in the Flyers’ 3-2 overtime loss.

“I bring a lot of energy,” Grundström said on Saturday morning after the Flyers’ morning skate. “Feel like, try to play hard. Be direct.

“I think I’m bringing the game I want to bring. Obviously, I can probably do better, but it’s getting better and better, I feel like.”

In Voorhees, Grundström was back on the fourth line with Garnet Hathaway and Rodrigo Ābols. He’s started every game that way, but on Thursday, he was moved up to the third line with Noah Cates and Bobby Brink.

And his minutes have been inching up. He played 10 minutes, 17 seconds in his Flyers debut against the Ottawa Senators on Nov. 8. That climbed to 12:41 on Thursday.

“Well, I think he’s an NHL player, so, honestly, a lot of credit to Danny getting him here, because he’s a guy that’s a depth guy,” coach Rick Tocchet said of the forward who was acquired in the deal that sent the Ryan Ellis contract west. “I think there’s some stuff he does that I really like, and you can tell he wants more. I like that. So, how we use him, there’s a lot of options for me.”

And how will Tocchet use the forward he saw play a bunch when the former was the head coach of the Vancouver Canucks and the latter was a member of the Los Angeles Kings across six seasons and the Sharks?

“He’s a smart guy. He’s reliable. He can penalty kill,” said Tocchet of Grundström, who played on the penalty kill for 39 seconds against the Sharks and has 56 total seconds this season.

“When you have a guy, whether he plays fourth line or third line, whatever he plays, it’s good to have that guy who can penalty kill. You can get some minutes out of him. It’s not just top-heavy penalty killers and stuff. So I think we’re giving him a little bit more and more PK.”

At even strength, Grundström brings a similar element to the fourth line as Nikita Grebenkin, 22, who was elevated to the third line when Foerster went down, but flip-flopped with him on Thursday. They both play tough on the wall and like to put pressure on the defense, although the 28-year-old Grundström has more NHL experience.

While it’s only been 9:24 of ice time, according to Natural Stat Trick, when the fourth line is on the ice with him, the Flyers have 54.55% of the Corsi For — with either Nic Deslauriers or Grebenkin it is below 50%. They also have 50% of the shots, 100% of the scoring chances (1-0) and, of course, the goal.

“Intangibles, a little confidence, too. Scoring, getting a goal, and then bringing the other attributes,” Hathaway said when asked about adding Grundström to the left wing.

“He’s relentless. I think you’ve seen on every shift. He helped create Jules’ goal the other night, with just battling inside the blue line, making a 50-50 puck ours, and staying on and holding on to pucks longer. I think that’s attributed to more [offensive]-zone time for us and getting chances after that.”

Breakaways

Defensemen Rasmus Ristolainen and Cam York will be on the four-game road trip that begins Sunday against the Hurricanes in Carolina (5 p.m., NBCSP). According to Tocchet, Ristolainen “is close to playing” and York is ready, adding, “whether he plays tomorrow or the next game, he’s close.” … Goalie Sam Ersson will start on Saturday in the first game of a home-and-home with the Hurricanes. Therefore, it is expected that Dan Vladař will play on Sunday. … The Flyers will have the same lineup, which means defenseman Ty Murchison will play his third NHL game.

Rick Tocchet’s news conference after the Flyers’ 3-2 overtime loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday wasn’t short like his predecessor was known for — in fact, he told the team’s media relations staff he was OK to keep answering questions — but for the first time since becoming the Flyers’ head coach, he sounded very frustrated.

“I can name 10 guys that didn’t do anything,” he said during one of his answers. “You guys can write whatever story.”

Tocchet tried to remain positive as his squad hung with a perennial Stanley Cup contender at Xfinity Mobile Arena. But 29 games in, it’s clear the coach wants to see improvements and implementation of his systems.

Two reasons Tocchet wasn’t frustrated

Five-on-five

Tocchet did say he thought that Flyers played played a good game and executed the game plan at five-on-five — and they did.

According to Natural Stat Trick, the Flyers had 54.84% of the chances in the first period and 51.85% in the third period. Vegas had the advantage in the middle frame, but also by a slim margin of 52.17%.

The Flyers outshot the Golden Knights by one, and while they did allow two more high-danger chances to the opposition, the Flyers outscored Vegas 2-1.

Four players he liked

For defenseman Noah Juulsen, the season started a little iffy, and there were questions about whether he was ready to play steady minutes after missing a considerable amount of time following sports hernia surgery in February.

But the rust has worn off, and he has become the perfect seventh defenseman — someone who can be inserted into the lineup and play well when there are injuries, as there has been since the start of the season with Rasmus Ristolainen, who is inching his way back from his own surgery.

On Thursday night, Juulsen was rewarded with his first goal in Philly, a tally that Tocchet, who coached him in Vancouver, too, called “a great shot.”

“I think when someone puts in the perfect spot, like [Christian Dvorak] did, and you pound it, it comes off pretty hot usually for most guys in the league,” Juulsen said of his one-timer from the left face-off circle.

Speaking of Dvorak, when asked about his response after his turnover led to the opening goal by Zach Whitecloud, Tocchet liked how he battled back.

“He was disappointed in that. We talked about that,” Tocchet said with a frustrating pause and sigh about the turnover just inside the Vegas blue line, “this morning. When there’s no speed, you’ve got to get it deep. … That’s responsible all year, something bad happens, and we come back.”

Carl Grundström, in his third game with the Flyers, was moved up in the lineup. By the third period, he was solidly on a line with Noah Cates and Bobby Brink.

“I liked his game,” Tocchet said of the Swede, who finished with a season high 12:41 and got an assist on Juulsen’s goal. “I thought he’d be better on that kind of matchup” against the Jack Eichel line or Mitch Marner, who Brink and Cates were assigned to for most of the night.

It says a lot when a kid playing in his second NHL game has his name brought up unprompted by the head coach. Tocchet said of Ty Murchison “for a young kid again, he looked poised out there.” And he did. Skating 13:41, he was on the ice for Zegras’ backdoor goal to tie the game at 1, and just 1:43 into the game, he laid a monster hit on Kaedan Korczak to set the tone.

Two reasons Tocchet was frustrated

Overtime

“It’s a little disappointing how it ended, sour taste,” he said of the overtime winner by Mark Stone after Travis Konecny fanned on the puck and Eichel was able to maintain possession and find Stone backdoor.

But Tocchet wasn’t happy with the overtime session as a whole. Despite having time in the offensive zone, the Flyers did not register a single shot across the extra session that lasted almost three minutes. Vegas had one blocked shot and two shots on goal.

“[Travis Sanheim] right in the middle of the ice and we pass it like, those are the things you just can’t do,” Tocchet said. “You’ve got to take the shot. It’s right there. He’s got a hell of a shot. We’re looking maybe too cute, I don’t know, but we’ve got to put our finger on it.”

The Flyers are 2-4 in overtime while knowing that, if the game gets there, a perfect 5-0 is on the horizon in the shootout. Asked if the Flyers weren’t playing aggressively enough because they know that if they get it to a shootout, there’s a good chance they win: “I don’t know, maybe in the subconscious of their mind, but not for us,” he said of the coaches.

The power play

“Did you see the first two power plays?” Tocchet retorted when asked about the change in the units in the third period that saw Cates and Brink on the top unit with Zegras, Konecny, and Jamie Drysdale, who made a return to the power play in the game.

Earlier in the night, that unit was Owen Tippett, Drysdale, Zegras, Konecny, and Michkov. Emil Andrae and Sanheim also saw power play time on the point with them across the night.

“What would you have done?” Tocchet added with a shrug and a “There you go.”

Tocchet did continue saying that he didn’t want to get negative because they had a good game, but it sure feels like the former NHLer hit a rite of passage as a Flyers coach.

As he said, “I know the coaches are a little frustrated because [we sound] like a broken record.”

So, is everyone else starting to have flashbacks, too?

The power play is 23rd in the NHL (17.9%). Through 29 games and 81 power-play opportunities, the Flyers have 14 goals. It’s not the fewest in the NHL — it’s the third fewest. (One positive is they are tied with the Carolina Hurricanes, whom they play in a home-and-home this weekend.)

The Flyers had three power plays on Thursday, but could muster only one shot on goal, three shots that missed the net, and two that were blocked. That’s six shot attempts across six minutes of action — or a lack of action.

Tocchet said the flanks, which are the players in the circles, aside from Zegras, struggled, and they weren’t getting shots from the middle of the ice. The coach is obviously frustrated that “we’ve practiced it, but for some reason when under pressure we kind of lose our bearings.”

And it has to be even more frustrating for the bench boss to watch Vegas score like that on one of their two power plays. After getting a shot from the middle of the ice by Pavel Dorofeyev, who put the puck on goal from just above the slot, Stone had two chances atop the crease, with the second going in for his first goal of the night.