Category: Flyers/NHL

It’s been a frustrating year-plus for Carter Amico.

In November 2024, the Flyers prospect suffered a broken kneecap while playing for the United States national team development program. The injury, subsequent surgery, and recovery cost him all but 17 games in his draft year, and contributed to him slipping out of the first round in June’s draft.

The Flyers ultimately selected the towering 6-foot-5, 225-pound defenseman with the 38th pick and hoped to watch him develop under the tutelage of coach Jay Pandolfo at Boston University. That was not to be, as Amico has left the program halfway through his freshman year to join the Muskegon of the United States Hockey League for the remainder of the season.

The Maine native had played in 18 of the Terriers’ 21 games this season but was not getting big minutes and did not register a point. Amico was a minus-seven on the season and did not play in any of BU’s three games last weekend.

He will join the reigning USHL champion Lumberjacks, who are currently in fourth place in the Eastern Conference. Last week, Muskegon’s best player and projected top-5 2026 NHL draft pick, Tynan Lawrence, left the Lumberjacks to enroll early at Boston University. In essence, this became a one-for-one swap.

A source told The Inquirer that the move will allow Amico an opportunity to play more minutes as he continues to work back from his injury and added that the defenseman could enroll at another NCAA school next season.

The Flyers remain high on Amico, who is an agile skater for someone his size, brings physicality, and has shutdown potential. The 18-year-old, who missed the team’s offseason on-ice sessions while rehabbing his knee, will hope a fresh start in the USHL will get him back on track.

“He was high on our list,” amateur scout Shane Fukushima said at the draft last year. “He’s a massive body that missed the majority of the year; I think if that had not happened, he would have been selected higher in the draft. We feel that the upside is high and he’s just scratching the surface.”

It’s been about four months since it was announced that pro hockey was returning to Trenton after a 13-year hiatus. On Tuesday, that hockey team officially got a name: the Ironhawks.

The Ironhawks, who will begin play next season in the ECHL, the third tier of North American professional hockey, announced the name and unveiled the team’s logo on Tuesday at CURE Insurance Arena in Trenton. The team, which will serve as the ECHL affiliate of the Colorado Avalanche, landed on the name after a two-month name-the-team contest that featured over 2,000 entries.

“Today marks an important milestone as we officially announce our franchise name, the Trenton Ironhawks, and prepare to bring a new era of professional ECHL hockey to Trenton,” team president Bob Ohrablo said.

“The hawk symbolizes strength and spirit, while the iron industry and its workers remain vital to Trenton’s economy through their grit and determination. By combining these elements into Ironhawks, we honor Trenton and reflect the team we are building, representing the city and the surrounding region, including Central New Jersey and Bucks County, Pennsylvania.”

Trenton was officially awarded the franchise, which was previously based in Utah, in September, with new owner Pro Hockey Partners moving the team. The city was previously home to the Titans, who played in the ECHL from 1999 until they folded in 2013. The Titans won their lone Kelly Cup in 2005.

“The return of ECHL hockey to Trenton is extremely exciting as we welcome the market back to our North Division for the 2026-27 Season amidst new teams and rivalries in the region,” ECHL Commissioner Ryan Crelin said in September. “The original ECHL team served as a catalyst to the opening of CURE Insurance Arena back in 1999 and growing the hockey community in New Jersey, and we look forward to reinvigorating the live entertainment experience in the marketplace with an ownership and operating group that is experienced in developmental league sports.”

The Ironhawks’ primary colors will be blue, gray, and red, while the logo is a silver iron-coated hawk with blue and red accents that is landing on a hockey stick. The hawk’s eyes are red to represent the fire and intensity in his eyes, according to the team’s release.

“The arrival of the Trenton Ironhawks is an exciting moment for our city,” Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora said. “This team brings new energy to the CURE Insurance Arena and creates opportunities for residents, visitors, and local businesses alike. The name Ironhawks reflects Trenton’s industrial roots and the strength and resilience that define this community. This is a proud new chapter for Trenton sports.”

Rick Tocchet often talks about lessons.

Well, after two straight sobering losses to perennial powerhouse Tampa Bay, in which the Flyers were outscored by 12-3 at Xfinity Mobile Arena, they surely learned a few tough ones.

Here are three lessons from Monday’s 5-1 loss to the Lightning that the Flyers learned and need to carry with them as they move through a gauntlet before February’s Olympic break.

1. More consistency needed

As the old saying goes, “you take it one shift at a time.” But, when you read between the lines, it’s really saying that yes, while you take it one shift at a time, you also do it by playing consistently.

Does that mean they have to be perfect every single second? No. And the Flyers have their lapses. But, unlike Stanley Cup contenders who can get bailed out by their defense or offense, the Flyers aren’t there yet. They have great stretches, but as seen in even some of their wins, when they allow teams to creep back in, they need to be on their toes for a full 60 minutes.

“These are the games that are important to us to see consistency-wise, hey, we need to play the right way,” defenseman Nick Seeler said. “We need to reload when it’s there. We have to help our D out. We have to block shots when it’s there.

“We have to do the little things to be successful in this league. It’s important. I think we’ve done a good job this year and grown a lot, but it’s that consistency piece that we can continue to do better at.

“We still believe in ourselves. These two games don’t change that. But we’ve just got to learn from a couple of games like that and be better from it, mature a bit as a group, and we’ll get on the other side of this.”

2. Cut down on turnovers

The record books will say the Flyers had 19 giveaways on Monday night. This comes after 14 on Saturday. In that game, at least four goals can be credited to giveaways. On Monday, Matvei Michkov turned the puck over twice in the offensive zone on one shift — although the official stats say he had just one giveaway in the game — and Trevor Zegras had the puck taken away before Jake Guentzel scored.

It’s costing them games.

“We’ve got some guys giving too many turnovers, especially some of our high-end guys, too many turnovers,” Tocchet said. “Because if you’re going to turn them over, if you have a chance, you’ve got to score if I want to play that type of hockey.

“We’re giving up turnovers, but we’re not scoring. … I’m a big believer in that, that if you’re going to play risky, you better score, and our guys aren’t scoring, so you’ve got to tighten it up.”

Across the whole season, the Flyers are one of the NHL’s best teams when it comes to limiting giveaways with the fifth fewest (639). However, across the last two games against the Lightning, they have 33 giveaways. Those 33 are the sixth-highest total in the NHL during that two-game span, with 24 teams playing twice.

It’s a trend that needs to be quashed.

3. Special teams need to step up

Maybe it’s something in the water? Because no matter what — new personnel, new coaches — the Flyers’ power play is bad, and it may have come to a head Monday when they had two power plays and didn’t put a single shot on goal. In fact, they iced the puck once.

Although the power play has been an ongoing issue since before the John Tortorella era — and it is now at 15.3%, tied with the New York Islanders for 30th in the NHL — the problem is that the once steady penalty kill is matching in futility. After going 2-for-2 with kills on Saturday, it went 2-for-4 on Monday and is just 9-for-16 (56.3%) since New Year’s Eve, which ranks 31st. Overall, it is at 79.9% and ranked 14th in the NHL.

“I don’t know. It’s tough to say right after a game like this,” Sean Couturier said when asked where he sees the penalty kill now. “Obviously, it’s not good enough.”

Special teams can make or break teams, and if the Flyers, who are precariously hanging on to third in the Metropolitan Division, want to stay there, the penalty kill and the power play need to step up.

“Yeah, that’s something we have to improve on, no doubt about it. We had some looks on the power play, so it wasn’t all that bad, but we’ve got to bear down, and they’ve got a lethal power play themselves,” Christian Dvorak said. “And you know, it was a big part of the game for them. And, you know, made a huge difference. So we’ll have to do better.”

Let’s get weird. Like in playoff hockey, the Flyers will get another crack at home to beat the streaking Tampa Bay Lightning.

On Saturday, the Flyers helped the Bolts extend their winning streak to nine games in a 7-2 loss. Some of it was because of the talent the Lightning have and some of it was self-inflicted by the Flyers with careless turnovers and miscues.

Blueliner Rasmus Ristolainen was asked Sunday after practice what the Flyers can do better. “Obviously, the defensive part of the game,” he said. “We let their good players have too much space, and it was too much fun for them.”

The Flyers would much rather be the ones having fun. But who joins Monday’s party is still to be determined. There will be a few game-time decisions for the Flyers.

Carl Grundström missed practice Sunday due to illness, and Travis Konecny, who was returning from an upper-body injury, got nailed with a shot on the knee, causing “like a dead leg kind of thing,” according to coach Rick Tocchet. Both participated in the optional morning skate along with Bobby Brink, who will not play against the Lightning because of an upper-body injury.

The Flyers will have Dan Vladař in net. The goalie did not play in the team’s previous two matchups against the Lightning, including a 3-0 loss in Tampa Bay on Nov. 24, but has earned at least a point in four straight starts (3-0-1). And the Flyers have a pretty good record on their side: 9-1-2 in games following a regulation loss.

Here are three keys for the Flyers on Monday:

1) Minimize mistakes.

Several of the Lightning goals came off turnovers, including one each by Matvei Michkov, Denver Barkey, and Trevor Zegras around Tampa Bay’s blue line. As defenseman Nick Seeler said, “It’s those soft areas, those little plays where we need to get it deep instead of trying to make a play and stay patient, and offense will come.”

Barkey struggled all night, but he learned a valuable lesson in his 10th NHL game.

“I think the biggest thing is you’ve got to minimize your mistakes, make sure you’re ready from the drop of the puck until the buzzer goes,” Barkey said Monday. “I think that was the biggest thing I learned. They’re good players, and you’ve really got to be sure of the plays that you make, because they will make you pay.”

2) Know where Nikita Kucherov is at all times, but remember he’s not the only focus.

On Saturday, the Russian winger padded his stats with two goals and two assists, and now has 41 points in 30 career games against the Flyers. His linemates, Gage Goncalves and Brayden Point, had two goals and three assists, respectively.

“Kucherov is a focus. He’s your pregame strategy. First goal, where is he? We should have been aware of that,” said Tocchet, referencing Kucherov being left all alone in front of the goal for his first snipe on Saturday. “If he’s on the ice, I’m not sure you want to make a high-risk, east-west play. … But saying that, we have the puck, we’ve got to make plays when Kucherov’s on the ice. We’ve got to make him play defense. We can’t just slap pucks around.”

But he cannot be the only focus for the Flyers. Once he gets off the ice — he played only 14 minutes, 24 seconds on Saturday — there are guys like Anthony Cirelli and Jake Guentzel, who will play for Canada and the U.S. at the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics, respectively. Eleven members of the Lightning got at least a point Saturday, so the Flyers cannot take their foot off the pedal.

3) Control the neutral zone.

As Seeler said, the “neutral zone is going to be really important for this upcoming game here.” The Lightning had no trouble sending a stretch pass up the ice or skating through with ease.

Because of this, it put the Flyers back on their heels as the Lightning forced the defense to back up in the Flyers’ end. It led to several goals, like Kucherov’s second and Goncalves’ first.

“They get time and space, they’ll kill you,” Tocchet said about Kucherov and Point.

That goes for the whole team coached by Jon Cooper. But for most of the season, the Flyers have been strong in the neutral zone, whether using it to regroup, steal the puck, or attack the rushing opposition to slow them down. They know this is a key for them on Monday.

“Just little details with set up forechecks, being above angles, to limit their time, space, speed, their ability to go east-west to make those lateral plays or late plays,” Noah Cates said on Sunday.

“They’re a dangerous team, obviously, off the rush and just like the little things up the ice that you can do that slow them down, make it harder for them.”

Sam Ersson has not had the best start to the season.

In 16 games, he is 6-6-4 with a 3.33 goals-against average and an .858 save percentage. They are the highest and the lowest numbers, respectively, in an NHL career that spans 126 games across four seasons.

Everything came to a head on Saturday in a 7-2 Flyers loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning at Xfinity Mobile Arena, matching his career high in goals allowed for the third time. He faced 23 shots.

“Yeah, obviously, it’s been tough for me, personally,” he told The Inquirer Sunday about his season as a whole. “It’s weird. I would say, like the team is doing well, we’re winning, it’s a lot of fun in that sense, but at the same time, you want more out of yourself, and I’m disappointed in how I perform.

“I think there’s been stretches of where it’s been good and got some big wins. And then there’s been stretches where, especially now, lately, I feel like it’s been lacking.

“Obviously, especially last night, it’s very tough, embarrassing to let in seven goals on your home ice. You feel like you kind of let down the team and the fans. Obviously, that’s not acceptable. Just got to be better.”

Ersson has one win in his last seven starts, a 3-1 victory against the Chicago Blackhawks before the NHL’s holiday break. He started nine of the first 26 games, going 5-2-2 with a 2.97 GAA and an .869 save percentage. Since Dec. 4, he has started seven of the Flyers’ last 17 games, going 1-4-2 in that stretch with a 3.80 GAA and an .844 save percentage.

The 26-year-old goaltender is not one to make excuses. And he has the chance to do just that with a new coaching staff, new systems in front of him, and fewer starts for a goalie who played in 47 games last year and 51 the year before.

“I’m not blaming anything like that,” he said. “It comes down to me, how I perform, how I approach things, and I know if I do that in the correct way, my game, I will have success no matter what.”

According to Money Puck, among goalies who have played at least 10 games, he is ranked fifth-worst in goals saved above average (-9.5), sixth in percentage of expected goals (-21.01), and tied for last in save percentage (.858). And he doesn’t have nearly as many minutes as the guys below him, like Jordan Binnington and fellow Swedes Jacob Markström and Linus Ullmark.

Goals saved above average is a comparison tool to show how a goalie did compared to an average goalie seeing the same shots. Among goalies with at least 700 minutes played, Ersson ranks dead last at five-on-five in goals saved above average, too (-16.02). His high-danger goals saved above average is the 10th highest (-4.28), but he has also faced the fewest high-danger shots (70).

It’s a bit surprising because, before the team made mistakes — not every goal on Saturday can be blamed on the goalie — and the Flyers allowed a touchdown and the extra point, they were ranked ninth in the NHL in goals allowed (2.79). It’s a wild drop from last season, when they finished at 3.45.

“I think it’s better,” Ersson said when asked about structural changes in the defensive zone by Rick Tocchet and his staff. “I think we’re doing a really good job defensively with how we’re playing.

“So, for me, it all comes down to kind of how I play and how I perform. And I know if I play to the level I can and want to be, I will have success. So, just got to find a way to flush these last few games and get back to where I want to be.”

The Flyers play the Lightning again on Monday (7 p.m., NBCSP), and the expectation is that Dan Vladař will get the start. But there’s a good chance Ersson will get an opportunity to right the ship with the Flyers having a back-to-back in two of the next three weeks.

“Just got to roll up the sleeves and grind away,” Tocchet said. And Ersson, who was the first one on the ice Sunday at practice, is up for the task.

“It’s a combination of a lot of things,” the goalie said about what comes next. “I would say usually, like when you’re in a tough stretch, less is more. You’re obviously working, but if you start to try to change everything, then you’re just tearing down the foundation that you’ve built up for years, right? So it’s the combination of trusting your game, but just like pushing everything a little bit and getting back to where it needs to be.”

Konecny’s brief practice

Travis Konecny’s return practice Sunday lasted only a few minutes. During the first drill, he took a shot off his knee.

“Kind of a nerve,” Tocchet said. “So hopefully it wakes up a little bit. So it just was like a dead leg kind of thing, so we’ll see about tomorrow.”

The Flyers forward, who was injured during Thursday’s game and did not play the third period, also missed Saturday’s loss to Tampa Bay with an upper-body injury. After watching the game from the press box, he was a participant in a regular jersey in Voorhees.

It became evident quickly that Konecny was in a lot of pain on the bench. He tried to walk it off under the watchful eye of assistant athletic trainers Alex Ambrose and Joe Mele, and even tested it on the ice, but did not return to practice.

“It seems like injuries, even with other teams, they come in bunches, they don’t come every once in a while,” Tocchet said. “You get one, two, three, four in a row, so maybe it’s our turn now, we’re starting to get it. So, yeah, you’ve just got to push through that stuff.”

At the start of last season, defenseman Nick Seeler missed the Flyers’ first five games after suffering a nerve injury to his leg in a preseason game, hitting an area without padding.

“The numbness was the whole outside of my right leg and into my foot,” he said at the time, pointing toward the back of his leg, where it caused everything to “shut off for a while.”

The Flyers hope to have Konecny, the team’s second-leading scorer, back in the lineup Monday against the Lightning. It starts a stretch of 11 games in the last 20 days of January, and they do not have two days between games until the start of February.

Breakaways

Forward Bobby Brink should be good to go on Monday. Brink has missed the last two games after being injured on a blindside hit during Tuesday’s win against the Anaheim Ducks. He participated in Saturday’s morning skate in a noncontact jersey but was in a regular black jersey on Sunday. … Defenseman Jamie Drysdale was still in a noncontact jersey. … Forward Carl Grundström missed practice due to illness. His status for Monday’s game is to be determined.

The Flyers were facing an uphill battle Saturday night.

Against a Tampa Bay Lightning team riding an eight-game winning streak, the Flyers were without three key players in forwards Travis Konecny and Bobby Brink and defenseman Jamie Drysdale.

The result was a 7-2 loss, ending the team’s three-game point streak. It is only the second time the Flyers have lost in regulation following a loss this season; Philly was handed a 2-1 overtime defeat by the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday.

Sam Ersson received several Bronx cheers for his saves throughout the game, notably his first save after allowing two goals on the first three shots he saw and in the third period after the game was well out of reach. He allowed seven goals on 23 shots, including four on eight shots in the third period.

Nikita Kucherov gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead just 109 seconds into the game.

Lightning defenseman Darren Raddysh sent a stretch pass up the ice from his own goal line. Kucherov wasn’t able to control it as it bounced into the Flyers’ end, and Travis Sanheim tapped it away from him as he was surrounded by four Flyers defenders.

Owen Tippett corralled the puck and, under pressure, sent it over to Denver Barkey as he curled up the boards — all while Kucherov hung out by the Flyers’ net all alone. Brayden Point stole the puck from Barkey, and as four Flyers focused on him, he sent the puck to Kucherov all alone at the right post. The Russian winger shot it off the pass and by Ersson, who was making his first start since New Year’s Eve.

Kucherov, who entered the game with 37 points in 29 games against the Flyers, would get a second. He got the puck in the neutral zone from Point and carried it down into the left circle — causing the Flyers to back up — before shooting against the grain while in stride past the glove of Ersson.

In between Kucherov’s goals, Garnet Hathaway finally got on the board.

“Yeah, I can’t go back and change the first half,” Hathaway said after Thursday’s game, acknowledging that he didn’t have a point in his first 36 games and was a healthy scratch for six games beginning on Dec. 20. “I wish I could, but I can’t. I’m trying to go day by day. … And I think the last few games I’ve played to my identity more than I have before that and that’s what I need to rely on.”

Hathaway and Rodrigo Ābols put in the work along the end boards to take the puck away from Erik Cernak before Hathaway skated toward the slot. Noah Juulsen got the puck at the point and put a slap shot on goal that Hathaway deflected in.

In the second period, Nick Paul gave the Lightning a 3-1 lead when the puck bounced away from Barkey at the Bolts’ blue line.

Tampa Bay went the other way but also couldn’t control the puck, and it went to Flyers defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen, who tried to put it up the boards in the Flyers’ end. It was blocked by Anthony Cirelli, and he got the puck back for a shot attempt that was blocked by Nick Seeler.

Lightning defenseman Charles-Edouard D’Astous then corralled it and put a high shot on Ersson that was stopped, but Paul skated through the Flyers’ defense relatively untouched and knocked in the rebound.

In the third period, the wheels fell off.

The Lightning padded the lead to 5-1 with goals by Gage Goncalves and Brandon Hagel just 94 seconds apart. Goncalves’ goal came off a rush that initially started with a turnover by Matvei Michkov at the offensive blue line. Hagel scored as he blew past Barkey during a two-on-two.

Tippett did get on the board with a power-play goal off a faceoff win by Christian Dvorak. The Flyers forward didn’t get good wood — or whatever sticks are made out of now — on it, and it seemed to fool Andrei Vasilevskiy.

The goal was Tippett’s 14th of the season and fifth in his past 10 games. He is on pace for 27 goals, which is one shy of his career high, set two seasons ago.

Yanni Gourde scored on a breakaway after Zegras lost the puck inside the Lightning blue line, and Goncalves scored two minutes later.

Breakaways

Konecny and Brink are day-to-day with upper-body injuries and watched the game from the press box with Drysdale, who is on injured reserve with an upper-body injury. Joining them in the press box was Tyson Foerster.

Up next

In an interesting twist, the Flyers host the Lightning again on Monday at Xfinity Mobile Arena (7 p.m., NBCSP).