Photo Credits: FNG’s Rob Windfelder
The NHL 2026-27 season is just getting underway. It’s been a very rocky start for the Flyers so far to say the least. Goaltender Joseph Woll has already become a key part of the storyline.
Context
It’s standard not to allow preseason games to hold much weight when forming opinions about a team. Before this week you could write off the Flyers preseason shortcomings as just being part of the process. Things were just getting started, they were getting a look at the team’s young prospects, and it wasn’t the final product.
Now that the Flyers have three regular season games under their belt the preseason has become even more relevant. That’s because things haven’t really changed all that much. Those games weren’t and outlier, they were the beginning of a trend.
The Flyers were outscored by the Penguins in the Season Opener 7-0. But if you add the four preseason games to that total they had been outscored 22-4 at that point. In the three regular season games they’ve been outscored 13-4. There are some patterns forming here and this one is so simple it seems silly to even point it out.
Philly vs Carolina
The Flyers are currently 0-1-2 after losing 3-2 in OT to the Carolina Hurricanes in Philadelphia on Saturday night. They lost by that exact same score in overtime to the New Jersey Devils on Thursday.
Carolina is the reigning Stanley Cup Champions. They’re also the team that swept the Flyers out of the playoffs in the second round. They are a formidable opponent and it’s commendable that the Flyers pushed them to overtime. The main reason the Flyers were able to hang past regulation with both the Devils and the Canes has been the outstanding play of goaltender Joseph Woll.
Woll has started the last two games and his workload has been substantial. Tonight the Hurricanes outshot the Flyers 40-18. Thursday night the Devils outshot the Flyers 44-25. Woll has faced a total of 84 shots in the two overtime losses. He is currently posting a .932 SV%.
He was the starting goaltender in the only preseason game where the Flyers allowed less than five goals. He recorded a 2-0 shut-out against the Boston Bruins. Woll has been the bright spot during this rocky start and is the reason they earned a point in each of their last two games.
Last season you may remember the sell out crowd in Philly giving the Flyers a standing ovation in appreciation of their effort after losing game four to Carolina. Saturday night the booing started when Sebastian Aho scored the Canes first goal just 10 seconds into the match.
Owen Tippett scored the first goal this season by a Flyers forward 8:03 into the opening period. It was the finishing touch of a great shift that created a number of chances. Trevor Zegras fed the puck from the corner to Tippett in the slot. Tippett fired a blast that hit Canes netminder Pyotr Kochetkov in the bread basket and bounced right back out front. It was Zegras, again, with a touch pass to Tippett who fired a wrister top shelf glove side to tie the score at one.
This shift for Tippett, Zegras, and Carl Grundstrom was a reminder that this Flyers squad is basically the same line-up that made it to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs just a few months ago. In fact there has been improvements made Joseph Woll being one of them. Something just isn’t clicking. They’ve looked disjointed and unprepared and it’s very frustrating for everyone involved.
The Flyers took the lead 7:20 into the 2nd period. Travis Konecny gave the puck away, stole it right back, and fed it to Matvei Michkov who was in the slot all alone. Michkov fired high blocker side to give the Flyers a 2-1 lead.
The Flyers lead held up until 4:59 into the third period. It was Aho again, this time on the power-play. A pin-point set up, from behind the net to the dot to the slot for the shot. For the second straight game the Flyers were headed to overtime.
Haunted by a Ghost
Thanks to another outstanding performance by their goaltender the Flyers were still in this game despite the ice being tilted in the direction of their net all night long. 1:35 into the overtime Owen Tippett was given a two minute penalty for slashing Sebastian Aho. It was a questionable call especially in overtime.
On the man advantage the Hurricanes were passing the puck crisply back and forth in the Flyers zone before Nikolaj Ehlers cut across the crease to set up the screen. The puck went back to talented power-play quarterback Shayne Gostisbehere who fired a blast from the point that beat Woll high glove side ending the game.
The Flyers went o-for-4 on the power-play which just makes it harder to watch a former teammate make it look so easy.
About Author
