Looking for a three-game winning streak and their first road win of the season, Rick Tocchet’s Philadelphia Flyers (3-2-1) are in Canada’s capital city on Thursday to play Travis Green’s Ottawa Senators (2-4-1). The Flyers are in the midst of a stretch of playing nine of 10 games at home. Thursday’s match in Ottawa is the outlier.
Game time is 7:00 p.m. EDT. The broadcast is on NBCSP. You can listen live on 97.5 The Fanatic.
The Flyers enter this game coming off an impressive 5-2 home win over the Seattle Kraken on Monday. Owen Tippett (4th and 5th goals of the season) tallied twice. Tyson Foerster (PPG, 2nd), Noah Cates (PPG, 3rd) and Travis Konecny (1st) scored one goal apiece. Dan Vladar made 20 saves to earn the victory. The Flyers went 3-1-0 on the first portion of their homestand before the one-game road trip to Canada.
A playoff team last season, the Senators are 1-4-1 over their past six games. On Tuesday, the Senators earned one point in a 3-2 home overtime loss to the Edmonton Oilers. Dylan Cozens (PPG, 4th) and Thomas Chabot (1st) scored in regulation for Ottawa. Meanwhile, Senators captain Brady Tkachuk recently underwent surgery to repair a torn thumb ligament suffered during the home opener against the Nashville Predators on Oct. 13. Thursday’s game against the Flyers is the final match of a four-game homestand.
Here are the RAV4 Things to watch on Thursday.
1. Flyers off-puck play.
The Flyers’ players seem to have adapted well to the box+1 defensive zone coverage system installed by Tocchet. Last season, through six games, the Flyers allowed 25 goals. So far this season, Philadelphia has yielded just 16 goals.
The process has shown improvement so far. The Flyers rank in the top one-third of the NHL in the fewest shots allowed per game (25.5 average, 9th). Over the last three games, the Flyers allowed just 15 (vs. Winnipeg), 16 (vs. Minnesota) and 22 (vs. Seattle) shots on goal. Meanwhile, the Flyers rank second in the NHL for the fewest expected goals against at 5-on-5.
2. Between the pipes.
The Flyers have received strong goaltending in five of the six games played to date. Vladar played well in all four of his starts. Samuel Ersson played a very strong game against Carolina in his first start of the season. Ersson had a so-so night against Winnipeg but was also victimed by two deflection goals including a double-deflection off two teammates near the net.
Goaltending play and team defense are mutually reliant on one another: they’ll either rise together or drag each other down. So far, they’ve combined to give the Flyers a chance to win against even top-grade opposition. It’s too early to draw conclusions about the team’s true level of improvement in their own end of the ice. However, the early signs are promising.
3. Tippett on a tear.
It’s never been a question of tools or talent with Owen Tippett. He has speed to burn, good size and an ability to score from varying distances. However, the main concern has always been one of consistency. Tippett has been a streak scorer so far in his NHL career, running extremely hot for stretches but equally cold for spans of about 10 games.
So far this season, Tippett has started out with five goals in the first six games. He tallied at least once in each of the last three tilts. It would be a boon if he can keep that run going against the Senators and beyond. More important, however, is week-to-week and month-to-month consistency. Tippett has flirted with — but not quite reached — the 30-goal mark in two of the last three seasons. He’s eminently capable of reaching and then surpassing that milestone in a season.
All goal scorers have ebbs and flows during the season. For Tippett, the big-picture objective is to shorten the low ebb. If he brings his “average” nights closer to how he plays when he’s on his “A” game, Tippett can have a career-best season if healthy. At his peak performance, Tippett is extremely difficult for opponents to keep at bay for long.
4. Konecny and Michkov.
While Tippett has zoomed out of the gates to start the 2025-26 season, Matvei Michkov and defending Bobby Clarke Trophy winner Konecny got off to slower starts through the first five games. Both players had much better nights against Seattle on Monday, even apart from both players getting on the score sheet. The challenge now is to build upon their performances from the last game.
