The Flyers came out of the weekend a touch above hockey .500 at 4-3-1.
An impressive shootout win over the Islanders at home on Saturday got them to it, all with some more signs of promise.
The big rivalry game is up next on Tuesday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena: Flyers-Penguins, with Pittsburgh coming in on a solid 7-2-1 start after a 6-3 win over the Blues in the first leg of a back-to-back.
Maybe it’s an early-season test, against a Penguins team that has long been facing a crossroads with its aging Sidney Crosby-led core, sure, but for now, it still boasts Sidney Crosby as one of the NHL’s best players and has to be respected on that alone.
Before finding out, though, here’s a run of thoughts on the Flyers, starting with their biggest trade acquisition from the summer…
Zegras takes over
Trevor Zegras was everything the Flyers were hoping he could be on Saturday, and a big part of why they forced overtime against the Isles.
First he had the vision. Midway through the second period, and trailing 2-0, Zegras zipped a beauty of a pass from just inside the blue line straight to Christian Dvorak’s stick in front of the net that gave Dvorak a step on his defender and allowed him to flip the puck to his backhand for a goal that beat Isles netminder Ilya Sorokin and cut into their lead.
Then he had the finish. Early into the third, Dvorak carried the puck into the offensive zone, and while trying to handle it through the Islanders’ defense, the puck bounced up off a checking stick. Dvorak bumped it back down with his shoulder and followed it toward the goal line by the right post of the net.
The sequence caught both New York defensemen trying to cut in on Dvorak to separate him from the puck, but that left Zegras tailing behind all alone in front, and Dvorak with enough of a positional advantage to turn and slip a pass out.
The puck went straight to Zegras’ stick, and he had the shot loaded up to the top-left corner as soon as it got to him. Sorokin had no chance, Zegras had his first goal as a Flyer, and the Flyers had the game tied 2-2.
Then he had the fight. The Flyers fell back behind, but on a power play later in the third, Bobby Brink wheeled in from off the wall and fired a shot. Sorokin stopped it, but Zegras crashed in and jammed away at the rebound as chaos piled up in the New York crease.
The puck trickled in, the goal was credited to Zegras for his third point of the day, and the Flyers were tied back up and on their way to a shootout win that he also went on to contribute a deciding goal to.
It’s been so far, so good for Zegras in Philly since the season started, but Saturday felt like a statement for him, that he could be an offensive force again.
Eight games in, Zegras has eight points (two goals, six assists) with three of them on the power play, along with a plus-5 rating.
When the Flyers traded with Anaheim for him back before the draft in June, it was with the calculated risk that he could still be a top-six caliber center if he got a change of scenery.
So far, so good on the early returns.
Drysdale keeps it in check
The Flyers might not have gotten to the shootout at all, though, had it not been for Jamie Drysdale.
The defenseman made two excellent checks in the extra frame that broke up potential scoring chances from the Islanders’ Bo Horvat and Matthew Schaefer to keep play going, and generally did well to steer the puck away and clear it out.
Quietly, he’s been doing that all season so far.
Drysdale skated 22:35 in Saturday’s win, and is averaging 22:18 of ice time on the year, usually on a pairing with Nick Seeler.
His offensive numbers at just three assists haven’t been particularly impressive toward his smooth-skating, puck-moving skillset.
But as for the actual defensive part of Drysdale’s game? That’s seen an uptick, and it’s been noticeable.
“I think right off the bat, for me, his defensive play since training camp ’til as of today, is good,” head coach Rick Tocchet said after practice in Voorhees on Monday. “He’s being more decisive, he’s trying to squash plays, I think he’s done a nice job fitting, because I think the tag was ‘is he a good defensive player or not?’
“For me, he’s been defending well.”
Ersson guts it out
Give Sam Ersson some credit for Saturday, too. He made several big saves to keep the Flyers alive through overtime, then shut the doors on the Islanders in the shootout.
Dan Vladar has had the much hotter hand to begin the season, which is partially why Ersson has only seen three rocky starts so far, but Saturday was his turn, and he hung in there for his first win.
Luchanko goes back
Jett Luchanko made the Flyers out of camp, but wasn’t playing much.
He wasn’t even in the lineup for the Flyers’ last two games at Ottawa on Thursday and then against the Islanders at home.
On Monday, they came to grips with the fact that they can’t let their 2024 first-round prospect continue to sit like they have.
They sent him back to Guelph in the junior OHL, where he’ll spend the rest of the regular season, and hopefully with an appearance for Canada in the World Junior Championship during the holidays.
Luchanko, 19, is stuck in a weird development spot for a prospect where he’s shown to have outgrown Canadian juniors, but still has to show that he’s ready for a regular NHL role, while still not being fully eligible to play for the Phantoms in the AHL until he turns 20.
The Flyers gave him another nine-game trial run, which is allotted to drafted Canadian junior prospects to see if he could maybe break through and prove ready to be a contributing NHL regular.
But his ice time topped out at 10:40 against Winnipeg on Oct. 16, and through four games, he registered only one shot when it was a point of emphasis for him to shoot more.
His skating is good, and his playmaking instincts looked sharper, but that little time and output made it tough to justify keeping him up.
The decision to send Luchanko back to Guelph for one more year isn’t ideal either, but at least there he can play and get reps.
“He could’ve stayed here. He showed that he can play. But we want more than that for him in the long run,” general manager Danny Brière told the media on Monday. “We felt at this point, it was time for him to start playing high minutes and more of an offensive role.”
But the only place Luchanko can really get those right now is back in Guelph.
A loose uniform thought
The Colorado Avalanche (re)introduced blue Quebec Nordiques throwback uniforms and wore them for their home game against the Carolina Hurricanes last Thursday, who met the occasion by bringing out their own white and green Hartford Whalers throwbacks.
Visually, that game was a treat to watch.
And a bit of a reminder that the Flyers haven’t had an alternate jersey refresh in a while, amidst a flood of them across the NHL this season.
The Sixers just brought back their Iverson-era uniforms as a throwback for this season.
I think there might be another black jersey that would go over pretty well if it made its way back, too.
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