November 04, 2026
Eric Hartline/IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Travis Konecny and the Flyers are well out of time for silver linings.
Maybe the Flyers are just victims of bad puck luck now, but that's past actually mattering if it is. They're 4-9-4, which really, is a nicer way of saying 4-13.
Maybe the refs had it out for them Tuesday night, too, but they have no room to fall back on that either. 4-13 teams don't get to do that.
And yeah, they showed a bit more fight and energy in the latter half of Tuesday night's loss to the Minnesota Wild, sure. But not until they fell straight into a 3-0 hole, then fumbled through the last five minutes when the urgency should have been at its highest, and all after an opening month where, at a lot of points, the team never even looked awake.
The Flyers lost, 4-2, at home Tuesday night. They back to the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings. At least they got new jerseys, I guess?
But really, they're well out of time for moral victories, silver linings, or hanging on to the small flashes of positives that ultimately don't amount to anything.
A nine-game winless streak, a three-game nosedive, and then a bewildering thud to negate all of your better efforts doesn't afford you that luxury.
At a certain point, the Flyers have to get it together and start helping themselves – start on time, check aggressively, shoot the puck, and actually on the net, and stop unraveling sometimes as soon as a day after they appear to make actual progress.
But maybe it's past that now.
"Obviously never fun giving up two goals that early back-to-back," said defenseman Jamie Drysdale following Tuesday night's showing. "Thought we actually played a decent game. When we put pucks behind them, I thought we controlled the play, and yeah, it sucks. Felt like we had a chance there, a real chance. That one's tough, for sure."
Cool. You're 4-13, and with crippling issues still persisting.
Quinn Hughes and the Minnesota Wild were operating at a different level from the Flyers on Tuesday.
Minnesota's blistering top line of Kirill Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek, and Matthew Boldy, plus star defenseman Quinn Hughes, overwhelmed them for the first goal; a brutal bounce of the puck off Porter Martone's skate and straight in front of the net buried them for the second; and Drysdale's clearing attempt early in the second period hit a ref instead, which kept the puck in the zone for that same Minnesota first line to turn around and score again for the third – and that snowballed.
Drysdale was upset, Trevor Zegras tapped his stick on the ice and yelled something that the official took exception to, which took the Flyers' leading point producer off the ice for the next 10 minutes with a game misconduct, just for two more defensive zone penalties charged to Nick Seeler to follow.
Philadelphia Flyers' Trevor Zegras spent half the second period in the box Tuesday night for blasting the ref after a puck went off an official, leading to a Minnesota Wild goal, calling it "a stupid decision" pic.twitter.com/GpNPvUaGVN
— Scouting The Refs (@ScoutingTheRefs) November 4, 2026
It's hard to climb back from that, as much as the Flyers tried to up until a sequence of poorly timed changes and an empty-net pull of goaltender Dan Vladar did them in, especially with where they are now this far in.
"We talked about protecting the middle," said head coach Rick Tocchet, who's been at a loss for sustained answers all season. "They scored two goals in the middle of the ice. We correct it, then we take three penalties in a row. Whether you like them or not, it doesn't matter. We take three in a row. It kills the momentum. But I do like the resolve."
And that's great and all...but you're 4-13. The Flyers have a minus-21 goal differential after Tuesday night, still carry a minus-100 shots on goal differential that's the worst in the Eastern Conference, and in the case of Tuesday night: They did end up outshooting Wild, 25-22, but on the game's final report, they had 22 more attempts that missed the Minnesota net entirely, which included a 2-on-1 setup from Denver Barkey that Travis Konecny sailed far too high and wide on the open tap-in.
And really, they're well out of time to be missing those now, and they know it.
"If we're not in the hole we're in, I think this game looks a little different," Konecny said afterward. "You know, you take a lot of positives from that. You walk away with, 'You know what? We gave up a couple bad ones, but we competed, we played hard. Consistent, the same way we've been playing.'
"But when it's the hole we're in right now, you still want to take a lot of positives from it and let guys get their confidence, but also...it's a lot. It's unacceptable. We need to win games...It's tough."
At a certain point, though, the Flyers have to start making it easier on themselves. They have to start helping themselves.
But maybe it's past that now. They're 4-13.
"There's good things," Konecny said. "But I don't know, it's a tough way to look at it because, like I said, we're in a different situation."
SIGN UP HERE to receive the PhillyVoice Sports newsletter
Follow Nick on Twitter: @itssnick
Follow Nick on Bluesky: @itssnick
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports
