VOORHEES, New Jersey — The Philadelphia Flyers will welcome back two very familiar faces on Tuesday night when Morgan Frost, Joel Farabee and the Calgary Flames visit the Wells Fargo Center. It was less than five weeks ago that the Flyers swapped the 20-something pair of former first-round selections for a couple of draft picks and forwards Andrei Kuzmenko and Jakob Pelletier.
At the time, it was seen as a move from some (cough) that the Flyers were throwing in the towel on the regular season, shipping away two players that, while inconsistent, still played important roles. Conversely, the Flames were looking to solidify their playoff position.
Neither has happened. The Flyers have surged out of the 4-Nations break and are 4-0-1 in their last five games, including an impressive 2-1 shootout win over league-leading Winnipeg on Saturday. The Flames, meanwhile, are 2-4-2 in their last eight games sandwiched around the break, and have managed just one lone goal in their last three games, all losses (0-2-1). Frost has just three points (2g, 1a) in 10 games, while Farabee has only one point in 10 games, a goal on Feb. 4.
It’s too early to draw any broad conclusions, but the deal certainly looks fine from a Flyers perspective so far. Not only has Kuzmenko, especially, been a key contributor lately, but the team overall has seemingly found a groove.
“I feel we came back fresh (from the break),” captain Sean Couturier said. “We know we’ve got a lot of work to do. We’re a little behind in the standings, and wanted to get off to a good start. We’ve done that. It’s about keeping it going.”
As Couturier alluded to, and as unlikely as it may be, the Flyers are still eyeing a playoff push. Headed into Monday night they were just four points behind the second wild-card spot, but they’d also have to leapfrog five teams in order to get there. If the Flyers are to get to 92 points — one more than the eighth-seeded Washington Capitals finished with last season — they’d have to go something like 13-4-4 the rest of the way. So don’t hold your breath.
They do, though, have a few parts of their game that are trending the right way. And, they only need to look at last season’s Pittsburgh Penguins for reason to believe it could happen. Should the Flyers beat the Flames on Tuesday, they’ll have a 28-26-8 mark, which is the same record the Penguins had after 62 games before their late surge kept them in the race until the final day of the season.
The trade deadline could alter the Flyers’ prospects, of course, as it’s possible there could be further subtractions from the roster. But for now, let’s take a look at how the Flyers have improved over the past couple of weeks and whether they could actually make this thing interesting.
Health and energy
The only roster player that didn’t skate in Monday’s practice was Garnet Hathaway, who hit his head on the ice on Thursday in Pittsburgh after getting interfered with by the Penguins’ Boko Imama. A team source said that tests “came back negative” on Hathaway, suggesting the worst-case scenario was avoided, but he’s still unlikely to play against Calgary.
Other than that, though, everyone is available. The break came at a great time for the Flyers as Owen Tippett, Ryan Poehling, Egor Zamula and Rasmus Ristolainen were all able to recover from various ailments that had them miss games in early February. As a team, the Flyers are playing a noticeably faster and more straight-line brand of hockey, something that both Frost and Farabee struggled with at times.
There’s more, though — the Flyers’ aggressive style of play can take a toll. That may have been exacerbated by what was a compacted schedule between Christmas and the 4 Nations break, in particular, with 22 games in just a 43-day span.
“It’s a taxing way to play — blocking shots, guys forechecking hard, (the defense has) to gap up a lot,” Cam York said. “Energy is a big thing for us. Feel good right now.”
Couturier used the same adjective as York.
“We’re definitely a team that works extremely hard and doesn’t really take any nights off — it’s taxing,” he said. “Those breaks come at key times sometimes, and I think this was one of them. … It seemed like some guys were running out of juice a little bit.”
The schedule, while still busy the rest of the way, is at least somewhat more forgiving. Tuesday’s game opens a seven-game homestand, and the Flyers have just two back-to-backs in March: one this weekend that doesn’t include any travel, and another later this month in which the lowly Chicago Blackhawks are on the back end.
Young players improving
We could really divide this up into three subsections: rookie forward Matvei Michkov has taken his game to another level, with eight points in four games and a nifty shootout winner on Saturday; defenseman Jamie Drysdale looks more and more like he’s turned a corner in his development; and the Noah Cates-Tyson Foerster-Bobby Brink line is again creating offense while simultaneously helping to shut down the opposition.
The Cates line, especially, could be the key. The Flyers will enjoy the luxury of last change during the course of the homestand, so you can bet that Cates will see the bulk of his time against the other team’s top center. After 11 scoreless games, Cates has three goals and two assists in his last three.
Regardless of whether the young players collectively help the Flyers get back into the playoff race, it at least bodes well for the future.
“That’s what we want to see as a rebuilding team,” Couturier said. “You want to see guys keep getting better every day and improving on their game. I think the pressure is not on them yet, but it’s going to come. They’ve got to just keep developing, keep doing what they’re doing.”
NOT ON SAM ERSSON’S WATCH! 🙅♂️
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— NHL (@NHL) February 28, 2025
Better goaltending
This one’s pretty simple: Sam Ersson is now a solid option in net, 18-10-4 on the season with a 2.40 goals-against average and .912 save percentage since Christmas, while Ivan Fedotov had what was easily his best game in the NHL on Saturday in Winnipeg with 30 saves.
Coach John Tortorella reiterated on Monday that Fedotov’s performance doesn’t change the plan of giving Ersson the bulk of the starts the rest of the way, so he’ll be back in against the Flames. But for the Flyers to truly go on a run, Fedotov is going to have to secure another couple of wins, at least, even if his time in the crease remains limited.
Heck, even No. 3 Aleksei Kolosov made himself useful by dressing as Fedotov’s backup in Winnipeg, allowing Ersson a full night off.
Several numbers still encouraging, including special teams
The Flyers’ underlying numbers have been generally solid most of the season, which makes sense when you consider that the goaltending was porous for the first half and the power play has again been mostly brutal. According to MoneyPuck, the Flyers are fifth in the NHL in expected-goals share (53.6 percent); the only other club in the top 13 in that category not in playoff position is Utah.
The penalty kill, after falling off a bit, has been much better lately. After impressively killing off two late third period advantages by the Jets on Saturday, the Flyers are 13-for-13 over their last seven games. Since Jan. 18, their 86.7 penalty kill percentage leads the league.
While it’s probably too much to expect the power play to find a rhythm, Kuzmenko has at least made them a bit more dangerous and they’re getting more pucks on net. In fact, in the four games since the break, the Flyers’ 80.8 shots-per-60 minutes on the power play leads the league, including two goals in eight opportunities.
Teams around them are questionable
The Boston Bruins are banged up, older, and may be deadline sellers. Ditto the New York Islanders.
The New York Rangers have been up and down all season and something just seems off there. The Ottawa Senators just snapped a five-game losing streak. The Columbus Blue Jackets and Montreal Canadiens are both young and unproven.
Yes, the Flyers have dug themselves a hole. But there’s still time to recover, according to Tortorella. The team’s identity fuels his optimism.
“The way the East is, I’ve always had hope,” he said. “Every day I come into this building for practice, every day I go to the big rink for the games — I don’t have to worry about effort. And that’s a big part of staying in this, is the work habit. The standard of how we play, as far as effort. That’s a given here. It’s so good as a coach to know that that’s there.
“Just going to try to keep it going, and if we fall off, get back at it. And we’ll see how we fall at the end of the year.”
(Photo: Terrence Lee / Imagn Images)
