The Flyers are 0-1-1 to start the year after Saturday night's 4-3 loss to Carolina in overtime, but not without some early controversy.
See, the Flyers won initially, or at least they thought.
Just within the final minute of OT, Trevor Zegras carried the puck into the offensive zone, made a move, then slipped a pass to Travis Sanheim crashing in.
Sanheim, with speed, took the puck and cut around the Carolina defenders across the top of the crease. Goaltender Frederik Andersen pushed up to disrupt Sanheim, but as he did, the puck rolled straight to the stick of Bobby Brink, who took an extra glide across and fired home the winner.
Andersen took issue with the sequence, though, and after review, the officials sided with him. They waved off the goal for goaltender interference on Sanheim. The Hurricanes took it the other way and scored for the win soon after.
It's what it is.
"It's in the situation room. At that point, you usually don't get an explanation," Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet said postgame. "It's a tough call. Yeah, been on the right side of those and the wrong side of them, so I really don't have a comment on it."
But here's the other way it looks: There is contact between Sanheim, as the puck carrier, and Andersen at the top of the crease, which starts the goaltender interference conversation. However, Andersen appears to initiate the contact by punching his glove out to disrupt Sanheim, and commits to playing him while not registering where the puck actually is until it's too late, as this replay captured by Nasty Knuckles producer Travis Ballinghoff shows:
Anderson pretty obviously initiates contact here pic.twitter.com/5CeqHpv0KQ
— Travis Ballinghoff (@travieballin26) October 12, 2025
The NHL Situation Room explanation on the play and its ruling to disallow the goal, per NHL.com's Adam Kimelman:
Official NHL Situation Room ruling on Bobby Brink's overturned overtime goal, with Travis Sanheim called for goaltender interference pic.twitter.com/EkivTTBPUm
— Adam Kimelman (@NHLAdamK) October 12, 2025
That seems like a lot of onus on Sanheim when it's pretty plain to see that Andersen made a decision on a move that pulled him out of his crease.
Even if he wasn't touched, his slide carried him to the left post as Brink was striding across to the right. Andersen never would've had a chance at stopping that shot in any scenario.
But hey, it's the call the league made and it's two games into the season. It's what it is.
A"Just trying to make a play to net," Sanheim said. "I guess incidental contact. Felt like he kind of pushed his arms out, too. It was kind of 'I have to make a play' as well, and when I see it, I don't think he was ever getting back, even if I don't touch him. So tough call.
Obviously, it's not the refs, it's the league that decided that, so it's unfortunate and we have to live with it."
It's what it is.
A few other quick thoughts on the Flyers…
Here's a Tipp
The Flyers opened the scoring Saturday night in the first period's final seconds, and while on the power play.
Travis Konecny fired a shot that ricocheted off the glass behind the Carolina net that took a perfect bounce right back to the front for Owen Tippett to pot home.
The power play got to work FAST! #PHIvsCAR | #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/ZV8zhv05fE
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) October 11, 2025
The Flyers took a 1-0 lead into the intermission, Tippett had his first goal of the year, and the Flyers had their first power play goal of the year.
And those latter two facts might be key.
The power play has been abysmal the past few years, but in the sequence shown in the clip above, it moved pretty fluidly with Trevor Zegras handling the puck in the middle of the Flyers' setup and drawing attention. It left Konecny alone at the wall with plenty of space to move in and pick his spot.
The bounce to Tippett is a bit of luck, but you do need to be in the right place, right time to score more often than not, and he was right where he needed to be.
The Flyers need to be better this year on the man advantage, no ifs, ands, or buts about it, and they could really use Tippett getting back to scraping up against or even breaking the 30-goal mark after struggling through long droughts of inconsistency last season.
Saturday night was only one case, but a promising one for both.
A lot of skating for Sanheim
The Flyers had to submit their opening night roster with Cam York and Rasmus Ristolainen both sidelined, and right away, their defense looked concerningly thin without them.
So far, it's easy to see the strain. You just have to look at Travis Sanheim's minutes.
Thursday night against Florida, he skated 27:15, and then Saturday night with the overtime period, he totaled 29:34 with 38 shifts taken.
The Flyers have been leaning heavily on their top defenseman in the early going. He's handled it, and scored the tying goal to push Saturday night into overtime, but they still got 80 more games.
They need some defensive depth to balance themselves out.
Never miss a beat
It's early, and the Flyers have the benefit of a grace period to fully get acclimated with new head coach Rick Tocchet.
The rough patches have been there through the first two games, but the line of Noah Cates, Tyson Foerster, and Bobby Brink? That trio hasn't seemed to miss a beat.
They put together the sequence that led to the Flyers' lone goal in the loss to Florida on Thursday night, and Saturday night, they were all over ice.
Brink scored in the second period off some strong play along the wall from him, Cates, and Nikita Grebenkin before the latter winger hopped off for a change:
BOBBY BRINK!!!! WHAT A SNIPE!!! NIKITA GREBENKIN FIRST CAREER POINT! 2-1.#LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/M9NDTsoifr
— Flyers Clips (@Flyers_Clips) October 12, 2025
Then in overtime, Brink had the puck, the space, and the extra step inside for the OT winner before it was overturned, while throughout the night, it felt like if a Hurricane had the puck, Cates was instantly bearing down on them.
There's no quit in that line, and out of the gate, they've been chaos for the opposition. Pretty safe to say they're staying together.
Where was Matvei?
When the Flyers went into OT, Matvei Michkov didn't see the ice.
Last season, through all the ups and downs for the rookie, it was clear immediately that he can fly with the extra ice available to him at 3-on-3, and rise to the occasion, too, with three overtime winners.
But Tocchet didn't send him out. Why?
"Just wanted the guys I thought were skating," Tocchet said.
Michkov has been mostly quiet through the first two games, which maybe lends to Tocchet's point – though the winger did get scrappy with the Hurricanes after a hit on Konecny with his back turned.
Even so, the counterargument is that you want your best offensive skaters out there in OT, so Michkov's usage under Tocchet might be an early point to monitor.
Granted, we're still only two games in.
For now, it's what it is.
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