So here the Flyers are, staying hot after the 4 Nations break and hanging in there.
They took the Winnipeg Jets, the best team in the West, and Connor Hellebuyck, the best goalie in the league right now, into the shootout and got by, 2-1.
Matvei Michkov, with fresh legs since coming back, made the slick move and the deciding score…
Matvei Michkov with the shootout game-winner for the Flyers! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/Gup4HIH5qQ
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) March 2, 2025
And Ivan Fedotov shut the door, both in the shootout and throughout…
FEDOTOV FLASHES THE GLOVE. #Flyers pic.twitter.com/b7lAnrukga
— Flyers Nation (@FlyersNation) March 2, 2025
The Flyers are 4-0-1 in their last five games, and at 27-26-8 for 62 points as of Sunday morning, they're still a tough four points out from Detroit for the second Wild Card in the East – and with a handful of teams in between – but with 21 games left to go.
The organization is in a rebuild, see it or not, and the trade deadline at the end of this week is expected to be approached as such. But the team on the ice, they're still in this and playing well right now, for however slim the odds are.
"Pick up speed, fake the shot, close my eyes, and score," Michkov, through interpreter Slava Kuznetsov, told Sportsnet in Canada of his shootout winner on Saturday night.
Just gotta keep it simple.
A few other thoughts…
Jump up, Jamie
Jamie Drysdale was suddenly alone between the circles with all the time in the world to pick a spot and shoot.
Down 1-0 against the Jets early into the second period, the defenseman took the puck in by the offensive point, dropped it off for Noah Cates cycling up, then started peeling down the wall.
Cates' checker followed him up to the blueline, and the Jet that was supposed to switch and drop down to cover Drysdale completely lost track of him.
Cates flipped a heads-up backhand pass right to Drysdale's stick, and by the time he secured the puck and looked up, momentum carried him right to the hashmarks and with a clean look straight at the net. Hellebuyck was caught, Drysdale let the shot fly, and with that, the Flyers tied the game at 1 to set up the eventual hold into overtime and then the shootout.
Noah Cates with a nice feed and Jamie Drysdale with the finish 👌🔥#Flyers pic.twitter.com/meG7wBqlTo
— Flyers Nation (@FlyersNation) March 2, 2025
Earlier in the week back at home for the 6-1 drubbing of the Penguins, Drysdale intercepted a Pittsburgh pass through the neutral zone after sailing a shot wide to send the Flyers back down on the rush, and along the wall upon the zone entry, he launched the one-time pass across the crease to Tyson Foerster, who buried the shot to complete the sequence and send the Flyers well on their way to a win.
Tyson Foerster buries the one timer ⏲️ pic.twitter.com/DFxze6jGNg
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) February 26, 2025
A lot of Flyers have benefitted from the two weeks away thanks to the 4 Nations Face-Off, and perhaps a bit quietly, Drysdale is one of the skaters who gained the most from it.
He's skating faster, moving the puck quicker and smarter, and jumping in on the offense at just the right times during the Flyers' current stretch, and it's all been helping to put something together.
"He plays fast, yeah," head coach John Tortorella said Tuesday night after the Flyers put away Pittsburgh. "He won't last in the National Hockey League if he thinks he's gonna be a defensive defenseman and just defend. He's improved. I think he's seen the ice a little bit better. It's a great indication of his play, how he's thinking aggressively. He shoots one wide, gets the puck, moves it quick, fast, and stays in the play.
"It's encouraging. He's still inconsistent, but it's encouraging that it's there with him."
And the numbers are backing him up.
In the Flyers' four games since the break, Drysdale has put up a goal, an assist, and a plus-4 rating while skating at an average ice time of 17:38 on a usual defensive pairing with Nick Seeler.
But looking a bit deeper into his play-driving numbers, the 22-year-old has had the Flyers trending positive at even strength when he's on the ice.
Here's a quick look at Drysdale's expected goals for percentage over the past four games, via Natural Stat Trick:
| Game | Result | TOI | xGF% | G/A/P | +/- |
| 2/22 vs. EDM | W, 6-3 | 15:55 | 65.52 | 0/0/0 | 1 |
| 2/25 vs. PIT | W, 6-1 | 14:28 | 63.94 | 0/1/1 | 3 |
| 2/27 @PIT | OTL, 5-4 | 15:46 | 63.71 | 0/0/0 | -1 |
| 3/1 @WPG | W, 2-1 (SO) | 19:03 | 70.50 | 1/0/1 | 1 |
Drysdale still has a ways to go, as most young defensemen typically do, but the Flyers have always maintained that they're focused on the defenseman he'll be in a few years, not necessarily the one he is now, and have stuck to that from the moment he arrived to Philadelphia in last year's notorious Cutter Gauthier trade.
He's getting there.
A net gain
Ivan Fedotov was coming up on a month since the last time he played ahead of Saturday night's start in Winnipeg.
He needed a win, just as much as the Flyers needed to see something out of either him or Aleksei Kolosov so they'd have someone to go to behind Sam Ersson.
Fedotov got tagged for one in the first period on Saturday night when a puck slipped out to the Jets' Mark Scheifele in front through a ton of skates, but after that, he was lights out and overall stopped 29 of 30 shots then blanked Winnipeg in the shootout to notch his first win since November 29 – it actually has been months.
Ersson as the No. 1 goaltender has been about as steady as you can ask since around Christmas just shy of being a Vezina candidate, especially since coming back from the 4 Nations break.
Behind him, though, has been chaos. Fedotov couldn't get his footing, and neither could Kolosov, and with every switch in between the two on the depth chart.
The Flyers are in the home stretch of the season, and need Ersson, but Tortorella knows he can't keep going back to him again and again every single night the rest of the way.
The coach did that to Ersson last year when there was no other option, and it exhausted him.
So the Flyers need someone that they can trust just enough to be able to give Ersson enough breathers to get through this.
Hopefully, Fedotov gave them that kind of showing on Saturday night.
Laughton's last supper
The trade deadline is Friday. Scott Laughton's name is on the rumor mill again, and just like the past few years ever since the trade buzz around him started, he's been pretty open about being aware of it.
Earlier in the week after practice, Laughton fielded another round of questions from the media about trade speculation and mostly said the usual: It's a business, he understands, but he signed a contract with the Flyers, and until something happens, he's worried about how he can help the team right now.
That was on Wednesday.
On Friday night, he posted this picture:
— Scott Laughton (@Laughts21) March 1, 2025
It could mean nothing, or it could mean exactly what many fans are thinking it means.
Either way, legendary move.
"I think when you're in the rumors for five years straight, it's nice to get some people back with a little bit of trolling," Laughton quipped to the media that traveled out to Winnipeg after Saturday night's win.
The danger of the deadline (and free agency)
Laughton's name has been in the deadline rumors, and so has Rasmus Ristolainen's as a big (and greatly improved) right-handed defenseman that all teams, and especially playoff ones, covet.
The expectation from many is that general manager Danny Brière will get an offer good enough to ship out one of them before Friday in a future-minded move, but that's not necessarily a lock.
The trade deadline can get dangerous for a team's outlook, and so can free agency, where sometimes, the right move really ends up being not doing anything at all and holding on to your cards.
On Wednesday in Voorhees, Tortorella wanted to stress that as the final wave of trade buzz picked up.
Tortorella told the media he didn't want to speak on behalf of Brière, but did say that the GM is listening on what's out there. He has to.
At the same time, however, the Flyers won't be making a trade this week, if they do, just because they feel like they have to.
"It's really a danger," Tortorella said. "The trading deadline is a dangerous situation. I think free agency is a time of the year that you could screw up your team for years because of the money that's being spent at that time. You're basically almost bidding against yourself half the time.
"Trading deadline's scary, too. But we have to get better, and when you try to get better, there are gonna be some casualties. I'll put it to you that way."
So expect Brière and the Flyers to be smart about this, or at least try to be.
Because we already know what happens when you try to throw big money at Vinny Lecavalier or James van Riemsdyk or Ilya Bryzgalov.
It doesn't work.
MORE: Checking in on Jett Luchanko, Denver Barkey, other Flyers prospects
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