Some nights, the game just spirals into pure chaos — the good kind, the kind that makes you remember why you fell in love with hockey in the first place.
The Philadelphia Flyers’ 3–2 shootout win over the Pittsburgh Penguins was one of those nights.
It had everything: disallowed goals, misconducts, brawls, and the kind of bad blood that’s been missing from this rivalry for years. By the end of it, the scoreboard almost felt secondary to the sheer theatre of it all. But if you looked closely, beneath the noise and the madness, there were some very real takeaways about where this Flyers team is right now — and where they’re going.
1. Sam Ersson keeps proving his mettle
Once again, the Flyers leaned on Sam Ersson when it mattered most — and once again, he delivered. His performance in the shootout sealed the win, just as it had in recent games, and the 26-year-old netminder is starting to look like a goaltender quietly rounding into form.
“You get a chance, as a goalie, to have a big impact on the outcome of the game in a shootout,” Ersson said afterward. “You’ve got to love those moments, and I think it helps knowing our guys are really good in the shootout as well. Today, we scored two goals, and the last game too, so it makes my job a little easier!”
There’s a calm in the way Ersson approaches these moments. He’s not the loud, theatrical kind of goalie — he’s surgical. You can see the way he tracks hands, waits out dekes, and reads release points instead of guessing.
And it’s not just about the shootouts. In the run of play, he’s giving the Flyers consistency in a tandem that still feels like it’s finding its balance with Dan Vladar. Ersson’s steadiness isn’t flashy, but it’s becoming foundational.
It’s easy to forget that this is his first full year as a true NHL starter. The mental side — being able to reset after wild momentum swings like the ones in this game — is something that can’t be taught. It’s earned.
2. Travis Konecny hits 200 — and stays as delightfully self-deprecating as ever
Some milestones just fit the player. Travis Konecny scoring his 200th career goal against the Penguins — in a game that erupted into pandemonium — somehow feels exactly right.
“I’m terrible at those things,” he said with a laugh afterward. “I remember I was at 99 [goals] and then I went 20 games without scoring. I just get in my head. It’s a nice milestone to reach and I got a nice picture of all the guys in the room there because you can’t get to that [milestone] if you don’t have great teammates helping you.”
It’s classic Konecny: self-effacing, funny, team-first. But under the humor, Konecny has always been an elite competitor. He has become one of the emotional pulses of the Flyers — a player who can drive offense, antagonizes the league’s best, and embodies everything this team wants to become.
Two hundred goals later, Konecny continues to evolve from the young agitator who needed structure into the heartbeat of a team that now has one.
3. The Flyers–Penguins rivalry is so back
For a few years there, this rivalry lost its teeth.
The intensity dulled, both teams were in transition, and the games felt more obligatory than emotional. But on this night, that old venom returned. It wasn’t the kind of contrived toughness Tocchet remembers from his playing days — it was the raw, organic kind that happens when two teams simply hate each other again.
“The game’s not, you know, where they do stage fighting and all that—that’s gone,” Tocchet (who, in addition to his Flyers career, also played and served as an assistant coach for the Penguins) said postgame. “The pack mentality—you eat together as a pack. If you’re the lone wolf, you’re done. But packs have a chance to outlive. [laughs] I think that’s philosophical, right? I just believe in that stuff… Everybody’s jumping in to help out. We’re preaching discipline, too; we’re not being stupid. I just think we’re sticking together, and I think that’s a good thing.”
And stick together they did. The third period and overtime disintegrated into the kind of mayhem that turns a rivalry game into folklore. By the end of regulation, nine players had been handed 10-minute misconducts: Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby, Jamie Drysdale, Owen Tippett, Tyson Foerster, Noel Acciari, Trevor Zegras, Parker Wotherspoon, and Ryan Shea.
For a league that’s been drifting toward civility, this was a throwback — not in the “staged fight” sense Tocchet dismissed, but in the emotional, collective sense of two teams that genuinely wanted to beat each other into dust.
“I think, for us, it’s good. I know [the Penguins] too. The rivalry’s great; I love it,” Tocchet added after practice on Wednesday. “You like to see that the rivalry is coming back. You miss it when both teams are kind of in an influx—rebuilds and stuff like that—so both teams are trying to climb the ladder again… I think it’s great, the emotions of both teams.”
4. OTP in OT
You could write an entire novella about the overtime alone.
First came Evgeni Malkin’s apparent winner — until the Penguins were ruled to have made an illegal substitution on a delayed penalty. No goal. Then Tyson Foerster responded with what looked like his game-winner, only for that one to be called back on an offside challenge.
The building was delirious. The benches were livid. And just when the chaos peaked, a full-on melee broke out at the horn, sparked by Trevor Zegras. He earned himself a game misconduct, as did Sidney Crosby — who left the bench to join the fray and consequently disqualified himself from the shootout.
The Flyers, for their part, channeled the madness perfectly. They didn’t lose control; they fed off it. When the dust settled and the shootout began, it was Philadelphia that stayed poised while Pittsburgh unraveled.
5. The Flyers are finding their identity in the fire
Strip away the absurdity and you’re left with something important: a team that doesn’t blink anymore.
The Flyers could’ve folded in overtime, or lost composure amid the endless penalties and reviews. But instead, they found a way — again. It’s becoming a theme under Tocchet: composure through chaos, togetherness through adversity.
The “pack mentality” he keeps preaching isn’t just a catchy metaphor. It’s showing up on the ice. This team plays connected, defends in layers, celebrates every block like a goal, and refuses to get pushed around. They don’t always dominate, but they never go quietly.
And nights like this — wild, messy, unforgettable nights — are how cultures take root.