NEWARK, N.J. -- Contrary to recent precedent, the Philadelphia Flyers are beginning to prove that teams can compete with a core of elite, talented young wingers. Look at the shell-shocked Prudential Center as proof.
The New Jersey Devils, one of the NHL's hottest teams since the Olympic break and packed with talent in their own right, were made to look downright listless by Rick Tocchet and the Flyers for large swathes of Tuesday night's 5-1 win.
Timely goals from Trevor Zegras and Tyson Foerster, as well as timely assists from Matvei Michkov and Owen Tippett and saves from Dan Vladar, drained the life from the Devils seemingly every time they threatened to build momentum.
Zegras, with his two tallies, established a new career-high of 25, surpassing his previous marks of 23 from 2021-22 and 2022-23. The 25-year-old has now tied his previous single-season best of 65 points with plenty of hockey left to play this season.
According to NHL PR, Zegras, having scored twice in just 3:38, is the fastest Flyer to score two goals to start a game since Flyers legend Brian Propp had two in 1:58 back on Feb. 27, 1982.
Having played left wing alongside Christian Dvorak for much of the 2025-26 season, Zegras has enjoyed newfound success back at center, lining up between Foerster and Tippett.
In 35 minutes of 5-on-5 ice time together, the Foerster, Zegras, and Tippett unit has a 64.95% xGF%, according to Natural Stat Trick, while out-scoring opponents 3-2.
It's early and the returns have been small, but each player has pulled their weight equally.
"It's amazing," Zegras said after the game. "It's been a long time since I've felt this, like, the rush of winning."
Zegras could very well be on his way to playing in his first career playoff games, so long as he and the Flyers can maintain their torrid post-Olympics pace.
The same is true of youngsters like Michkov, Denver Barkey, and Alex Bump, who also led by example in the eyes of Tocchet.
Michkov, with assists on both Foerster goals, has now quietly reached 45 points on what was considered to be a lost sophomore season. The 21-year-old is three goals away from 20 and five points away from 50.
"A guy like Bumper, he had a couple of tough shifts, and all of a sudden, after that, he played great. Barks, he throws one out in the stands, he's mad. But after that, he played great," Tocchet remarked.
"Mich, he served the [delay of game] penalty, comes out of the box, wins a battle on the wall, we get a 2-on-1. They know that these are big things. They're not small things when you can do those things."
The 2-on-1 Tocchet was referring to was Foerster's first of two goals, when the 24-year-old picked up Michkov's touch along the wall, raced down the ice, and beat Devils goalie Jacob Markstrom low.
That goal put the Flyers back ahead two goals at 3-1 after New Jersey dominated the last 15 minutes of the first period and found the scoresheet via Cody Glass. Michkov's subtle play killed the momentum and ultimately spurred the Flyers on to a significant win for playoff purposes.
The Flyers have been as good as any team in the NHL over the last month and a half, even without the fabled No. 1 center.
We'll soon find out if that's sustainable, and they should probably plan on upgrading the position anyway, but the core of the team certainly appears to be in place.