The Flyers have made a bunch of lineup changes, including an interesting goalie decision.
Amid a winless start to the 2026-27 campaign against two divisional opponents, the Philadelphia Flyers will have to try and get things going against another divisional rival, the reigning Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes, at 7 p.m. at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Saturday night.
In truth, the Flyers have barely looked like a hockey team in their first two games of the season, getting skunked 7-0 by Pittsburgh in their home opener on Wednesday, then following that up with a 3-2 overtime loss to New Jersey while being outclassed even harder than the night before.
The Penguins got their revenge on the Flyers after losing to them in six games in the first round of the playoffs, and the Devils got their revenge on the Flyers after being mathematically eliminated by them in April.
For the Flyers, they need to find their revenge against the Hurricanes, the team that swept them in the second round, on Saturday night. And this is a Hurricanes team that lost to Washington on Friday night and is playing a back-to-back on the road here.
Head coach Rick Tocchet and the Flyers have made wholesale lineup changes, and if the team comes out flat with all the reasons for motivation in the world ahead of them, it points to a bigger problem entirely.
Flyers lines vs. Hurricanes
Travis Konecny - Christian Dvorak - Matvei Michkov
Carl Grundstrom - Trevor Zegras - Owen Tippett
Tyson Foerster - Noah Cates - Porter Martone
Alex Bump - Sean Couturier - Noel Acciari
Travis Sanheim - Rasmus Ristolainen
Cam York - Jamie Drysdale
Nick Seeler - David Jiricek
Joseph Woll (S), Dan Vladar
Hurricanes lines for Flyers game
Eric Robinson - Sebastian Aho - Andrei Svechnikov
Taylor Hall - Logan Stankoven - Jackson Blake
Nikolaj Ehlers - Jordan Staal - Jordan Martinook
Nick Deslauriers - Mark Jankowski - William Carrier
Jaccob Slavin - Jalen Chatfield
K'Andre Miller - Sean Walker
Shayne Gostisbehere - Charles-Alexis Legault
Pyotr Kochetkov (S), Brandon Bussi
Flyers players to watch
Notably for the Flyers, goalie Joseph Woll makes his second consecutive start for the Orange and Black, looking to build on a masterful 41-save performance against the Devils on Thursday night.
It may be too early to declare a goalie controversy with Dan Vladar getting only half a period of preseason action due to an injury, and it didn't help that Vladar got torched for seven goals in the home opener thanks to a dreadful effort in front of him.
Tocchet and the Flyers, however, are clearly riding the hot hand and taking advantage of the option Danny Briere gave them with his biggest offseason acquisition, and so it will be interesting to see how Woll takes advantage of the longer runway.
Additionally, defenseman David Jiricek will make his season debut against a Hurricanes team that pressures and forechecks aggressively. Stylistically, there is a mismatch there, but the Flyers have struggled to make even simple passes, and that spells opportunity for the offensively-inclined Jiricek.
Matvei Michkov and Travis Konecny have been reunited on a line together with Christian Dvorak as their center.
In their lone preseason game together, the trio produced seven 5-on-5 scoring chances to their opponents' 5, while high-danger chances were 3-1 in their favor, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Michkov has arguably been the Flyers' most consistent - and it's not saying much - offensive player through the first two games.
