The Philadelphia Flyers arrived in Boston needing traction—any kind of foothold to stop a season that has begun to slide faster than anyone anticipated.
Instead, they left TD Garden with another loss, another injury, and more questions about a team that suddenly looks far removed from the one that spent much of the first half of the year hovering around the playoff picture.
1. The Standings Don't Lie, and the Dropoff Has Been Steep.
The Flyers didn’t lose their entire season in Boston, but the context around this game made it feel heavier than a typical January road loss.
With this defeat, Philadelphia slid to second-to-last in the Metropolitan Division, extending their losing streak to three games and continuing a fall that has been jarring given how promising the early months looked.
This season was never framed internally as “playoffs or bust,” but that doesn’t make the current position any easier to swallow. The Flyers didn’t just hang around the race; they spent weeks looking organized, competitive, and ahead of schedule in the rebuild. That’s what makes this stretch so deflating.
2. The Offense is Showing Signs of Life, but It’s Coming in Isolation.
If there was one area that didn’t feel completely broken, it was the Flyers’ top-end offense—particularly Travis Konecny. He scored and assisted, extending his hot streak to 11 points (7 goals, 4 assists) in his last seven games. Since Jan. 17, Konecny ranks second in the NHL in goals and is tied for third in points. Perhaps most tellingly, he remains the only player in the league with 20 or more goals and one or fewer power-play tallies—a reflection of how much of his damage is coming at five-on-five.
Matvei Michkov added a power-play goal, his 13th of the season, and now has four points in his last four games. Nikita Grebenkin scored his fourth goal of the year. Owen Tippett also picked up an assist and continues to stack productive nights. Denver Barkey added another assist, giving him three points in his last four games.
On paper, that’s encouraging. In practice, it still feels fragmented. The Flyers are getting goals, but not always momentum. They score, then concede. They push, then get stretched. Rick Tocchet recently pointed out that the Zegras–Dvorak–Konecny line needed to step up offensively, and Konecny in particular has responded. The problem is that offense alone hasn’t been enough to stabilize the rest of the game.
3. Defensive Structure is Slipping, and the Decisions Around It Are Hard to Ignore.
If something feels “off” with the Flyers right now, the defense is a big part of it. Pairings have been shuffled frequently, and the cohesion that once defined their defensive play has given way to uncertainty and hesitation.
Those struggles have been magnified by lineup decisions that raise legitimate questions. Emil Andrae was scratched, while Rasmus Ristolainen remained in the lineup, continuing a trend of experimentation that hasn’t yet yielded clarity. The Flyers aren’t just searching for better play. They’re searching for combinations they trust, and that search is starting to feel reactive rather than strategic.
Boston exploited that. They forced the Flyers to defend laterally, pulled defenders out of shape, and attacked seams that shouldn’t have been available. When the Flyers tried to adjust, the timing was off. When they tried to simplify, the execution wasn’t there.
Rasmus Ristolainen (55). (Megan DeRuchie-The Hockey News)4. Flyers Goaltending Just Can't Catch a Break.
Sam Ersson being forced to leave the game with a lower-body injury was just salt in the wound of Thursday night. At a time when the Flyers are already stretched thin and searching for stability, losing Ersson (even temporarily), especially after Dan Vladar had just come back into the crease from a lower-body injury of this own, creates another layer of uncertainty.
Ersson had his ups and downs this season, but he recently enjoyed a run of confidence-boosting performances during the Flyers' previous road trip against Vegas, Utah, and Colorado. His exit in Boston didn’t cause the loss, but it did give a harsh reminder of how fragile things can become when key pieces are removed from an already delicate equation.
5. The Flyers May Not Be Totally Broken, But They Are Disjointed.
Right now, the Flyers look like a team stuck between ideas. They're trying to generate offense while managing defensive uncertainty, trying to stay aggressive without losing shape, trying to hold onto confidence as results keep going the wrong way.
Their offense is finding its footing again. Young players like Michkov, Barkey, and Grebenkin are continuing to show growth. Veterans like Konecny and Tippett are producing. But those positives are being drowned out by a lack of synchronization across the lineup.
Three straight losses is never ideal, but the manner in which they’re happening—the injuries, the defensive slippage, the reliance on individual efforts—does define where the Flyers are right now. They’re not completely hopeless from being competitive again. They’re also not far from slipping further if these issues remain unresolved.