Flyers’ Rick Tocchet gets real on ‘adversity’ after 5th straight loss

The Philadelphia Flyers are mired in their longest losing streak of the 2025-26 campaign, dropping five consecutive contests — four of them in regulation — to fall out of a playoff spot in a crowded Eastern Conference.

Rick Tocchet’s club lost the Battle of Pennsylvania for the second time in three tries against the Pittsburgh Penguins this season, falling 6-3 to their Metropolitan Division rivals at PPG Paints Arena on Thursday night.

The head coach wasn’t overly pleased with his team’s effort afterwards.

“Guys are trying, but then, they’re running around at bad angles, you know?” Tocchet said, per NHL.com’s Wes Crosby. “One hand, sticks in the air. We get too many stick infractions. … Adversity has hit our team. And in your career, you’re going to have adversity. I don’t care who you are. It’s how we deal with it.”

So far, the Flyers haven’t dealt well with it; they’ve given up five or more more goals in four straight games, which isn’t a recipe for any kind of success at the National Hockey League level.

With starting goaltender Dan Vladar on the shelf due to an injury sustained in a 5-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday, Samuel Ersson continues to struggle mightily to keep the puck out of the net.

Ersson was between the pipes for a 7-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday. He was back in against the Penguins, but allowed three goals on 14 shots before being replaced in the second period by Aleksei Kolosov, who was recalled from Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League. Kolosov made 13 saves in relief.

Besides the goaltending, which is of significant concern, Philadelphia’s special teams futility has been sinking the team in the New Year.

Flyers’ PP, PK both brutal as of late

The Flyers have been fine at 5-on-5, but they’re getting crushed on both the powerplay and penalty kill. Philly has allowed 12 PP goals in their past eight games, and have scored just three times with the man advantage, on 32 chances, since Dec. 28.

“The special teams, we all know, are killing us,” Tocchet admitted, per Crosby. “The PK is leaking big time. … So, 5-on-5 play is fine, you know? It just looks bad because our special teams is really bad. We’ve got to figure it out.”

One bright spot has been rookie Denver Barkey, who made his NHL debut on Dec. 20. Since then, he’s played 12 games and chipped in five points while seeing nearly 14 minutes of ice time per game. He added another two assists in a losing effort on Thursday.

“It’s a long season,” Barkey said, per Crosby. “There’s a lot of games. So, you’re going to go through your ups and downs, you know, your slumps, if you want to call it that. Just sticking together as a team through this, not separating, sticking together and sticking to the game plan.”

Now 22-16-8, the Flyers have fallen to fifth place in the Metropolitan Division and four points back of the final wildcard berth in the Eastern Conference.

They’ll look to stem the bleeding against the visiting New York Rangers on Saturday afternoon, who just committed to a re-tool.

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