The Flyers kicked off their two-game road trip this evening up in Buffalo, and in a matchup which they approached with the aim of hitting the reset button and righting the ship after two tough losses to the Lightning, instead they fell flat, dropping this game by another lopsided score of 5-2.
The Basics
First period: 9:30- Rasmus Dahlin (Doan, Thompson)PPG, 15:13- Mattias Samuelsson (Ostlund, Doan)
Second period: 4:22- Jack Quinn (McLeod, Benson), 10:28- Owen Tippett (Cates), 13:51- Rasmus Dahlin (Norris, Thompson)PPG
Third period: 7:37- Trevor Zegras (Konecny, Tippett)PPG, 19:20- Ryan McLeod (Tuch)EN
SOG: 22 (PHI) – 14 (BUF)
Some Takeaways
A missed opportunity early
It’s safe to say that, coming off of such brutal losses to the Lightning as they did, and with the team still looking around for answers on how to right the ship, the Flyers came into this game with desperation already beginning to mount, and they really needed to find a way to make a strong statement through the early goings. And the Flyers were handed a prime opportunity to do just that, when not even two minutes into the game, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen officially hooked (effectively tackled) Christian Dvorak in a wild play and sent the Flyers to the power play.
This was a power play, though, that the Flyers ended up pretty completely squandering. They didn’t have much going in the way of dangerous penalties, and not only did they fail to take advantage of the opportunity to pull ahead early, but the big kill handed some momentum over to the Sabres, and, what’s more, they added insult to injury by converting on their first power play of the night a little over five minutes later.
A strange night for goaltending
It wasn’t much of a surprise that the Flyers went right back to Dan Vladar for this start, as he remained the hotter hand, despite still needing a chance to bounce back from a middling showing on Monday against Tampa. His night started out quite easily, as it took more than nine minutes before he had to stop his first shot of the game, but things did pick up through the back half of the period. The Sabres put up five shots through the rest of the frame, including two goals, and Vladar seemed to be struggling a bit with what they were throwing at him (and not getting much support in dealing with it). And, to make matters worse, he seemed to take an injury to the lower body late in the first period, and was pulled from the game at the first intermission.
And the rest of the evening for Ersson, despite the two more goals allowed, was fine, was certainly a big improvement from his last outing on Saturday. This wasn’t a game where he was getting a huge amount of support defensively from the skaters in front of him, but it was a real positive to see him tracking the shots coming at him better, on the whole. Here’s hoping that this can be a first step back in the right direction for him — the Flyers are certainly going to need it, as Vladar’s status remains uncertain.
Some offense, eventually
If there are some small positives to be found in the midst of all of this, it would be in the offense that the Flyers were able to generate in this one. They got their first goal of the night from Owen Tippett in the second period, as the Flyers were able to capitalize on a turnover in the neutral zone to create a rush right back into the Sabres’ zone, and Tippett beat Luukkonen with a quick shot. It was a nice little boost for the team, and an equally nice reward for Tippett, who was buzzing in this one, and very nearly got the Flyers on the board early in this one, setting up Nikita Grebenkin for an excellent shot right on top of the goaltender, which was somehow saved.
The Flyers also managed to redeem themselves a little bit on the man-advantage, as they picked up their second and final goal of the evening on the power play, with Travis Konecny sending a sweet pass across the crease to a crashing Trevor Zegras.
Keep fighting. #PHIvsBUF | #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/rJHBY67dHh
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) January 15, 2026
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It may have been too little too late, but it was still a nifty little goal.
Lost battles
There is a lot that can be taken from this game as an area or element in need of improvement for the Flyers, but perhaps the most concerning is their puck management. They struggled in this department in their pair of games against the Lightning, and it seemed that they still couldn’t shake off those struggles in this one. The Flyers’ play with the puck was not their most focused — there were several poorly timed turnovers, and they struggled across the whole of the night to come away with pucks in their battles along the boards. If it was a possession game that they were trying to maintain, they weren’t all pulling in the same direction.
The importance of winning battles and being hard to play against is something which is stressed to the point of being cliche, but it remains that it is a fundamental, and for good reason, as we’re seeing clearly with the Flyers how badly things can go sideways when they don’t stick to that tenant.
Standings check-in
We spoke before this game about the importance of this two-game road trip for the Flyers, as they found themselves tied in the standings with the Sabres and the Penguins, all sitting with 52 standings points, all sitting in that final spot outside of the wildcard picture. Now, as the Flyers lost this first head-to-head, the Sabres have pushed themselves back up into that final wildcard spot, while the Flyers effectively drop back another spot, and are at risk of dropping back even further if they don’t pull off some magic against the Penguins tomorrow night. Desperate times are approaching, and they need to figure something out quick.