EMBARASSING! Flyers Season Opener Postgame 9/30/26

The Philadelphia Flyers entered  the season with all the momentum in the world. They proceeded to be utterly dismantled by the Pittsburgh Penguins and embarrassed at home in front of the most optimistic fanbase they have seen in years.

The game started out even. It was back-and-forth for half of the first period. Twelve minutes in, Nick Robertson buried a feed from Kris Letang to get the Penguins on the board with their first goal of the young season. After that, the onslaught continued.

Eight minutes later, Sam Girard caught the Flyers sleeping and sprung Ville Koivunen with a breakout pass. The Finnish forward beat Dan Vladar with a backhand shot to extend Pittsburgh’s lead to 2-0.

The Flyers couldn’t get anything going on offense in the first period, tallying only five measly shots. The pitiful first period was a sign of things to come for the home team.

Early into the second period, on a power play, Evgeni Malkin continued his run of dominance against the Flyers with a one timer goal that snuck past Vladar. The Penguins capitalized on a careless penalty by Flyers’ rookie Porter Martone, who got sent to the penalty box for cross-checking.

The Penguins did not let up after they took their three-goal lead. Just over two minutes later, Pittsburgh’s offseason acquisition Hendrix LaPierre notched his first goal in a Penguins uniform. 

Only three minutes after the Penguins extended the lead to four goals, the Flyers couldn’t stop the bleeding. Filip Hallander, who had the primary assist on LaPierre’s goal, found himself in the right place at the right time and tipped the puck in from just outside Vladar’s crease.

After a seemingly endless supply of offense from the Penguins, the second period ended, somehow worse than the first.

In the third period, the Flyers and Penguins traded penalties, but the only team that was successful was the Penguins—during the Flyers’ power play and their own. Nick Robertson scored his second of the night, and his fiftieth of his career, as the result of the Flyers’ ineptitude with a man advantage. Robertson made the score 6-0, but the Penguins were not finished retaliating on their Pennsylvania rivals.

On a power play of their own, thanks to a Travis Konecny roughing penalty, the Penguins scored a seventh goal in the Xfinity Mobile Arena. Star defenseman Erik Karlsson set up Egor Chinakhov for his first goal of the season to continue the annihilation of the Flyers in the season opener.

A chorus of boos rained down onto the ice in South Philadelphia when the clock hit zero. It was a game that the Flyers would like to forget.

It’s only up from there.

Photo Credits: Yahoo Sports