Latest / Hattrick's Unofficial Flyers Podcast / S2: Ep:6 - THREE STRAIGHT WINS - Oct 22nd, 2026
Transcript
- Rick Mullen: Hey everybody, welcome to Hat Trick's Unofficial Flyers Podcast. I'm Rick Mullen, and we are going to continue talking today about the Red Hot Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers played the Buffalo Sabres last night, and the Flyers left that game with a victory. They beat the Sabres 3-1 to continue their winning streak of three games now. The Flyers are a 3-6-3. They definitely turned the corner a little bit here. They looked much better. And we're gonna talk a little bit about the game. So let's let's go into a little bit of numbers first. So the Buffalo Sabres had 28 shots on net to the Flyers 27. The Sabres had 14 hits to Phillies 19. The Sabres had 25 penalty minutes to the Flyers 11. The Sabres won 56.3% of the face-offs. The Flyers won 43.8%. So overall, pretty, pretty relatively close game from a numbers perspective. the Flyers did have extra power plays though, and they they did fantastic. They did get a power play goal. It's their what third game in a roll in a row that they got a power play goal, which is incredible to see the power play finally. Clicking a little bit here. The game was really fun to watch. It was fast-paced, it was in your face. It was one of those games where, you look and you say, man, this is gonna this might change like any minute. Either team's gonna, go here off. And they did it. The Flyers actually really did really strong. They went up two-nothing in the first period, and they played hard. So Let's kind of talk about the about the game and what it looked like. The the Flyers went in still short, some players. Benoit was put in for Eurochek. So he got another crack of the ice, which again, no idea why. no idea why. We'll talk about that in a little while. But they were missing York and TK and Tippett. You know, they're still out. They're but we did get Tyson Forster back last night. So Forster came back in. And in all honesty, he didn't do too much. He didn't look any better last night than he's ha and he has. He he is really kind of disappointing right now. You know, when you look at these players right now that are actually having success on this team, it's guys who can skate and carry the puck. And Tyson just doesn't seem to be able to do that. And when he gets open and you know gets an opportunity to get a shot off, he's either whiffing or shooting wide or His legs just aren't there like the like he used to be. it's a shame. Could cause yeah, he could change it, it could flip pretty quickly. But just seeing him play like this is it's just not it's not exciting in any way, shape, or form. It's not living up to the contract that he just received. it's not what I thought he would be this year. And it's sad to see that we had a lot of expectations on some of these players, and it's just not living up to reality. So hopefully something changes on that front soon. either he improves or they trade him for a piece we need. But I think looking at the kids on this team again, again, these kids, they've come in hungry. They want to play, they want to be in the NHL, they're throwing their bodies out there and doing whatever they have to do. And it's really nice to see. And I know Rick Tockett, I think, said that too. He said they come in, they want to put their Gear on, they want to play, they're happy to be here. It's contagious, So that that's a good sign. Like we have a pretty, pretty good team right now. And I again still small sample size. I said this last game. I want to see another couple games, but here's another game, game two against the Sabres, which they're a pretty good quick team. And guess what? The kids looked great. Cole Canuble. He scores his first and second NHL goal tonight. I mean. That kid is not huge. He is pretty pretty speedy though. And he does go in a four-check hard. don't trash me on this, but I think this team had a a really good four-checker and a speedy little forechecker in Bobby Brank when he played for us. And that line of Kates and Brank and Forster, I think was a pretty good good line because Bobby was Aggressive and in your face and like tracking down that puck like a dog. And when we got rid of him, it hurt. But with Cole Canuble here, he kind of filled that role. And we don't know what he's you know gonna be yet. You know, we we don't know. You know, we have to watch and see how he you know progresses. But Cole Canuble is the first guy that's actually out here playing that Bobby Brink role or Garnet Hathaway roll where he is just chugging down that ice, chasing that puck like a dog, throwing hits, and then crashing the net, which is most important. he's going across the middle of the ice and he's getting leveled and he's getting right up and he'll do it again a couple shifts later. so I hope he doesn't get hurt. I I hope he figures out how to not get hit or put himself in better positions, but I don't want to see that takeaway from his game. And I wanted to see him continue to play the way he is. He had two goals. He looked fantastic last night. And no way this kid should be sent down. If these vets come back and they have to get rid of somebody or get somebody down there, I I really hope it's not for a long time and I hope it's not Cole Canuble. I I hope he sticks here for a little while and we give him that that opportunity to keep adding on to what he's already doing. I have in past episodes picked on Trevor Ziegress a bit. I think Trevor Ziegris came in pretty flat. He didn't look good to start the year. And he has gotten much better. You know, Trevor is or Ziggy, however everyone wants to call him, he's doing much better than how he's been. He's actually skating, he's making some good plays, he's getting goals, he's producing. So it's nice to see Ziggy back in doing doing well. Oliver Bunk. Oliver Bunk Bonk. Oliver Bonk is such a nice thing to have right now because we didn't see it coming. We didn't see it coming at all. When we saw, you know, York and Risto go down, right away we're sitting here going, you know, we're looking at your check in Benoit here for the rest of this year or until these guys get better. And Bonk has absolutely been fantastic. I mean, fantastic for the Flyers. He looks a lot like Sandheim Light. I really like his game. I like his decisions, his speed. He carries the puck when he's got open ice. He has what do you have? He had two, I think, yeah, he had two assists last night on the Colkanuba goals. couldn't ask for more. You know, all the kids are stepping up. Barkey had an assist, but they they look good. These kids look very much like legitimate NHL players right now. I'm not going to say they're legitimate NHL stars, but they are absolute legitimate NHL contributors right now, and it's good to have them because our vets have not been NHL contributors. They've just been taking up space for a little bit now. So hopefully. Danny Briere sees this and pretty much says, Hey, we have to make some moves here. That, you know, bringing that new blood up has pretty much lifted this team. And I'm really hoping once TK and now that Forster is back and you know, Tippet hopefully comes back and York comes back and Risto comes back, that they start juggling some of these guys out of here to fill some of the needs that we have. one of the things I'm worried about is when and let's just use Matty Beneers as an example, right? Let's say the Flyers can get him. There's there's a mixed bag on him. You know, people pull up his stats from years past and they say, well, look at him, he's not really that good. And and in all honesty, he hasn't played with a lot of really great players either. So I don't think I don't think you they're, you know, you really know what you have in him. But but I do know that He would be probably a really, really good two C here for us until we can finally get a one C somewhere, if we can get a 1C. But when when you look at the deal that's going to have to be made for him, and this is what I worry about, we're in a position of need. And there's no there's no need to be rash and make a bad decision or a bad choice. However, we are in a position of need and we have too much. going on here with these wingers, there's too many of them. And even our defensemen, we have too many now. So something has to give. And I think if you look at Danny Brere, Danny Brriere always wants to come out. And and and this isn't just Danny, this is every GM. You know, Danny Brere wants to come out like he looks like he won a trade. Because that's his job. You know, his job is to try to get talent in here and give up as little as possible. But I I do feel there comes a point in time where and this isn't gonna be the right terminology, but you you you may have to overpay and look like you lost a trade to actually make your team better to get where you need to go. If that makes sense. Okay. And I think that's where Danny is in a position right now because he's Probably going to have to overpay for, and maybe not by a ton, but I still think he's going to have to overpay here a little bit. And I don't know if Danny will pull that trigger, knowing that he's got to overpay some. You know, I'm again, I'm not saying to sell the farm for one player. I'm not. But he may have to give up a little more than he thinks he needs to in order to lock down that center we need. So I really hope he looks at the bigger picture and sees he has to move these guys anyway. He needs to make sure we win on the ice long term. Because even if he doesn't pull the trigger, he's gonna have this problem long term. And sooner or later, these guys are gonna be NHL ready all the time and he's not gonna have room for them. And then at that point when everybody knows you're gonna have to unload some of these players, they may take even more advantage of them because they know he's in a position that he has to unload players. So I think right now is the time this year where he's gotta figure this out quickly, not rashly, just quicker than I think he wants to, and and get that deal done. So the flyers can move on, get out of that log jam, and commit to some of these kits. So, we talked about this last episode. I truly believe the time is now to try to move your coots, which he's probably unmovable, to try to move your TKs, to try to take your York and you know, maybe force or combine them together and get something. There's still talk about Detroit and Edvison. they want to sign him, but he doesn't want to play there. You know, so there's a lot of heat out there on that topic. there's a lot of people reporting the Flyers are in deep discussions with him or with the Detroit Red Wings. And maybe there's there's some hope there that we could land either him or Nakushin from Carolina, as well as maybe pick up like Maddie Banier's. somebody who can come in and that one two C right now and help. Or maybe there's somebody out there they're targeting that nobody's talking about right now, and he's going to completely catch us off guard, which is a possibility with the flyers. You just never know. However, again, I I think the time is right. The time is right right now. We have the assets, we have an overabundance of apps ass assets. We have veterans that are hurt coming back. They're starting to come back. My guess is is TK is going to be playing on Saturday against the Ducks. I don't think in any way, shape, or form he wants to miss that game. I still think Tip would probably be out a little bit longer. York and Risto are God knows, we haven't really heard anything. You know, I I it baffles me. You know, Forstar took a slap shot on his wrist and he comes back like what, a game or two? Risto takes a slap shot on his hand and he's out for what? The season? God knows with that guy. That guy just disappears and he doesn't heal quick. you know, Mr. Glass, for sure is comes to mind when you think of Risto. I don't know. Maybe he comes back sooner than you think, but I would have thought Risto would have been back by now. I know him and York are skating, which is a good sign. So maybe in all honesty, maybe on Saturday, and that was the target date for all of them, you're gonna see a TK, Risto, and York come back into that lineup. And we can only hope that Benoit and Bunting are not in this lineup, that they keep Bonk and they keep at least Nuble and stick to status quo with where we're at. I I think this these two lines that we've had the last couple games with Gauchier and bump and Cole Nuble and Barkey, they've they've really been able to make things happen. you can see these kids really enjoy playing with each other and they feed off each other. So keep them in there, Danny. If you're listening, Danny, keep them in there. Overpay a little bit. Get that that supporting center. And this team, I think, with a good supporting center is going to be much better than holding on to two of these assets. Because we have a holes. We have these holes. We have to fill it. And if we fill it, I think we're going to be even better regardless of what you give up. as long as it's not a Martin or a Mishkov. So hopefully Danny gets it done and and we can see relatively soon that trade happen. let's talk about the game a little bit last night, too. So the Flyers, the Flyers have always been criticized as a team that when they get a lead, they try to sit back and protect a lead. And we've had many coaches that have done that before in the past. Like they just protect that one goal lead, protect that one goal lead. And I I just absolutely hate that style of hockey. I always have. I I think if you're playing strong and you're playing good and you're putting your scoring center, I'm sorry, your scoring lines out there, the other team has to try to adjust to you playing because you're already beating them, right? But instead, a lot of the times they cut these guys ice time so they don't get as much ice time and they put more checking guys out. And and in my opinion, It's easier for the other team now because they don't have to worry about like line matches with your best guys, like or defending your best guys. Now they can solely focus on like getting their top two lines out there, shorting their bench and just attacking your third and fourth line over and over and over again. And I think that kind of just beats a team up after, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten minutes, according to how long you're doing that for. So I just never totally agreed with that philosophy at all. and last night apparently Rick Cockett didn't either because way, way, way late here. But he decided last night he's not gonna do what he normally does and do that. He actually kept attacking, he kept the Flyers attacking all night, which is great to see because you should be. You're winning. You're you know, you're going in there and you're kicking them around, you know, down in their end, you're kicking that, you know. can down the other ice or that puck down the other ice side of the ice and it's not just you chasing in your end and hoping that they don't score, right? And that's what we always do. We're always in our end, like protecting, protecting and chasing and chasing and chasing. But last night it wasn't like that. Talk actually kept the lines going. He kept the attack on. They never slowed down. They took it at Buffalo all night long. And it was a great game. And we we got a big win. Three to one, it was a big win. You saw Hunter McDonald, which I really like this kid so far. I mean, he's not a bonk, but he threw a huge open ice hit. And right away, you know, what Samuel's kid, Samuelson's kid went at him and pretty much beat him up. Like you know, he you can tell Hunter he never got started. He, you know, saw the guy coming, put it dropped his gloves real quick, tried to grab one and ducked. And he just took punch after punch after punch. Good for him, man. He didn't go down. He tried to keep his ground with the guy until, the end of the fight. And they both landed up on the ice. He never landed a punch. He never really swung. But he sent a message that, he ain't afraid. he'll he'll fight if he has to. I'm sure he wanted that fight back. He'd like to try it again. But he's still gonna throw these big hits and use his body, and that's what that's the the game he plays. So to see it, to see him hit somebody like that in open ice clean because he didn't get a penalty on it, that was a great hit. A really, really good hit. And it slowed that line rush from the Sabers from getting out because they were trying to get it out to you know rush down the ice, and Hunter just stood up and leveled him. And it was really cool to see. So kudos to Hunter. It was it was a good night for him as well. I I think the future for the Flyers on the defensive end look look pretty good right now. anxious to see these kids grow. a second thing that Tocket did, which is pretty amazing too. So he must be listening to podcasts and you know reading the news and getting information somewhere or Danny is and telling him what to do. I I I don't know. I'm I'm gonna hope Rick Tocket's his own man and he takes some Look at what's going on, listening to, people around him and just says, hey, maybe you know, this is my fault and I need to think a little bit differently out of the box. And I'm really hoping that's what Rick did, and it wasn't more of a Rick, you're gonna do this decision by Danny. That's what I hope. I hope Rick actually saw the writing on the wall, sees what's happening on the ice. Recognizing that he has an opportunity here to to leverage this, and he decided on his own to do it. Because last night, Matt Vay Mishkov got over 18 minutes of ice time. First time, I think, since under talket, that Matt Vay's got 18 plus minutes of ice time. And that's where Matt Vay should be if he's playing well for sure. And if he's not playing well, you can always take some time off of him. But he still should be getting 16, 17 minutes of ice because he's a kid. most of the time he plays well, he makes good decisions, he creates stuff, and every now and then he's gonna have a bad line or two, and you just you can't hold that against them. You gotta just let him play through it. Now, if he's got a horrible game, all game long he's doing dumb things, then okay, understandable. However, that's not been the case. Most of the time, eighty-ninety percent of the time, Mave Mishkov has been The player on this team that has been driving play, creating offense. And Rick Tocket finally awarded him last night with 18 minutes of ice time. So great to see. Hope it stays that way. I hope Mishkov keeps producing. I would love to see a a number one-ish center in here. I would love to see a number one, but I don't think there's one out there. So like a one B or we can say a two A. We need one. We need one badly on this team. We really do. We need to keep Bonk up. We need to keep Benoit from getting any ice time whatsoever on this team ever again. Wave the guy, send him to the AHL and hope someone picks him up. Bunning was an absolutely useless pick up, in my opinion, at the time. The team was not doing well. They didn't want to bring up a kid. They needed to try to do something with getting some grittiness on this team. We needed it badly, as you can see with what Newball is doing now for the team. but Bunning just didn't turn into that player that we thought he would be. And co Cole Newball is. Cole Cole Nuble should have never been sent down to the Phantoms to begin with. He pr had the best camp out of everybody, and he should have been s you know on this team. He should have been on this team from the beginning. things happen for reasons and we are here where we are. And it's nice that Cole Nouvel actually came back and he has a shot. And I don't send that kid down. If I had to wave bunning, I would wave bunning. I would do whatever I can because he's just not not what's the word I'm looking for? He's pointless. He's pointless on this team right now. Him and Benoit is pointless on this team right now. These kids can fill those roles better and they've proven it and they should be. Given the opportunity to keep that role until they prove you otherwise. But in my opinion, this team looks way better with the youth movement, way better with the youth movement than we've looked in a while. and it I mean, a good fair question here is you really, okay? Maybe man, think of this. If someone told you we were gonna play the Colorado Avalanche and the Buffalo Savers, you know, one day apart from each other. And we were not gonna have TK Tippett, Forster, Ristol Lannon, and in the lineup. What what would they have said? Like you know, me, I couldn't even fathom thinking like the Flyers would even be in the games. Like I would think, yeah, these two are like terrible, terrible losses. We're gonna we're gonna get our butts kicked. It's gonna be ugly. And guess what? It wasn't. These kids are playing so good. I mean, so good. You can't let them play like this. Save your season. They saved your season so far. You know, it's not over yet, but man, they saved this season by getting these three big wins. You have to reward them and keep them up here. You have to. Let them run, move the vets, and let's keep moving forward with this club. All right. So with with that said. The Flyers play again on Saturday, one o'clock against the Ducks. Again, I think a lot of these veteran players are gonna get back in the lineup before Saturday. I think you'll see your Risto, your Yorick, and your TK back. Not sure about Tippet. but I I do think the other ones come back for Saturday's game. And it's gonna be strange to see who they cut and who they don't play. You know, I think go Gaucher goes back down. I think Bump probably goes back down. I think they hold Nuble. I think Bunning sets. at least that's what I'm hoping. we'll see. But for right now, the Flyers are three six and three. They are looking good. They're on a three game winning streak. Hopefully they can make it four on Saturday. We'll do another episode out on Sunday after the game. And maybe, just maybe, between now and then game on Saturday, maybe there'll be a little bit more out there about what possible moves may be happening with the Flyers and I think it's all gonna come down to Larkin again. I think as soon as Larkin gets moved, other teams will know that they missed out on Larkin and they will be more people, teams, GMs reaching out to Danny about TK, Tippett and Forster. So I think we got to get this Larkin trade out of the way. And then I think we will see that the flyers are probably going to do something, but they're just waiting so they can get the best deal. Anyhow, till Sunday, let's go, Flyers.