Despite goals from Sean Couturier and Travis Konecny, the Flyers’ comeback bid fell short on Sunday. Let’s wrap:
Sweet, then Sour
In his 900th career game and on his 33 birthday, Sean Couturier opened the scoring when he redirected a puck on a slap shot from Noah Juulsen at the 2:09 mark of the first period. However, the Avalanche stormed back in the opening stanza with two goals of their. First, at the 8:28 minute mark, Brent Burns beat Ersson cleanly on a snap shot. Then, with a minute left in the period, Brock Nelson jabbed a puck past Ersson on a netfront scramble to put Colorado up 2-1. The Flyers were fighting uphill the rest of the way.
“We believed in our chances to win this game,” Couturier said. “I felt, at times, we gave them a little too much respect and we watched them a little bit. Overall, we competed hard, we were right there until the end.”
The Flyers carried play in the final period, but couldn’t solve Mackenzie Blackwood. In fact, Trevor Zegras was even able to draw a penalty shot, but was stopped by Blackwood on his signature slow and methodical shootout-like attempt. According to Charlie O’Connor, Zegras is ironically 0-for-3 on penalty shots, despite owning the best shootout success percentage in league history.
Philadelphia got very close to tying the game, but ultimately their comeback bid fell fruitless to an Avalanche team that is arguably the best in the league right now.
They Said It
Rick Tocchet on his message to the players: “There’s plays to be made and we’re not making them. Like, even the 6-on-5 we go into a spread situation and we have three plays and we just got to make them. Just making plays under pressure, and that’s something we knew were going to have growing pains this year with that. We’ll continue to put these guys in situations where we can learn from it.”
Sean Couturier on the team’s effort: “It’s good proof that we can play with anyone. We just got to bring that effort, that intensity more consistently.”
Emil Andrae on how the team attempted to defend Colorado: “Obviously, they have good hockey players on the other side. We played our best when we were on our toes and skating forward and being aggressive and kind of in their face.”
Christian Dvorak on the third period: “The third was our best period. We made a good push, had a lot of chances and had our looks, just didn’t go in for us. If we played like that the whole game, we probably would’ve came out with two points.”
Did You Know?
According to NHL stats, Trevor Zegras’ penalty shot in the third period is his second of 2025-26. He therefore becomes the first Flyers player with multiple penalty shots in a single season since Joel Farabee in 2020-21.
On Deck
The Flyers will return to action on Tuesday, December 9th, when they play host to the San Jose Sharks. The game is set for a 7:00 p.m. puck drop and will be broadcast locally on NBCSP.
