Flyers’ ongoing overtime woes down to ‘mind-boggling’ decisions, says Rick Tocchet
The Flyers dropped to 0-4 in OT. “We had a meeting about it; we sent them video on it. It’s all puck possession, it’s being smart, and we give up two two-on-[nones]. It’s unacceptable,” said Tocchet.
The Flyers did the hard work of clawing themselves back into the game. They dominated play for the final 40 minutes, and Jamie Drysdale tied the game with 11 seconds to go.
Then came overtime.
“Overtime, some of the guys are — I don’t know what they’re doing,” Flyers coach Rick Tocchet said after Tuesday’s 4-3 loss to the Blue Jackets. “We had a meeting about it; we sent them video on it. It’s all puck possession, it’s being smart, and we give up two two-on-[nones]. It’s unacceptable.”
» READ MORE: Flyers force overtime but come up short vs. Blue Jackets for second straight loss
The first came off a Matvei Michkov turnover at the blue line, which sprung Cole Sillinger and Zach Werenski on the breakaway. Dan Vladař earned loud cheers from the crowd after making the save on Werenski, and the Flyers went right back down the ice.
The second time, they weren’t as lucky. Cam York entered the zone with the puck, and Michkov followed him in toward the net, which led to all three Flyers, Denver Barkey being the other, getting caught near the top of the crease with no one back defending. Adam Fantilli collected the rebound from Cam Talbot’s save, and he and Kent Johnson had no resistance up the ice, and Johnson beat Vladař for the game-winner and his second goal of the game.
“The decision-making in overtime has been mind-boggling by some players,” Tocchet said. “We have to fix it.”
Michkov’s final shift was 1 minute and 17 seconds in overtime. He didn’t go for a line change with his initial three-man unit of Trevor Zegras and Drysdale, instead staying on for the following shift with York and Barkey. Whether that was part of the game plan or Michkov calling an audible, he didn’t have the legs to chase down a fresh Fantilli and Johnson, and neither did anyone else.
In his rookie season, Michkov was one of the Flyers’ three-on-three regulars. He averaged the third-most overtime ice time and scored three overtime winners, most on the team. But despite that success, Tocchet scaled back Michkov’s three-on-three time significantly in 2025-26, as he averaged just 50 seconds, ninth on the Flyers. Still, Michkov did score one overtime winner.
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The Flyers dropped to 0-4 in overtime this season. This was their third loss in the three-on-three period, after losing to Carolina and New Jersey in similar fashion. The fourth loss, to Seattle, came in a five-round shootout. In 2025-26, the Flyers played 28 overtime games. They won a league-high 10 in the shootout, and six in three-on-three, with 12 losses.
Getting the comeback on Tuesday and forcing overtime helps the group tread some water in the standings, but after starting the year on a nine-game losing streak, the Flyers are running out of runway for games to end in a “learning lesson.” With the loss, they drop to last in the Metropolitan Division with just 10 points, despite being tied for the most games played at 14.
“You’re looking for consistency, and you’re looking for a group of players to play a certain way, because you’re going to have some bad things happen to you,” Tocchet said. “But you need to stop the bad things, and I think that just starts with a consistent mindset.”
