Fresh off win, Panthers aim to spoil Rick Tocchet's Flyers return
Nothing seems to bother the Florida Panthers.
Set to host the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night, the Panthers are without two of the NHL's biggest stars due to injuries -- Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk.
Even so, the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions Panthers have made no excuses. In its season opener on Tuesday, Florida overcame an early deficit and defeated the visiting Chicago Blackhawks 3-2.
Two of Florida's goals were from bottom-six forwards A.J. Greer and Jesper Boqvist, who combined for just 18 goals last season.
However, that's typical of the Panthers under coach Paul Maurice. Every player on the roster competes hard and can skate, which is why the team is able to succeed even while stars are sidelined.
Greer said the key is remaining humble.
"It would be easy to take your foot off the gas and get complacent," Greer said in a postgame interview with ESPN. "But we know what the recipe is, and it's just a matter of putting in those ingredients.
"We're relying on our new guys to put some spice on the team."
Those new guys include 37-year-old defenseman Jeff Petry, 25-year-old goalie Daniil Tarasov and 27-year-old forwards Luke Kunin and Noah Gregor.
Cole Schwindt, 24, is new to the Panthers this season but also played for Florida in three games as a rookie in 2021-22.
As Cup-winning teams often do, the Panthers have veteran holdovers to carry the team, including goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, defensemen Aaron Ekblad and Gustav Forsling and forwards Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Reinhart.
Meanwhile, the Flyers under new coach Rick Tocchet are set to make their season debut after missing the playoffs the past five seasons.
Tocchet, 61, played 18 years in the NHL, including 11 with the Flyers. This is his fourth stop as a head coach, previously working for Tampa Bay, Arizona and Vancouver, where he won the Jack Adams Award as the league's best coach in 2024.
Defenseman Travis Sanheim said he and his teammates feel fortunate to have Tocchet at the helm.
"Him being back in Philly and picking us, it excites us a team," Sanheim said. "He's a step ahead. He already knows the organization, the city and the fans, and that's going to benefit us."
However, the Flyers clearly have some issues. Their .888 save percentage 5-on-5 last season was the worst since the NHL began keeping that statistic in 2009-10.
New goalie Dan Vladar, signed to a two-year contract in July, had an .898 save percentage in 30 games for Calgary last season. He closed strong, going 6-1-1 with a .927 save percentage in his final eight games.
Holdover Samuel Ersson, who had an .883 save percentage last season, figures to split starts with Vladar. Ersson last season had a .904 save percentage with at least two days of rest.
Offensively, forward Owen Tippett -- Florida's first-round pick in 2017 -- has scored at least 20 goals in each of his past three seasons with Philadelphia.
Tippett, 26, is also one of just six NHL players to post at least 75 goals, 350 hits and 700 shots on goal over the past three seasons.
Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry scheduled to start home opener
Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry is scheduled to start his team’s home opener against the New York Islanders at PPG Paints Arena on Thursday.
Coach Dan Muse announced Jarry’s status following an optional morning skate in Cranberry.
The decision to start Jarry comes on the heels of a 25-save effort by goaltender Arturs Silovs in a season-opening, 3-0 win on the road against the New York Rangers on Tuesday.
Muse explained why he is opting to go with Jarry instead of potentially sticking with Silovs after a strong outing.
“It’s so early,” Muse said. “We just want to get everybody going, get different guys going. Tristan … especially the late part of training camp, he was really trending there in a really good direction. We look at all things. We went into it thinking we’d like to get both guys in there early. That’s what we’re doing.”
During the preseason, Jarry appeared in three games and had a 1-0-0 record, a 2.95 goals against average and an .889 save percentage.
Jarry is coming off a tumultuous 2024-25 regular season in which he was waived and sent to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League on two separate occasions. At the NHL level, he appeared in 36 games and posted a 16-12-6 record, a 3.12 goals against average, an .892 save percentage and two shutouts.
Notes:
• Muse also announced rookie forward Filip Hallander would be making his season debut. Nothing is certain as to what line he might be deployed on, but during a practice session in Cranberry on Wednesday, Hallander skated on the right wing of the second line in place of Philip Tomasino, who operated as a reserve.
Hallander, 25, returned to the Penguins this past offseason as a free agent signing after spending the previous two seasons in his native Sweden. A second-round draft pick (Nov. 58 overall) in 2018, he previously played in three regular season games for the Penguins over two seasons, most recently during the 2023-24 season.
During this past preseason, Hallander skated in five games and finished tied for second on the team with five points (one goal, four assists).
“He got more and more comfortable,” Muse said in reference to Hallander’s preseason play. “If you look at the later exhibition games that he was in, I feel like he was really at the point where he was starting to play his game. There’s an adjustment coming back over here. The game is a little bit different. Obviously, he’s been over here, he’s played in North America before. But he’s also coming from Sweden (where) it’s just a little bit of a different game. The rinks are sometimes bigger. You can kind of slow things down with a possession game. It was solid at the beginning, but I thought it got a lot better there at the end of training camp. He is playing tonight. He will be in the lineup.”
Last season, Hallander skated for Timra IK of the Swedish Hockey League and finished second in that league’s scoring race with 53 points (26 goals, 27 assists) in 51 games.
• Muse confirmed injured forward Bryan Rust will not be in Thursday’s lineup. Currently designated to injured reserve, Rust has been sidelined since suffering an undisclosed ailment during a practice session Oct. 1.
• Those who participated in the optional skate included:
Forwards – Conor Dewar, Hallander, Ben Kindel, Ville Koivunen, Blake Lizotte, Tommy Novak, Rust, Tomasino
Defensemen – Harrison Brunicke, Connor Clifton, Mathew Dumba, Caleb Jones, Ryan Shea
Goaltender – Silovs
• Penguins defenseman Kris Letang has 597 career assists.
• Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin is scheduled to start the contest, according to Newsday. During the preseason, Sorokin appeared in two games and had a 1-1-0 record, a 3.08 goals against average and an .872 save percentage.
• Thursday’s game is the season opener for the Islanders and is slated to serve as the NHL debut for former Erie Otters defenseman Matthew Schaefer, the top overall selection in the NHL Draft this past June.
• Per Newsday, the Islanders’ lines and pairings in Thursday’s morning skate at PPG Paints Arena were:
27 Anders Lee – 13 Mathew Barzal – 21 Kyle Palmieri
29 Jonathan Drouin –
49 Max Shabanov – 44 Jean-Gabriel Pageau – 10 Simon Holmstrom
11 Anthony Duclair – 53 Casey Cizikas – 7 Maxim Tsyplakov
28
3 Adam Pelech – 6 Ryan Pulock
48 Matthew Schaefer – 24 Scott Mayfield
• Boqvist has 99 career points.
• The scheduled referees for Thursday’s game are Mitch Dunning (No. 20) and Gord Dwyer (No. 19) while the linesmen are Steve Barton (No. 59) and Michel Cormier (No. 76).
