It’s good to be back. The Philadelphia Flyers are actually playing hockey Wednesday night for the first time in 20 days thanks to the NHL’s pause for the 2026 Winter Olympics, as they visit the Washington Capitals. But, what has not been missed is Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet putting out some lineups that are largely questionable.
There are several reasons why the lineup that Tocchet unveiled at Wednesday’s morning skate makes almost every single Flyers fan tilt their head and go “Now, wait, what is that?” as their eyes dart around the page.
It just feels like tonight is going to be either a weird game that results in a win, or something frustrating as we watch the same tactics of bashing your head up against a wall, trying to see if the result is something different than the offensively inept hockey team we’ve seen this season.
Flyers’ new lineup after Olympic break raises major questions
Per The Inquirer’s Jackie Spiegel, the Flyers lineup at morning skate Wednesday morning are as follows:
Trevor Zegras — Christian Dvorak — Travis Konecny
Matvei Michkov — Noah Cates — Bobby Brink
Denver Barkey — Sean Couturier — Owen Tippett
Nikita Grebenkin — Carl Grundstrom — Garnet Hathaway
Travis Sanheim — Rasmus Ristolainen
Cam York — Jamie Drysdale
Nick Seeler — Noah Juulsen
Dan Vladar will be starting against the Capitals
There are major parts of the lineup that we have just come to expect, but after watching the Winter Olympics tournament, you just want what feels the best for your team and this does not feel like a lineup that would generate the greatest chance of winning a hockey game. We’re just lowly bloggers who have written about this team for over a decade, but there is something off.
Starting from the very top, it seemed like Zegras was going to get a true run at playing center. Rick Tocchet even said so just days before the break that he is now trying the 24-year-old out there and running with it for a bit. Well, apparently that has stopped after just a few games or maybe the break caused Tocchet to forget some things he said he was going to do, as Dvorak returns to the center spot on his line.
Michkov is playing the left side. We all know that Tocchet is trying to get more speed and north-south out of Michkov’s game right now and putting him off of his typical wing is somewhat doing that, but severely limiting his comfortability and offensive potential. That doesn’t seem great. And then putting him with Noah Cates and Bobby Brink, certainly feels like nothing is really going to be at a high-octane pace, anyways.
Denver Barkey and Michkov worked so well together, as the younger winger would open up space for him and there were some really nice plays happening in the offensive zone with that duo. Well, Barkey is back with Sean Couturier and Owen Tippett — that line is completely fine, but feels limiting for both of those wingers.
And maybe the most puzzling bit of the forward group, is the fact that Carl Grundstrom is about to be the Flyers’ fourth-line center. Yeah, the loss of Rodrigo Abols to injury has prevented some stability in the lineup, and Lane Pederson is back down with the Phantoms in the AHL right now, so their options down the middle are limited — that is unless you just put Zegras at center and make it all work. Of course that isn’t happening, though. The winger who has taken a total of 57 faceoffs in his 319 career games should be the center instead.
Emil Andrae still nowhere to be seen
The actual make-up of the blue line is whatever. Rasmus Ristolainen is on the top pair as the Flyers continue to feature him for a potential trade before the deadline next Friday, and that gives us a very interesting second pair of Cam York and Jamie Drysdale. Meanwhile, Nick Seeler and Noah Juulsen will try their best to block as many shots as humanly possible as the Flyers get hemmed in their own zone.
But the main story in all of this is that Emil Andrae still can’t get into the game. The 24-year-old hasn’t shown anything super special this season and might just end up being a 5-foot-9 depth defender who can skate pretty well but gets outmuscled sometimes, but the fact that Noah Juulsen is getting minutes ahead of him feels abnormal.
This has gone on for too long. Andrae has not seen the ice since Jan. 26 — we will be going on over a month, thanks to the Olympic break, with the Swedish blueliner not being able to get in a game. And yet, Tocchet has said that they’re “trying to get him in” but in the first opportunity to do that since the break, he doesn’t. It’s just a little wild. It’s not even that Andrae is some sort of unique and impactful player, but it’s just leaving him to rot in the press box — leaving a young defender with no opportunity to truly get better and show that he’s better.
Well, welcome back Flyers hockey.