Flyers’ penalty kill failures are making them lose crucial games

A once-strength for the Philadelphia Flyers has become an area of weakness as the penalty kill continues to slip further and further towards league average.

The Flyers have stumbled out of the gate a bit to start the calendar year. Nearly every part of their game has struggled – from the power play to the goaltending – but one key area has quietly slipped under the radar: the penalty kill. Once a strength of John Tortorella’s Flyers, it has now silently fallen back toward league-average.

The penalty kill by the numbers

In the 2023-24 season, the Flyers’ penalty kill finished the season at 83.4 percent, fourth in the league. The 2024-25 season? 77.6 percent and 20th in the league. This season? They’re sitting around where they were last year at 79.3 percent, which currently ranks them 19th in the league. Maybe this is just where the Flyers’ penalty kill has regressed over the last three years, but if that’s the case? The Flyers are in trouble.

The Flyers are giving up around 0.64 power play goals per game according to NHL.com, which ranks 13th-worst in the league. Along with this, the Flyers have the fifth-most penalty minutes with 485 total, and an average of 10 minutes and 46 seconds of penalties per game, which is the fourth-most in the NHL.

To put these numbers in perspective, the Flyers ranked twenty-fourth in penalty minutes with 602 and only averaged seven minutes and twenty seconds per game during the 2024-25 season. With the penalty kill middling out somewhere between the 2023-24 season and the 2024-25 season, the percentage change wasn’t as noticeable to the eye, as the team was much more disciplined.

Undisciplined and with a penalty kill that’s fallen to league-average, the Flyers are starting to show it on both the stat sheet and the eye test. A nineteenth-ranked penalty kill does not mix well with a team that averages almost eleven minutes of penalties a night.

The recent short-handed struggles

Since the start of the new calendar year, the Flyers’ penalty kill ranks third-worst in the NHL at 63.2 percent, sitting only ahead of the Vancouver Canucks (56.3) and Dallas Stars (61.5). During their six-game stretch of 2026, the Flyers are 2-3-1 and are ranked third in penalty minutes at 108, and have amassed eighteen minutes of penalties per game during that time.

Additionally, the Flyers have recorded six fights in their last six games after totaling just four over their first 39.

To be fair, a feisty Flyers – Lightning game on Monday accounted for 46 of their 108 penalty minutes so far in 2026, but in that game, the Lightning converted on two of their four power play opportunities.

In a stretch of games against the red-hot Buffalo Sabres, the Tampa Bay Lightning, one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference, and an Oilers team featuring Connor McDavid, their penalty kill struggles are understandable. You had to face a handful of hot teams at a bad time, but if the penalty kill woes continue into the later games of the season, you might see the Flyers closer to a top 10 draft pick than a wild card birth.

The problems with the Flyers penalty kill

Rick Tocchet, in his post-game interview after the Flyers lost 5-2 against the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday, was quick to voice his disappointment with the penalty kill. He specifically harped on the reads that the Flyers penalty killers were giving up, stating that they were “unacceptable.” Specifically, on the first power play goal by Rasmus Dahlin, the Flyers allowed the Sabres captain to skate untouched into the middle of the ice and fire a wrist shot past goaltender Dan Vladar.

As mentioned earlier, the Flyers need to stop putting their penalty kill in tough situations. The best way to help the penalty kill is simply by not having to use it. If the Flyers stop taking undisciplined penalties, it would help limit the amount of power play opportunities the opposing team gets. The Flyers are a young, developing team so mistakes are bound to happen, but learning from them will be crutial in limiting the lazy penalties this team has been taking.

Another issue this season has been the Flyers’ goaltending, which especially of late, has been a popular topic of conversation, with Sam Ersson’s struggles in net. On top of that, Flyers starting goaltender, Dan Vladar, went down with an injury after the first period of Wednesday’s contest. The goaltending struggles could be playing a factor into the decline of the penalty kill and if Ersson is slated to get an increase in starts due to Vladar’s injury, it could result in more struggles to come.

With a more physical style of hockey ramping up heading towards the playoffs, and the injury to starting goalie Dan Vladar, the Flyers are going to have to stay more conscientious about taking lazy, undisciplined penalties if they’re going to be serious about contending for the playoffs.

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