Maturation process: Successful road trip shows belief that things are different for Flyers

There was a sequence in Saturday's 5-3 Flyers win that was indicative of what's different - in a good way - about the 2025-26 Philadelphia Flyers. 

Ahead 4-2 in the third period, Trevor Zegras made the wrong decision. 

Rather than skate up ice with the puck, or make a little chip play with it off the wall in the neutral zone to get the puck out of harm's way, Zegras was trying to circle back into his own zone to keep possession of the puck. 

Instead, he was stripped by Dawson Mercer, and a few seconds later, Mercer was snapping a shot past Dan Vladar to trim the score to 4-3 with more than 13 minutes to play. 

It was one of those moments where your instinct injects a thought into your brain - "here we go again," as if the team was about to blow a lead and the potential great ending to a successful road trip.

But on his very next shift, Zegras was back on the ice looking his usual creative self. He was skating behind the New Jersey net and making a deft pass to Christian Dvorak on the doorstep for a great chance. 

The duo didn't score, but the most noticeable thing was Zegras didn't wilt. He didn't shy away from playing his game, despite a mistake. 

From Bratt hitting the post right into Zegras scoring, WHAT A SEQUENCE 😭🚨 pic.twitter.com/McUNZU95FJ

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) November 30, 2025

It was a small example of the entirety of the holiday weekend for the Flyers. They coughed up a three-goal lead in New York on Friday, only to knock off the Islanders in a shootout 4-3, improving to 5-0 this season in shootouts, which is a sentence no scribe ever fathomed they'd write about the Philadelphia Flyers. 

And then, after building a three-goal lead again Saturday and seeing the Devils trim it to one, the Flyers held their ground - mostly thanks to yet another stellar goaltending performance from Dan Vladar - and after being awarded a goal, (not sure the last time that happened, but that was fun), held on to win their third straight game. 

And in doing so, the Flyers wrapped up their portion of the November schedule in third place in the Metropolitan Division (14-7-3, 31 points) just two points behind New Jersey for first place, with a game in-hand.

And now the Flyers come home, beginning Monday for a six-game homestand, and there's a different feeling about this team than in seasons past. 

Yes, they did something similar in 2023-24 under John Tortorella. But this is different. 

In that season, they came out of nowhere. Everyone had the Flyers pegged for last place, but Torts coached them hard, the team played harder, and they surprised some teams. 

But that team wasn't ready for prime time. The Carter Hart situation unfolded in January and Sam Ersson eventually ran out of gas as a No. 1 goalie.

But it wasn't just goaltending alone. The team wasn't ready to win enough to be part of the postseason tournament. 

G.M. Danny Briere knew it, and traded away a key piece of their defensive puzzle - defenseman Scott Walker - to Colorado for a first round draft pick. 

The Flyers told us that season they were rebuilding. Tortorella tried to squeeze blood from a stone and get that team to play well above expectations. 

They played a style that was unsustainable over 82 games, and then when the pressure was ramped up after the trade deadline, he made the newly-minted team captain Sean Couturier - a healthy scratch. 

It didn't sit well with the room, and the team spiraled and fell out of a playoff spot, eliminated entirely on the last day of the season. 

A lot of those guys are still a part of the Flyers, but Torts and his mind games are gone. Rick Tocchet and his more open communication and style that the players embrace as it allows them to take more ownership of what they are doing on the ice collectively without fear of immediate retribution from the coach, and it's paying dividends. 

The Flyers no longer play like they are afraid of their own shadow. Which, metaphorically, is why we shouldn't expect another hockey version of Groundhog Day in Philadelphia.

"All these tight games, this is just learning," Tocchet told reporters after Saturday's win. "There's not a lot of panic on the bench. There's a lot of resolve. We've got to clean stuff up, we understand that. We've got to execute under pressure a little bit more. But we're a lot better than we were three weeks ago when it comes to that."

That they are. 

Thinking outside the box. #PHIvsNJD | #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/yVn5qT0tpZ

— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) November 30, 2025

On Friday, against the Islanders, having already blown the three-goal lead, Matvei Michkov took a bad high-sticking penalty. It ended up being a double minor, and the Flyers had to kill off a four-minute advantage by the Islanders.

They did. 

On Saturday, it was Cam York taking an unnecessary slashing penalty in the third period, resulting in a Devils power play. They killed that one off too. 

It's an example of what Tocchet was saying. Yes, there are still things the team can improve. They aren't good enough, yet, to avoid these key mistakes at crucial parts of the game. 

But how they respond to mistakes is where the greatest growth has come. Whether it's getting back on the horse and making a play, like Zegras did, or picking up your teammates when they falter, and not letting it all pile on - like they did in both instances with bad penalties - the Flyers seem to be pulling on the same rope. 

"The connected game is so important when you are playing these really good teams," Zegras told reporters Saturday. "And I thought we had it really going good tonight."

They did. They also had it Tuesday in Florida. They had Friday against New York. This Flyers team is together. It's "connected." And when you play that way, a certain belief starts to form. It's not an invincibility, per se, but rather something more akin to Teflon. 

Mistakes are going to roll right off their backs. Adversity isn't going to make them crumble.

And they're doing it in such a way, that they shouldn't physically peter out like they did two seasons ago. They're showing a growth in mental toughness, and more than anything else, that's what's needed to get over the hump to be a playoff team.

There's still 58 games to go and the Metropolitan Division is uber-competitive - the Flyers may be just two points out of first place, but are also only four points out of last place - so a lot can still happen between now and April. 

But this team believes in itself right now, even if there are others that don't. And they showed it on an important road trip to wrap up November. 

There are a dozen games left before Christmas. That's the next mile marker on this journey. 

But based on what we saw this week and what's percolating in that locker room, it wouldn't surprise if we're finding that more people, besides those in the locker room, are starting to believe in the Flyers too.