Playing their 20th game of the 2025-26 season, Rick Tocchet's Philadelphia Flyers (10-6-3) are home on Saturday to take on Sheldon Keefe's New Jersey Devils (13-6-1). The Flyers have posted a 7-3-2 home record, while the Devils are 6-6-0 on the road to date.
Game time at Xfinity Mobile Arena is 7:00 p.m. EST. The game will be televised on NBCSP.
The Flyers enter this game coming off a 3-2 overtime home win against the St. Louis Blues on Thursday evening. The Devils wrap up a five-game road trip. New Jersey lost, 1-0, to the Florida Panthers on Thursday.
Rodrigo Abols (1st goal of the season) and Tyson Foerster (5th) scored regulation goals on Thursday. Later, Travis Sanheim (2nd) tallied the game-winner in overtime. Dan Vladar played brilliantly in net over the game’s final 43 minutes.
Here are the RAV4 Things to watch on Saturday:
1. From A(bols) to Z(egras)
The Flyers need a complete effort on Saturday to defeat the speedy and talented New Jersey club. Abols is coming off arguably his best game of the season. Even apart from his goal, he was in the thick of several other scoring chances. He also forechecked well in various productive shifts with the fourth line.
Meanwhile, Trevor Zegras leads the team with 20 points (six goals, 14 assists) through 19 games. On Thursday, he made several elusive moves along the side boards to start the Abols goal sequence. Zegras twice came within a whisker of a power play goal. One hit the crossbar, the other was stopped with a 10-bell glove save.
2. Andrae-Drysdale defense pair
The Flyers made an in-game lineup change on Thursday. At the start of the second period, Tocchet and assistant coach Todd Reirden switched up the second and third defense pairing. Emil Andrae moved up a pairing to play alongside Jamie Drysdale. Nick Seeler rotated onto the third period alongside Noah Juulsen.
Andrae responded by being perhaps the Flyers' most notable standout on defense the rest of the game. He also directly set up Foerster's game-tying goal in the third period.
Tocchet indicated after Friday's practice that he wants to take a longer look at the pairing of Drysdale with Andrae. Drysdale's mobility and Andrae's breakout passing game could be a key factor together against New Jersey.
3. Defensive coverage
The Flyers have had a couple costly defensive coverage miscues the last few games. Specific to the penalty kill, there were breakdowns that led to power play goals by Dallas' Jason Robertson and St Louis' Justin Faulk the last two games. Defensively, the Flyers need to get back to where they were before the two games against St. Louis and the 5-1 loss in Dallas.
4. The Hughes factor
The Devils are missing a key player from their lineup. Jack Hughes underwent surgery on Nov. 15 to repair a hand injury suffered off the ice. He's slated to miss eight weeks from the time of surgery. Meanwhile, Luke Hughes paces the blueline offensively with 11 points.
Even without Jack Hughes, the Devils remain a very speedy and dangerous team. Up front, Dawson Mercer paces the team with nine goals. Jesper Bratt has 18 points including 13 assists. The Flyers also need to pay attention to New Jersey defenseman Dougie Hamilton, who already has four goals this season.
