After a weekend off, the Colorado Avalanche embark on another back-to-back on a brief two-game road trip to begin the week.
Their first stop takes them to Philadelphia to meet a Flyers team that’s having some early season struggles to say the least.
Colorado Avalanche (5-2-1)
The Opponent: Philadelphia Flyers (1-6-3)
Time: 5:00 P.M. MDT/7:00 P.M. EDT
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Colorado Avalanche
The Avs head into today’s game fresh off clearing one of their biggest hurdles of the young season. They earned three of a possible four points in a split of a home and home set against Dallas, and put together an unanswered five-goal rally to defeat the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday. Mackenzie Blackwood earned wins in Dallas and at home against Pittsburgh, while Scott Wedgewood couldn’t prevail in the shootout versus Dallas in Denver.
Martin Nečas helped provide the offense in Dallas with a pair of goals, while two goals from Artturi Lehkonen sparked the comeback effort against Pittsburgh. T.J. Hughes also scored his NHL career on Friday, which he scored after Nathan MacKinnon fed him a perfect pass to redirect past Pittsburgh goaltender Artus Šilovs.
“That first one feels incredible to get that first one in,” Hughes said in postgame comments. “I think the power play just expired […] Great pass by [MacKinnon], just nice to finish it off.”
In another first, Friday’s game marked the debut of new Avalanche assistant head coach Brett McLean. McLean, who replaced David Hakstol, will face the challenge of revamping a power play that has been woefully anemic over the past couple of years. As McLean acclimates to his new role with his one-time former club, changes that go beyond simple personnel swaps like we’ve seen implemented over the past couple of games leading up to Hakstol’s departure (exchanging Nečas for Jaden Schwartz on the top unit, for example) should be on the horizon.
Head coach Jared Bednar highlighted the struggles his team has had in putting together a full sixty minute effort over the past few games. “We’re having a tough time putting together a full sixty,” he said in postgame comments on Friday. “I look at Toronto; I didn’t like a period against Toronto. I didn’t like the first in Dallas. I didn’t like the second at home against Dallas. But, when we decide to play, and play the right way with the right level of—you know, for me, it’s intensity and discipline—then we’re a really good team, and we’re playing well. We have to find a way to just get it there for sixty minutes.”
Gavin Brindley was called up from Loveland on Wednesday to take the place of the injured Zachary L’Heureux. While Bednar said Brindley has showed well since being called back up, he pointed to Brindley’s performance prior to the start of the season which earned him his call-up. “The reason he’s up is because he had a great training camp and a great exhibition,” Bednar explained on Saturday, “and we have the leeway with him to be able to send him down. That’s just the situation he’s in, and we’re going to do what’s best for our team long term, not just for the right now.”
Bednar also stated that L’Heureux and Nicolas Roy were considered “week-to-week”, but indicated that both will not be on the road trip. Logan O’Connor also will remain in Denver, but Bednar indicated that he was much closer to returning to the lineup and will be working through on-ice drills while the team is on the road.
Minnesota’s victory over Columbus on Sunday has them occupying first place in the Central Division, but a win in Philadelphia coupled with a Pittsburgh victory over Utah tonight could put the Avs in front of Minnesota.
MacKinnon still leads all skaters in points (16) and assists (10), and is tied with Lehkonen for the team lead in goals (6). Defenseman Noah Juulsen spent the 2025-2026 season with Philadelphia prior to signing a two-year contract with the Avs this off-season.
The Avs split the season series against Philadelphia last season, with both teams winning as the road team.
Projected Lineup
Forwards:
Artturi Lehkonen – Nathan MacKinnon – Martin Nečas
Gabe Landeskog – Brock Nelson – Nazem Kadri
Jaden Schwartz – Fedor Svechkov – T.J. Hughes
Parker Kelly – Gavin Brindley
Defense:
Devon Toews – Cale Makar
Brett Kulak – Sam Malinski
Josh Manson – Brent Burns
Noah Juulsen
Between the Pipes:
Mackenzie Blackwood
Scott Wedgewood
Philadelphia Flyers
Coming into this season, the Flyers had every reason to feel optimistic. They returned to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in five years this past spring and eliminated their archrival Pittsburgh in the first round. They fell to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes in a four game sweep in the second round.
Flyers general manager Daniel Brière spent his off-season revamping his goaltending platoon in the hopes of building on that playoff appearance. On June 16, he acquired goaltender Joseph Woll and defenseman Simon Benoit from the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for goaltender Samuel Ersson, defenseman Emil Andrae (later traded to Columbus for Kirill Marchenko), and Philadelphia’s 2026 third round pick.
At the start of free agency, he also signed goaltender Dan Vladar to a five-year, $27.5 million dollar contract. Brière also signed right wing Noel Acciari to a two-year, $5.6 million dollar contract the same day. Garrett Wilson and Michael Bunting were late additions to Brière’s roster: Wilson signed a one-year, $850,000 contract, on September 27, while Bunting signed his one-year, $1.2 million dollar contract, on October 06.
Brière also triggered what became an unprecedented spike in player salaries when he tendered a five-year, $90 million dollar offer sheet to restricted free agent center Leo Carlsson of the Anaheim Ducks on July 03. Although Anaheim matched the offer sheet, this move was a clear statement to the rest of the League: the Flyers were on the way up, and Brière was willing pay a significant price to build on what he believed was a franchise on the rise.
The assumed ascent for the Flyers became a calamitous crash right from the opening puck drop. Philadelphia lost their home opener in a rematch with Pittsburgh by a humiliating 7-0 outcome on September 30. They followed this performance up with eight consecutive losses—a new franchise record—before finally recording their first win of the season, a 3-1 decision against the visiting Ottawa Senators this past Saturday.
To add insult to injury during the losing streak was actual injury: right winger Nikita Grebenkin underwent back surgery on October 10 following a 5-1 loss to the Boston Bruins, and is expected to miss four months of action. The following day, fellow right wing Travis Konecny was placed on injured reserve with a lower body injury. Defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen was also placed on injured reserve on October 14 following a 3-2 shootout loss to the Seattle Kraken the previous evening.
Even the win against Ottawa was costly: forwards Owen Tippett, Tyson Foerster, and Flyers captain Sean Couturier are now considered day-to-day.
Head coach Rick Tocchet said this after the win on Saturday. “It was a gutsy effort. We have a lot of guys hurt. Some guys stepped up. […] It was nice to see some resiliency, you know? It was good. We saw a lot of compete tonight. Better execution. There was some stuff we really liked tonight, and hopefully we can carry it on.”
When asked about the contributions from the lineup, Tocchet said, “I think, honestly, to a man, everyone contributed something. It wasn’t pockets of people. That’s the way we’re built. We need everybody. We just can’t have everybody on the sidelines.”
Matvei Michkov leads all Philadelphia skaters in points (5) and goals (4), while the injured Konecny and Couturier currently share the team lead in assists (3). Porter Martone leads all Philadelphia skaters in penalty minutes (14). Vladar and Woll have a combined nine (9) losses in goal, with Vladar holding the single win.
Although Philadelphia is last in the Metropolitan Division, they sit one point behind Columbus, who lost to Minnesota on Sunday night.
Philadelphia heads to Buffalo on Wednesday before beginning a two game home stand at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Saturday against Anaheim.
Projected Lineup
Forwards:
Trevor Zegras – Christian Dvorak – Tyson Foerster
Porter Martone – Noah Cates – Matvei Michkov
Denver Barkey – Sean Couturier – Michael Bunting
Garrett Wilson – Jack Studnicka – Noel Acciari
Defense:
Travis Sanheim – Oliver Bonk
Nick Seeler – Jamie Drysdale
David Jiříček – Simon Benoit
Between the Pipes:
Joseph Woll
Dan Vladar
