Two games into the season, the Carolina Hurricanes and Philadelphia Flyers aren’t exactly in playoff form.
The Hurricanes visit the Flyers on Saturday with both teams looking for their first victory of the young campaign.
Carolina’s defense of its Stanley Cup title has gotten off to a rough start.
The Hurricanes dropped a 1-0 decision to the Florida Panthers on Tuesday as Brandon Bussi allowed the game’s only goal with 4.3 seconds left in overtime.
The champions’ Friday affair against the Washington Capitals didn’t go any better, as Carolina surrendered three first-period goals and never recovered in a 5-2 defeat.
“There’s not a lot of positives out of that game,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “The start was not good. … We have a couple guys who need to get their game up. When we’ve got 20 guys rolling, we’re a good team. When we don’t, it’s too hard.”
Bussi made 22 saves against Washington while Sebastian Aho and Logan Stankoven scored for the Hurricanes.
“We were still getting outplayed a ton,” said Carolina captain Jordan Staal, the reigning Conn Smythe Trophy winner (playoff MVP). “We weren’t playing our style and playing in their end and getting those bounces. The stress was on us a lot more than we wanted, and it showed.”
With a loss on Saturday, the Hurricanes would match their total number of defeats from their playoff run last spring, when they went 16-3 en route to capturing the team’s second-ever Stanley Cup.
“Just unacceptable on myself and everyone on our team tonight,” Stankoven said after the loss to Washington.
Philadelphia was obliterated by the Pittsburgh Penguins 7-0 in its season opener on Wednesday. Dan Vladar allowed all seven goals on 38 shots in the worst opening-game defeat in franchise history.
Vladar logged the full 60 minutes because the Flyers were playing on back-to-back nights to open their season. Joseph Woll took his turn in net Thursday against the host New Jersey Devils, who slipped past Philadelphia 3-2 in overtime.
“Not every game is going to be a perfect game, and I thought we did a good job and were opportunistic with our scoring chances,” Woll said. “I thought we had a good chance to win it, so (I’m) just disappointed we didn’t finish the job. But I thought we did a great job throughout the game of keeping them to the outside.”
Woll made 41 saves in Newark, while defensemen Rasmus Ristolainen and Travis Sanheim scored for the Flyers. The players acknowledged that the performance was a step in the right direction, although there is still plenty of work to be done.
“I thought it was better (Thursday),” said Sanheim, who had a two-point game. “I thought our guys battled harder for sure, but when you’re turning over that many pucks and spending that much time in the defensive zone, it’s hard to win hockey games.”
The Hurricanes and Flyers met in the Eastern Conference semifinals last season. Carolina won the series in a sweep, outscoring Philadelphia 13-5.
The Hurricanes also won the regular-season series against the Flyers in 2025-26, taking three of the four matchups, although all of the contests extended beyond regulation.
