Desperation, luck gives Flyers OT, series win over Penguins

by Bob Herpen

Phanatic Hockey Editor

By the time the clock ticked down inside of three minutes to play in the first overtime period of Game 6 in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Wednesday night, all the rabbits feet were worn to a nub, each of a hundred thousand promises to a higher power spent, chants and curses falling silent from trembling lips, all fantasies gone flailing aground. 

There was nothing for 20,000-plus fans inside the arena and millions across Flyers Nation to do but sit. 

And wait. 

For the inevitable.

A crushing loss and a winner-take-all road Game 7. Or their first series win on home ice in 14 years and the next cleared hurdle in the maturity of this young core.

“It’s hard to say the words, but it’s been a long time, there’s been a lot of frustration. Obviously I’m happy for the guys,” said Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet after they closed out the Pittsburgh Penguins with a 1-0 overtime victory that needed to come with its own trigger warning.

“It’s huge for the young guys’ development. To play … in this kind of pace, this atmosphere, overtime, tense, this is huge for the young guys to taste it. I’m really proud of them hanging in there for us.”

The Orange and Black were swimming in slow motion through Sahara-deep sand ever since taking control of the back half of the second period. The effort was clearly taxing on all involved. The green light that signified the end of regulation rescued them from a steady-rolling possession game by the Pittsburgh Penguins which suggested the next break in the game and the series would be theirs.

After working statistically even through the first two periods in a scoreless deadlock, the ice and the basic numbers that tell the game story were tipped in the Pens’ favor: a 13-5 shot edge in the final 20 minutes of regulation and 10-5 through 17:31 of the extra session. 

Every overtime hinges on the one break that makes the red light glow, but in the frenzy and desperation of scoreless tie, during a potential elimination game, knowing one mental mistake can be the difference, the breaks don’t always go to the team with the most pressure. 

Sometimes the club back on its heels makes the most of their one good shot.

And that one good shot came from defenseman Cam York. His first career playoff goal was also the OT and series winner. York was stationed about a step or two inside the blue line, took a somewhat-risky backhand pass from Matvei Michkov and launched a line-drive wrister. 

Since d-man Nick Seeler’s seeing-eye laser from the left point sailed by a screen and past Pens goaltender Stuart Skinner for the hosts’ 3rd goal in a Game 3 victory, the Flyers had largely failed to produce sufficient traffic in front of Skinner and replacement Arturs Silovs.

In Game 6, they only managed 2 or 3 bona-fide screens in front of Silovs. The third and last one saw Flyers winger Noah Cates disengage from Pittsburgh’s Ryan Shea for a second, slipping behind Shea as York fired from deep out on the right side. The rising shot found the back of the net, never touching a jersey, body part or pad en route to history. 

Only Ruslan Fedotenko had ever won a 1-0 overtime playoff game for the franchise, in Game 1 of the Eastern quarterfinals against Ottawa on Apr. 17, 2002. Never mind what else didn't happen in that series.

The spontaneous explosion of emotion radiated down through the 25-year-old, 5th-year backliner, who raced to center ice and threw his stick like a javelin to parts unknown into the lower bowl. 

"I just hope everybody's okay. I don't want a lawsuit," York joked.

It was poetic and karmic justice, as the home squad’s only other bona-fide chance to end things came on the previous shift as rookie Porter Martone’s backhander from in close was denied as Silovs dove and threw his stick, legally, to deaden the puck. 

“I like these games, I love it when there’s so much at stake,” Silovs admitted when asked about how he dealt with the pressure of a win-or-go-home contest. He was less forthcoming when asked to describe what he felt on the winning score.

The visitors did a better job all game of crashing the net, screening Vladar, maintaining possession around the crease, as if they were not bothered by needing to extend this series to a Game 7 back in Pittsburgh. 

But some hairy moments over the game’s final 37 ½ minutes – which would have been a serious momentum-shifter for the Penguins – were avoided by unfocused chances, forceful defensive sticks along with Dan Vladar’s motion and vision.

“It’s unfortunate. I thought especially in the second half of that game, we had some really good looks,” a downbeat Sidney Crosby said postgame with a disappointed shrug. “We were a shot away from going back to Pittsburgh for Game 7. It comes down to bounces sometimes, but putting yourself in that position (to have to come back from 0-3 down) is tough.”

Vladar, who ended up stopping all 42 shots, etched his name in the record books, joining Bernie Parent, Pelle Lindbergh, Ron Hextall, Roman Cechmanek and Michael Leighton as Flyers goaltenders to register at least 2 shutouts in a best-of-seven series.

“I don’t really care if it’s 1-0 or 8-7. For me, it’s just a winning mentality. There was never a doubt. I think I can speak for the entire locker room,” Vladar said in the locker room. “I cannot try to stop the puck harder. Good things happen to good people and we are good people in here.”

Nobody knows whether Vladar opens doors for little old ladies or helps the blind to see, but the iron was kind to Vladar twice, the last and most crucial time when Penguins forward Egor Chinakhov unloaded a shot from the wing midway through the third stanza. 

Of all his 42 stops, nowhere was the influence of the hockey gods more evident than a series beginning with 3:39 remaining in the third. First, he flashed a pad and stretched a skate to stop a doorstep offering from Bryan Rust, then two pokes from Rust and Crosby failed as a mass of humanity collapsed around him.

The capper to the late-season 18-7-1 run which secured a playoff berth couldn’t have been met with a better opponent at a better time.

Tell me with a straight face a postseason baptism for this club, and a subsequent win, would have been as satisfying against any other team in either conference.

That luck of the draw won’t help the Flyers in the next round against the Hurricanes. There is no history, there is no animus, there is no rivalry and a smothering forecheck led to three Carolina wins beyond regulation earlier in the season. 

If there are any lessons to be gleaned from 2012 and applied to 2026,  it’s that a surprise series victory over the Penguins in a hate-filled, loosely-played matchup was followed by a surprise series defeat to the more disciplined, tighter-checking Devils. 

There are only so many prayers to be answered, so many locals who travel to Rome and present Popes with custom jerseys before the luck runs out. Belief is a common factor in the Flyers’ run, and it worked out. 

Once the high wears off, it’s time when belief needs to translate to confidence and then results.

'Feedback loop' fickle for Flyers despite control of series

by Bob Herpen

Phanatic Hockey Editor

If noise possesses personality, if voices are able to carry venom, the entire sports complex and Xfinity Mobile Arena specifically, were dangerous places to be for Penguins players and supporters in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal.

They were a little more safe on the weekend after Game 4 when the Penguins flipped the script.

A sellout crowd, clad in orange and bent on mayhem while witnessing the club’s first true home playoff game in exactly 8 years, set the tone on Wednesday night as the hosts took a 3 games to none series edge.

The win, their first in 10 years on home ice in the postseason, was a textbook example of fan excitement feeding and influencing play on the ice and vice versa into a gigantic feedback loop.

"It was great to experience that again,” deadpanned Flyers captain Sean Couturier after his club’s 5-2 victory. “We’re happy, but I think we’re happy for the city, for the fans, they’ve supported us through the ups and the downs the last couple years.”

The chants, curses and epithets started as soon as Flyers fans spotted the sparse crowd of Penguins fans who dared cross any threshold: the parking lot, Xfinity Live, the XMA entrance. The wave of malevolence swelled before each team took warmups, then hit a crescendo between the announcement of the starting lineups and the drop of the puck.

We’re not looking for Shakespearean-level insults here. This is a hockey crowd, so guttermouth is appropriate. 

Right on cue, they wished for rigorous carnal exploits to be visited on the visitors. Sidney Crosby and all the starters apparently performed similar actions to vacuum cleaners and then another round of well-wishes for violent intercourse emerged for Crosby in particular after his death-dive when Garnet Hathaway nicked his half-shield with the tip of his stick blade in the faceoff circle late in the first period.

Bryan Rust – of all things a graduate of that holiest of institutions just outside South Bend – sent things over the edge with 3:44 gone in the second period and the Penguins holding a 1-0 lead.

Responding to an obvious elbow thrown by Flyers combatant Travis Konecny during a netmouth scramble around Pens netminder Stuart Skinner, Rust simply lost his mind, tackling TK, throwing off his gloves and punching him repeatedly until Konecny’s reflex to gain some leverage while prone on the ice threw his hands up and his legs out. Upon repeated looks at replays, I saw none of the blatant kicking motion the other side suggested was so dirty.

Regardless of who started it, who did the most damage, or who finished it, the officiating crew, led by referee Francois Saint-Laurent, handled the situation poorly. And the feedback loop between fans and team kicked right in.

The resulting 10-minute recess, ending on the final decision to throw everyone on both sides on the ice into their respective penalty boxes, gave the already skeptical Philly crowd – on the precipice of seeing a third consecutive game with the calls weighted to their opponents – ample time to ramp up their emotion and sustain their complaints. 

“We know what they’re about. We know what to expect,” Rust offered, implicating purpose on the part of the home squad and their fans to turn an NHL playoff game into a WWE spectacle. “We just gotta do a better job of managing those emotions.”

Again, the usual taunts did quite nicely. The zebras were no longer zebras but gaping donkeys rear ends. It didn't even matter that the call came from opposite ends of the stands and clashed in the middle. The meaning was crystal clear.

“I could sit here over a bunch of beers and tell you some stories from back in the day,” said Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet on Wednesday about that feedback loop in action, “I’ve lived it, I’ve seen it. For me, (the best part is) to see the young guys … seeing that crowd. It’s been a while.”

I’m going to stop short at the Penguins’ online camps’ assertion that “the crowd” somehow bullied the officials into giving the Flyers a power play from which they began to seize control of the contest. It’s the same nonsense Mister Snider used to cry about publicly when calls in Toronto and Montreal didn’t go the Flyers’ way half a century ago.

Besides, never attribute to maliciousness what can be defined as incompetence. 

On the other hand, armed with a psychological edge of having nothing to lose in Saturday’s potential series-deciding game which ended up 4-2 in their favor, the Penguins opted to let their play do the talking and leave the extracurricular nonsense behind. The locals, always spoiling for a fight, weren’t as up for the challenge although the noise from a second straight sellout crowd was constant from warmups through the opening puck drop.

Sure, when the Pens scored first, again, in the first period and the goal scorer was Crosby, there was a momentary uptick of uproar that registered through the broadcast. And then, very little. Because the visitors executed the Flyers’ road gameplan in reverse. 

Fans could have turned the tide just over a minute into the second period when the first major terrible decision for either side turned into a game-changing advantage for the visitors. Upon a dump-in by Rust, Flyers goaltender Dan Vladar handled the puck in the trapezoid behind his net and hilarity ensued:

After that goal which gave the Penguins a 2-0 edge … nothing … except disappointed whimpers from the partisans and punters. No loud, repeated bellowing of “Vladdy” like there had been during his two key stoppages the previous evening.

“It was my bad of hitting him,” Vladar said during Saturday’s postgame. “You do it in practice, you do it 20 times in a row, how many times (the puck goes past the forechecker) and it is what it is. Nobody’s perfect.”

A half generation ago that would have brought out ALL the Negadelphian boo-birds: the ones who reflexively protest an opposition goal, the ones upset at the team’s nominal MVP committing such an egregious error at a crucial time and the ones who just needed to vent when something managed to go Pittsburgh’s way. 

Even when Denver Barkey redirected a Zegras feed on the doorstep to reduce the Flyers’ deficit to one later in the frame, the momentary burst of excitement only gave way to momentary bursts of the classic “LETS GO FLYERS” chant. The feedback loop simply didn’t exist. 

And when Crosby won a board battle before Pens defenseman Kris Letang rifled home the eventual game-winner with less than 4 ½ minutes elapsed in the third period, no bangs, only whimpers from a throng more than 20,000 strong. 

“I thought we were a little more poised. That stuff’s going to happen, it’s the playoffs,” Crosby offered in the postgame pool interview. “We just have to be a little bit more smart about it. Ultimately, we’ve got to save our energy for in between the whistles. That translated to the game and the way we played.”

Was it really ‘smart’ though when cameras caught Rust in the midst of a hair pull the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills couldn’t have executed better on Flyers rookie winger Porter Martone?  

The Pens home crowd is bound to be infinitely more engaged on Monday night than in the first two games. The Flyers have the blueprint to quiet them and it’s up to the players to execute the plan. If not, there’s a third and probably final chance for the Philly faithful to exert their influence.

Johnny Hockey to be inducted into Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame

 

Photo courtesy of MassLive.com

In a press release issued this morning, the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame revealed that Gloucester Catholic High School graduate and former NHL forward Johnny Gaudreau would be officially listed among its inductees this coming November.

Gaudreau, its lone hockey entrant among the 23 inductees, died along with his younger brother, Matthew, in a one-car alleged drunk-driving incident in Oldmans Township, New Jersey on Aug. 29, 2024. 

"As parents, there is no greater joy than watching your child pour their heart into something they love and seeing that dedication recognized," said Guy and Jane Gaudreau in a statement which accompanied the announcement. "John loved hockey from the very beginning. From the time he was a little boy, the game was his passion and we watched with such pride as that passion grew into something truly special.

"To see his hard work, dedication and deep love for the game honored with induction into the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame fills out hearts in a way we cannot fully put into words." 

Born Aug. 13, 1993 -- the same day Phillies infielder Kim Batiste hit a walk-off grand slam to give the hosts a comeback 9-5 win over the New York Mets at Veterans Stadium -- Gaudreau was a 4th-round pick of the Calgary Flames in the 2011 entry draft.  

Gaudreau departed Gloucester Catholic High School in 2010 having led his team to an NJSIAA non-public championship, capping a torrid final two seasons where he posted a combined 51 goals and 57 assists. He was eventually inducted into the New Jersey High School Ice Hockey Hall of Fame back in 2018.

In his lone season with Dubuque of the United States Hockey League -- the American equivalent to Canadian juniors -- the speedy, left-handed shooter posted 72 points in 60 games. 

Then, across three seasons at Boston College, Gaudreau recorded 175 points in 139 appearances (78G, 97A). During his freshman season, he sprung for 44 points in 44 games as BC won its most recent national title. Two seasons later, he erupted for a nation-leading 80 points (36G, 44A) in 40 contests as the Eagles reached the Frozen Four in Philadelphia before falling to eventual national champion Union College. For this effort, Gaudreau was selected as the Hobey Baker Award winner as the best men's D1 player in the NCAA.

Gaudreau made his NHL debut immediately thereafter for the Flames, eventually departing Calgary following the 2021-22 season after recording 743 points in 763 games (243G, 500A), alongside 11 goals and 22 assists over 42 playoff games. He finished third in voting for the Calder Trophy as the league's top rookie in 2014-15, compiling 24 goals and 40 assists in 80 starts, including 8 power-play goals and 4 game-winning scores.

He spent his final two seasons with the Columbus Blue Jackets, totaling 33G & 101A over 161 contests.

Gaudreau represented the United States in multiple international competitions, helping the Stars and Stripes win a World Junior championship in 2013 when the tourney was held in Russia.

The 7-time All-Star selection led the league with a plus-64 rating in his final season with the Flames, while also voted the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy as the league's most gentlemanly player following the 2016-17 season.

One of the most striking moments from Team USA's gold-medal-winning performance, a 2-1 overtime decision against Team Canada in the Olympics this past Feb. 22, occurred when several of Gaudreau's would-be teammates carried his jersey onto the ice for a victory lap and later inclusion with a team photo as a part of their post-game celebration.

For more on the date, time, location and other inductees chosen for the ceremony, bang the link here.

Passion muted in Penguins-Flyers rivalry but discord still lingers

by Bob Herpen

Phanatic Hockey Editor

Once upon a time, the Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins were at each other’s throats 8 times a year. Then, it was reduced to six regular-season meetings and, upon the reversion of the NHL from six divisions to four back in 2013, only 3-to-4 matchups per season.

That familiarity bred contempt with playoff pairings between these Atlantic Division foes in 2008 (5 games), 2009 (6 games) and especially in 2012 (6 games) while the anger migrated on autopilot in the Metropolitan Division era when loads of the same players on both sides remained.

The hatred that was bred during the glory years of the league’s premier intra-state battle has waned significantly since then; only resurrected briefly when former Flyers D1 draftee and defenseman Mark Friedman switched teams during the pandemic and enacted his vendetta as a Penguin during the COVID-shortened 2021 season.

These long-time rivals only played each other 3 times this season, twice in Pittsburgh, with a combined 74 penalty minutes and two fights among the clubs. That’s exceedingly mild compared to the 312 PIMs over 6 games 14 years ago (led by Philly’s Zac Rinaldo with 46 PIM in 4 appearances).

With so much focus on the Flyers not having won a playoff round since 2020, it’s easy to forget – or straight up just not research – that the Penguins are dealing with a serious drought of their own, having failed to win a playoff series since 2018. 

So, I’m not really sure how Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang all being three-time Stanley Cup winners enters into the discussions of who has the greater playoff experience when one key battle is who can maintain composure between and after the whistle.

Plus, there’s only 4 players on either roster (Sean Couturier, Crosby/Malkin/Letang) who remain from those Battles Royale. Four Penguins and 10 Flyers made their playoff debut in the Steel City over the weekend. 

So how could these division foes, with the thick of the rivalry behind them and totally transformed rosters, possibly ramp up the emotion and give fans and writers a series full of collisions, explosions and straight-up bloodlust like they’ve been pumping up all over social media? 

The answer is, they can’t. It’s a different generation where a players’ personality is best downplayed and quotability off it has become a non-starter. The big, game-changing (illegal) hits are few and far between. That doesn’t mean it’s all Kumbaya.

Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet warned that his team would work the body right from the drop before Saturday’s series opener. Couturier laid a hit on Crosby on the former’s first shift and the snipe hunt was on.

“You’ve gotta be a physical team,” he noted. “The one thing is, you can’t run around. If you’re 6, 7 feet away, to finish your check is really not the smartest thing but if you’re 3 feet you gotta finish your check.”

The rut commenced officially when Crosby was locked with Flyers defenseman Jamie Drysdale during a Penguins offensive excursion just after the midway point of the first period. Somewhat puzzled by the prospect of needing Crosby to sit in the box after ripping Drysdale’s helmet off, the zebras had a decent confab before deciding the Golden Child would need accompaniment to the sin bin so Drysdale was sent for “interference.”

Late in the second and early in the third, Pens snit-disturber Anthony Mantha took up woodworking, brandishing his stick high for infractions against a pair of Flyers. Then, adding more drama to the final 1:09 of regulation of a 3-2 result, Crosby and Travis Sanheim hacked and slashed at each other drawing mutual minors.

“I think ‘Sanny’ set the tone. To play a ton of minutes and then to play physical like that, it’s hard,” Tocchet said in the postgame. “He really led the physicality for us.”

The Flyers also laid some obvious and surreptitious shots whenever needed; in the second period, Connor Dewar was met at center ice by Owen Tippett with ill humor and dumped on his dupa, Malkin was also targeted by an errant stick around the midsection on several occasions. 

“The kids, they were hooting and hollering a little bit, but what I like about (them) is that they’re even keeled,” Tocchet added. “I just like that demeanor, even keeled.”

Pittsburgh’s current 8-year playoff series victory drought is the longest for the franchise since it went between 1980 and 1989 without advancing. Down by one already on home ice, they’d have to play a better, more complete game on Monday night to avoid a bad situation heading back to Philadelphia.

“It’s going to be part of this series. We gotta stay out of it a little bit more,” a stone-faced Crosby offered after the Game 1 defeat. “And trust that when they do it and try to stir it up, they’re going to get penalized for it. But that’s more something they’re looking to do. We have to trust that they’ll be undisciplined.”

The action of Game 2 manifested itself with a series of tiny snipes rather than grand gestures.

The festivities began on the game’s third shift when Flyers winger Noah Cates plastered counterpart Connor Clifton against the end boards to the left of Pens goalie Stuart Skinner but the zebras and the hosts looked the other way. Then, just after the midway point, playoff newbie Rasmus Ristolainen cruised in on a 4-on-4 chance, took an extra whack at Skinner, and though Crosby rushed in to engage Risto, the former was the only one called to the box. 

Before the end of the first, Philly feeler Nick Seeler was held but was booked for a careless stick, then Tippett was openly booped on the snoot by Clifton as four sets of eyes looked anywhere but there. Couturier later flicked Malkin in the face with a stick blade in full view of an official with zero repercussions.

A quiet second period was punctuated by a bit of comical violence, when Travis Konecny drew friendly and enemy fire simultaneously, when Malkin maneuvered his own stick AND Ristolainen’s into Konecny’s face for a 2-minute penalty despite drawing blood.

Down by 2 with 20 minutes remaining, the Pens couldn’t afford to turn up the heat. And they behaved themselves until a scrap with 1:47 to play and the visitors up 3-0. From an o-zone scrum, Tippett received two uppercuts square in the mush from Mantha, drawing blood on the bridge of his nose and no notice from the officials.

Forget bulletin-board material, the crimson splotch on Tippett’s nose and jersey did more than 100 sharp-tongued words.

“I think you’d have to ask the guys who were on the ice,” Penguins head coach Dan Muse said coolly during Monday’s postgame when asked what prompted the late-game battles. “There should be frustration. We just lost two games at home. With the frustration comes (asking yourself) ‘how are you gonna respond?’”

Although the Penguins had gained a stranglehold on the overall series at home since the start of the 2021-22 season (8-1-1 since then entering play on Saturday), the Flyers possess one of the more unique road-ice advantages in the building which opened in October of 2010. 

After winning two on the road to start this series, their overall record there stands at 24-14-7, including a 6-2 record in the playoffs over two-and-a-stub worth of series.

In 2012, a relatively calm opening pair of games in Pittsburgh exploded into mayhem in Philadelphia. It’s 14 years later and there’s likely not gonna be any equivalent to Scott Hartnell getting his hair pulled by Craig Adams, or Brayden Schenn blowing up Paul Martin. Then again, who knows? 

Flyers fans will be ready on Wednesday. The players *better* be ready to match the crowd’s intensity. The Penguins have an impossible choice ahead, down 0-2 without winning the battles or the war, now without the protection of favorable officiating.

The little team that didn't seem like they could, finally did

From WGAL/Getty Images

by Bob Herpen

Phanatic Hockey Editor

A thought occurred while watching another late-night cable re-airing of the 1985 classic Michael J. Fox blockbuster, “Back to the Future" while fading in and out of consciousness.

Actually, a second thought. The first being “I wonder if I’m ever going to love a movie so much or if another movie will become so popular that I’ll see it SEVEN times in a theater in less than a year.” 

Here it is: If the National Hockey League playoffs were Doc Brown, the Orange and Black were the mercenary Libyans, doggedly pursuing the eccentric scientist to regain their stolen plutonium until cornering him in the Twin Pines Mall. 

Before the bazooka was figuratively pointed in its face, the league would be clutching its young sidekick by the lapels and screeching: “They found me. I don’t know how, but they found me.”

“Who?”

“THE FLYERS!!”

The long and winding journey to ending the franchise’s second five-season postseason drought finally hit the tape with Monday’s Game 81 3-2 home shootout victory against the Carolina Hurricanes, whose loser point assured them of a first-overall seat in the Eastern Conference and home ice through three playoff rounds.

Tyson Foerster and Dan Vladar joined the ranks of the illustrious, a mere 16 years and two days after Claude Giroux scored and Brian Boucher stopped Olli Jokinen of the Rangers to get the O&B into the postseason in Game 82.

It earned them a chance to exact revenge on the rival Pittsburgh Penguins, who will finish second in the Metro Division and have home-ice advantage in their best-of-seven series set to begin this coming weekend. 

With a 4-2 decision against the playoff-bound Montreal Canadiens in Tuesday’s season ender, Rick Tocchet’s young charges finished the post-Olympic portion of their schedule at 18-7-1 and 43-27-12 overall. Those 98 points are the most for the team in a full, uninterrupted season since 2017-18.

The much-maligned head coach with deep roots in this town finished third in team history among all full first-year Flyers bench bosses. Only Mike Keenan (53 in 1984-85) and Ken Hitchcock (45 in 2002-03) did better in their initial season.

Whenever that eventual Game 3 will be scheduled – and it appears it might be late next week based upon initial scuttlebutt that Game 1 will take place in Pittsburgh either Saturday or Sunday – it will be the first actual home playoff game taking place in Philadelphia since April 22, 2018.

The infamous coulda-been-Sean-Couturier-instead-it-was-Jake-Guentzel Game. 

Although the Flyers participated in eight contests as the host during the COVID re-started postseason the summer of 2020, all were held inside the Canadian bubble, including a season-ending loss to the Islanders in a Game 7 played on Labor Day weekend. 

That terminal contest in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals 8 years back was a Sunday afternoon start and an international broadcast. Looking to avoid elimination as well as to claim their first home victory in the series, Dave Hakstol’s team bolted to a 4-2 lead in the second period only to see it evaporate into an 8-5 loss thanks to Guentzel’s 4-goal explosion.

Should the Flyers win either Game 3 or Game 4 after a loss, it would be their first positive home-ice playoff decision in a decade. They didn’t win any of the three against the Pens in 2018. Rather, during Hakstol’s rookie season behind the bench, the draw was the Washington Capitals, in an Eastern quarterfinal in which the Caps badly outshot their opponents almost every night.

On Apr. 20, 2016, the Flyers came alive long enough to stave off elimination and a potential sweep with a 2-1  in Game 4 of that set. Andrew MacDonald netted the game winner in the 2nd period and Michal Neuvirth stopped 31-of-32 pucks. 

Playoff Recaps

Whenever this series commences, it will be the eighth between these cross-state rivals. Here are brief recaps of the previous five:

1989 Patrick Division Finals - Flyers won, 4 games to 3. Big things were expected of a Pittsburgh squad featuring three-time Cup champion Paul Coffey on the back end, while Philadelphia limped to a fourth-place finish in the early stages of clearing out a veteran defense corps. Nothing of consequence happened until Mario Lemieux's superhuman 8-point effort in a 10-7 Game 5 victory, but Philly took Game 6 at home and then stole Game 7 at the Civic Arena.

Most memorable moment(s): Scott Mellanby mocking the Pens by imitating Rob Brown's windmill after sealing the series with an empty netter, and ex-Pen Mike Bullard reportedly flipping off the locals after the handshake line.

1997 Eastern Conference quarterfinals - Flyers won, 4 games to 1. While the Penguins were busy bronzing Lemieux in the wake of his first retirement, the Orange and Black used their opponents, who skidded into the postseason with an 8-18-3 record, as a mere warmup for future playoff matchups. The Flyers set a still-standing postseason record with 53 shots in a Game 3 victory.

Most memorable moment: Rod Brind'Amour's two shorthanded goals on the same Penguins power play to pull the hosts out of an early funk in the clinching Game 5.

2000 Eastern Conference semifinals - Flyers won, 4 games to 2. Typical for the Dead Puck Era, Craig Ramsay's club failed to capitalize on home-ice advantage to start, dropping two in a row before running off four straight to advance.

Most memorable moment (that everyone was awake for): Rookie defenseman Andy Delmore's mid-afternoon hat trick to cement Game 5.

Most memorable moment (insomniac edition): Keith Primeau ends an 8-period marathon on the game winner and series shifting score at 2:30 AM.

2008 Eastern Conference finals - Penguins won, 4 games to 1. Pittsburgh steamrolled a younger Flyers club not expected to advance past the first round, but who limped to the Cup semifinals with a host of injuries, none bigger than the first occurrence of defenseman Kimmo Timonen's blood-clotting disorder which ended his season prior to this series.

Most memorable moment: N/A

2009 Eastern Conference quarterfinals - Penguins won, 4 games to 2. After the Pens intentionally tanked the last 2 games of the previous season to gain a favorable matchup with Ottawa, they couldn't bluff their way out of this one. Although goaltender Martin Biron registered a heroic Game 5 shutout to stave off elimination, an ill-timed Game 6 fight between Max Talbot and Dan Carcillo turned a 3-0 Pittsburgh deficit into a series-ending 5-3 win.

Most memorable moment: The Flyers d-core being routinely pushed around deep in their zone near Biron was the impetus for the free-agent acquisition of Chris Pronger.

2012 Eastern Conference quarterfinals - Flyers won, 4 games to 2. Where. To. Start. The playoff series between these clubs is the standard by which all others will be viewed. Stefon was right, this best-of-seven had everything: Multiple blown leads by the team with the home-ice advantage in the first 2 games; double hat tricks; Philly fans' hatred and bloodlust showing up loudly at least 30 minutes before *warmups* for each of 3 home games; hair pulling and biting; a potential sweep derailed by a 10-goal road outburst; collisions, explosions; Bryzgalov's spacey quotations win or lose; Claude Giroux's hit on Sidney Crosby and opening goal on the first shift of Game 6.

Most memorable moment: Sam Carchidi's evergreen, engagement-bait tweet declaring Giroux eclipsed Crosby as the best in the NHL.

2018 Eastern Conference quarterfinals - Penguins won, 4 games to 2. A series that nobody could get a handle on. The Flyers completely failed to show up in Games 1 through 4 and it was only by the grace of the hockey gods Steve Mason singlehandedly won Game 2. The Pens failed to show up in a potential elimination game on home ice, then ... well ... see above for Game 6.

Most memorable moment: Couturier's hat trick which couldn't prevent a season-ending defeat.

All shared sorrow is valid but rarely equal

One of my final tweets upon Monday’s win dealt with the release of emotions from a weary fanbase after the playoff berth was secured.

I don't want to gatekeep the feels here, but this half-decade drought wasn't nearly as painful in a league where 16 of 32 fail to secure a playoff bid each year.

The #LetsGoFlyers' last 5-year playoff pause, from 1990-94, happened in a league when only 5/6/8/10 missed out.

— Bob Herpen (@pelle31lives) April 14, 2026

Let me explain.

When the Flyers descended into chaos both above and on the ice from 1989 to 1994 and ended a 17-year playoff streak, the NHL was a small league rapidly expanding but one in which losing teams were regularly welcomed to the Stanley Cup chase. Two years before the club’s slide into oblivion started, the Maple Leafs made the playoffs with only 21 wins and 52 points since 1 through 4 in each division, regardless of record, earned berths. 

In 1990, with injuries rampant, a change in the captaincy and trades which dismantled what could have been a proper rebuild if then-president Jay Snider’s plan was enacted, the Flyers missed out by 3 points. The Islanders, which won only 3 games from mid-February on, finished 4th in the Patrick Division and made it. They earned that berth by beating the Flyers on the second-to-last day of the regular season.

The following year, despite a lack of depth in the wake of near-season-long injuries to veteran leaders Mark Howe and Tim Kerr, Paul Holmgren had the team in 3rd place at the start of March, but a 2-10-2 crash sunk them into 5th with only the rebuilding Islanders to cushion their fall. In those 2 years, only 5 teams out of 21 DIDN’T make the playoffs.

In ‘92, a near-complete lack of scoring doomed Holmgren and his successor, Bill Dineen and the club finished in last place again. With the addition of San Jose, only 6 teams were left out.

Eric Lindros arrived the following fall, and the home squad was almost mathematically eliminated when an 8-game win streak to close out the regular season had them tantalizingly close. Sixteen of 24 teams entered postseason play. And in ‘94 with Anaheim and Florida joining the NHL and 16 of 26 clubs playing meaningful spring hockey, a hot start fueled by heavy offense collapsed on itself when Lindros was hurt and never recovered.

And then, the start of the ‘94 season was delayed from October to late January and the Flyers didn’t get hot until late March before finally locking down a playoff spot in late April.

It is frustrating, but so totally different, when even a legacy franchise can sit among exactly half the league which fails to make the postseason each year. You need at least 92-94 points to make it and that does cushion the blow when the retool-that’s-not-a-rebuild doesn’t achieve linear progress. 

In 2021, the season was over once the Flyers lost, 9-0, at Madison Square Garden on St. Patrick’s Day. In ‘22, it was a wrap by MLK Day and the next year it was obvious by St. Practice Day there would be no playoff charge. Sure, 2024 was maddening among the twisted conspiratorial logic that Torts threw that last game vs. the Capitals to screw over the Red Wings.

And last year was filled with nothing but 🗣dramaaaaaaa before and after John Tortorella was eventually ousted. 

To those fans under the age of 40, who are finally cutting loose: I saw your suffering, I shared in the grief and the relief, but you can exhale now. The punching bag head coach and your favorite players are dealing with house money from here on out. Expect the unexpected, even if that entails a slow start to next season, because, again, linear progress is largely a goal and a theory instead of reality. For everyone else over 40, we have too much of a 500-yard-stare from the first drought to have been messed up by the last few years.

Cat’s outta the bag

Did a Delco man have anything to do with the Flyers' late season push to a playoff berth?

I was sitting on this for the last month and waited for the right time to talk about it, just in case I spoiled the karma or called down the thunder by demonstrating the sin of pride. One way or another, the news was going to become public with some kind of postseason run either on South Broad Street or East Baltimore Pike.

You’ve heard by now about the family which traveled to Vatican City and called out to Pope Leo XIV in St. Peter's Square armed with a custom-made orange home Flyers jersey, right? 

It’s been about 4 weeks since Michael Culin stood in St. Peter’s Square, signaling to the first American pontiff. Since that March 18 brush with greatness as the Flyers embarked on a three-game California Special – which they swept – they ended the season with an 11-4-0 record, blowing past Detroit, Ottawa, Columbus and the New York Islanders to claim the final playoff spot in the conference. 

I wrote in a column several weeks back that fans should enjoy the playoff chase no matter what happens, because the likelihood of all five things happening simultaneously was highly unlikely. 

What’s that old Yiddish saying, “Man plans, God laughs?” 

Except in this case, God’s laughing in a kind, benevolent way because the Culin clan loved their team enough and showed uncommon bravery to plead their case to the Pope directly with a personalized offering. 

Mike and I played on an over-50 dek hockey team in Springfield, Delco, last fall, a league housed in a conspicuously large red barn opposite a dying mall.

The Mooseknuckles were a hard-working, depth-oriented bunch with equal parts skill and grit, hot shots and heart led by captain and south Jersey resident John "Johnny Utah" Urbanski. Our lineup took a hit when Mike was sidelined early in the season with a knee injury.

After a subpar regular season that left our crew with a 4-5-1 record, the Knucks caught fire, going 6-2 through three rounds of the playoffs. We clinched the title on Dec. 30 in a deciding Game 3 by rallying from a 4-2 deficit to win, 7-4. With surgery looming, Mike suited up. His presence in limited minutes was typical of the team's ethos, even in a one-and-done roster situation. In this case, he's not local or regional Emmy bait. He's a teammate and friend.

Anyone have a count on whether Philly or Picksburg has more dedicated Catholics willing to put it on the line and petition the Lord with prayer over a bitter rivalry?

Spectrum Memories: Goodbye is Forever

by Bob Herpen

Phanatic Hockey Editor

First things first. 

The last meaningful game the Philadelphia Flyers ever played in the Spectrum happened on May 12, 1996. It was Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Florida Panthers, who ended up claiming a 2-1 victory in double overtime to take a 3-2 series edge.

After that, the *absolute* last game the Philadelphia Flyers played in their original arena was an exhibition contest against the Phantoms, their American Hockey League affiliate, on Oct. 7, 2008.

On April 11, 1996, with an uncertain number of potential playoff dates on the horizon, the franchise paid respect to its rich history in the building with a farewell pageant following a 3-2 regulation defeat of the Montreal Canadiens. Terry Murray’s club finished their season home slate with a 27-9-5 record, the 11th time in club history they won as many games as the host. 

The others were:

36 - 1975-76 (still a franchise record)

33 - 1985-86

32 - 1974-75; 1984-85

29 - 1977-78; 1982-83; 1986-87

28 - 1973-74

27 - 1972-73; 1979-80

The centerpiece of the remembrance was the pairing of Flyers past and present for one final turn around the rink. I wonder who was the ad wizard who came up with the dramatic idea for these fan favorites to make their skate in almost complete darkness save for a spotlight that followed each set as they moved from center ice at one end of the boards to the opposite side. 

Exactly one month earlier, the Habs made headlines throughout the hockey world with an elegant and emotional ceremony to close down the Fabulous Forum. Hart, in remarks later in the video below, relayed the sentiment from a rival with a birds-eye view of the NHL’s expansion:

Read about the Flyers' stretch run fueled by the acquisition of future Hall-of-Famer Dale Hawerchuk.

“(Former head coach and retired broadcaster) Dick Irvin of Montreal said to me that’s one thing the Flyers have had that so many teams have failed to have, and that is tradition. Now that tradition does not end tonight. Just one chapter ends and soon another begins with the playoffs and the new building.”

Tradition being a relative term. The Canadiens pre-date the establishment of the NHL. Their arena was built five years before the Great Depression. Their 24 Stanley Cups are still the gold standard by which all other sports franchises, save the New York Yankees, will forever be measured. They had an actual torch present, carried from the locker room onto the ice and passed down from captain to captain from surviving team leaders to then-current captain Pierre Turgeon. 

Bobby Clarke as the favored son and then president and GM drew polite and sustained applause. Maurice Richard, who hadn’t played a game since 1960, received a 7-minute standing ovation that nearly ground the proceedings to a halt.

“Montreal, of course, is the greatest organization in hockey,” then-Flyers emeritus presence Keith Allen was quoted by Rich Hofmann in the next day’s Daily News. “Their tradition has been in place for a long time. But in our relative youth, we’ve tried to emulate what they’ve done. Most of it, though, is that I think Eddie (Snider) always wanted a close-knit organization, a family atmosphere.”

Both teams have one thing in common since their moves into the CoreStates/First Union/Wachovia/Wells Fargo Center/Xfinity Mobile Arena and the Bell Centre respectively – neither has won a thing since. Only the Flyers have appeared in a Stanley Cup Final series on their new home ice, as the Habs did so in the 2021 COVID bubble.

“The Flyers immerse themselves in sentimentality on a regular basis,” Hofmann wrote in the same column. “Cynics have a hard time with it sometimes. The problem is, even cynics would have to recognize that it’s real. Flyers owner Ed Snider puts it as well as anybody ‘This is what we believe. This is us.’”

Flyers captain Eric Lindros, attempting to defend his Hart Trophy as the league’s best player, marveled at the level of good feelings the ceremony fostered.

“It’s like there’s no hard feelings around here. In some organizations, you hear how guys are upset, how they leave with bad feelings,” he was quoted in Hofmann’s column. “Here, they bring back so many different teams. It shows that once you’re a Flyer, you’re always part of the family.”

In the present, the victory in Game 81 gave the club its first ever clean sweep (4-0-0) against the most decorated franchise and extended their run of luck against the Habs to 7 straight wins since the infamous deal on March 9, 1995 which netted John LeClair, Eric Desjardins and Gilbert Dionne for Mark Recchi.

Find out how the Flyers started the 1995-96 season with a rout against these same Canadiens in the Montreal Forum.

It also clinched the Atlantic Division crown for the second consecutive season and provided the Flyers their 12th first-place finish in team history, while pulling them within 1 point of the Northeast Division-winning Pittsburgh Penguins with one game remaining for both clubs competing for the top seed in the conference. 

Not everything was well in the kingdom.

Ex-Canadien defenseman Kevin Haller, who showed flashes of scoring when asked to join the play in the previous year’s playoffs, had just 2 points over his previous 13 starts. November acquisition Pat Falloon, nabbed from San Jose to solve the scoring problems on the second line, only hit the net once in his previous 12 games. 

Lindros, who missed the previous two games, lamented his lack of scoring touch after wasting a pair of prime chances among his 5 shots on goal, saying “my hands were horrible, but everything felt strong.” 

Mikael Renberg, who played sparingly since Jan. 22 with a nagging stomach muscle injury, was far less than fully recovered and shunted onto the third line with Joel Otto and Shjon Podein. Head coach Terry Murray acknowledged the rush job, hinting that the third piece to complete the puzzle of the Legion of Doom might not join up any time soon. 

“I think he’s going to be a little off the game the rest of the way. Maybe 90 percent,’ Murray told then-Daily News hockey beat Les Bowen. “And that’s going to be OK if I can keep him in a situation where he’s not going to feel the responsibility to have to go out and score on a regular basis. He’s such an intense guy. The frustration level can set in with him very quickly.” 

Facing the inevitable spectre of facing a defensive-minded Florida or high-octane Pittsburgh in the playoffs, there was reason to be concerned despite the Flyers eventually finishing tied for second with the Bruins (282) to the Penguins (362) in total goals among Eastern Conference clubs. 

On Bump, Martone and the tyranny of trajectories

Courtesy of SportsTalkPhilly

by Bob Herpen

Phanatic Hockey Editor

So, fifth-round draft pick Alex Bump and first-round selection Porter Martone are receiving their baptisms of fire as the Philadelphia Flyers are fighting for the final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference.

With 5 games remaining in a tense stretch run, one collegiate prospect looks like a thoroughbred and the other a Clydesdale. Guess which is which.

Bump was taken five rounds deep in 2022 and proceeded to have three unspectacular seasons in American juniors before two surprising years (37 goals, 83 points over 80 games) at Western Michigan that included an NCHC tournament best player honor ahead of a national title. 

Martone was drafted No. 6 overall last June after two dominant campaigns in Canadian juniors, then proceeded to have a stellar season at Michigan State (25 goals, 50 points in 35 games) although Sparty bowed out early in the NCAA playoffs for a second straight season.

At 22 years old, with 45 games of total professional experience, Bump has established himself as both a shot taker and a shot maker. With 4 goals (on 20 shots, 20% shooting) and 4 assists in 14 starts, including a marker in his very first National Hockey League appearance, the dark horse has proven he can run.

That doesn’t mean he hasn’t had hiccups – head coach Rick Tocchet picking him as a healthy scratch for last Tuesday’s regulation home loss to the Red Wings after back-to-back shotless performances in two key Flyers victories was an obvious choice – but he responded on Saturday with an early goal.

And since his successful debut on March 7 at Pittsburgh, Bump has outscored the following name brands usually slotted in the top 6: Christian Dvorak (3), Trevor Zegras (2); Matvei Michkov (1). Only Owen Tippett (9) has more.

“Going down there and playing down there, I really saw a different player,” Tocchet said after Bump’s NHL debut in Pittsburgh on March 7. “It’s good that he (was) taking the information down there (in Allentown) and coming up here. Hell of a shot. Holding onto pucks, not scared of shooting pucks, that’s what we need.”

Martone, thrown into the thick of things at age 19 with 4 games at the NHL level, hadn’t done much except garner the laser focus of barely-functional referees and linesmen until his first NHL goal doubled as a hero overtime moment to beat the Bruins, 2-1, more than 24 hours ago. Just as he praised Bump’s slow-cook mantra to make the Show, Tocchet kept citing preparedness as a key factor for Martone.

“You can just tell he’s a hockey player. He loves the game. He’s a very engaged kid,” Tocchet said. “He’s not afraid to say something, on the bench talking about the power play to some guys (and said) ‘hey, I’ll be here, you be here,’ I like that – a young kid doing that?”

Just so we’re clear, you win games by scoring goals, not by running up shot totals, individually or collectively. The only way to ensure you score is to shoot the puck past the goaltender, not by throwing as many shots on net and hoping that the volume *eventually* wears down the guy with all the pads. That’s true inside and outside the high-danger areas.

More than that, it was the way Bump scores. On Long Island Friday night, he gathered the puck along the left-wing boards near the circle and fired high when no clear opening was visible on Islanders netminder Ilya Sorokin. However, Sorokin, not thinking a shot would come from that direction and angle, failed to seal off anything high and the Flyers’ second goal in an eventual 4-1 victory beat him under the crossbar and to the short side. 

Martone set an NHL record for rookies with 14 shots on goal in his first two NHL appearances. He’s up to 20 over four games. With one goal. That’s a 5% effort folks.

Even considering the brilliant timing of his first red light, Martone needs to strike more often to contribute anything meaningful as a high first-round one-and-done. Of his registered SOGs, all but one (a nifty glove save in a 1-on-1 situation by Detroit goalie John Gibson in Thursday’s loss) were of the “shoot at the net and see what happens” variety, where the goaltender didn’t have to move in any direction on the x or y axes, guess or cover open territory. 

Multiple times at Michigan State, Martone proved he can score from distance and he needs to embrace those chances instead of being satisfied as the down-low presence. And with Tocchet’s offensive plan focusing on less shot generation and more quality shots in prime scoring areas, there’s enough opportunity.

Here’s the thing: I recognize both players are asked to run the same course, but with staggered starting points. Bump was given more track to start and worked his way through, while Martone was slotted closer to the finish line and just needs to sprint to the tape. Both players, blessed with similar skill sets we *hope* the organization can’t foul up, are being asked to do the same thing – score goals.

From MSN.com

Unfortunately, Martone who was expected to do so right away, took 4 games to do it. Bump did it in his first. 

After all the huffing and puffing of the last 6 weeks, the Flyers still need to vault over three teams – Ottawa, Detroit and Columbus and stay there – regardless of exterior outcomes to ensure a playoff berth and every player needs to do what he was put on the club to do.

Bump, the fifth rounder, is holding up his end of the bargain. Martone, the first-round flash, finally has something to build on but needs immediate and repeat performances.

We’ve also been assured by one legacy media outlet that everything he did in East Lansing this year led up to this moment.

“An overtime winner as a first NHL goal, it’s pretty special,” Martone said when asked if it was a weight off his shoulders to finally produce after the work he put in so far. “Just to continue to keep playing my game, that’s who I am. I’m gonna get a lot of chances. For me, every shift (I need to) come back to the bench and reset.”

The instant glazing of Martone was such that shortages might be reported at several Krispy Kremes and Dunkin Donuts in the Delaware Valley upon start of business this morning. Worse, the MSU admin thought it was being clever but created a wicked self-own on Sunday evening, touting Martone as “built for big moments.” 

Take off the orange-tinted glasses and come down from the Easter candy sugar rush for a second. If Martone *really* was made for big moments, the Spartans (armed with two other Hobey Baker Award finalists in forward Charlie Stramel and goaltender Trey Augustine – also a finalist for the Mike Richter Award) wouldn’t have been eliminated in the NCAA regionals last week. Instead, Sparty would be set for Las Vegas next weekend and Martone would be pressing for a championship. 

As I close out this column, I’m reminded of some wise words from a fictional mastermind. Never get involved in a land war in Asia. Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line. Never let a good social post get in the way of reality. Never question the irrational optimism of Flyers opinion leaders.