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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.
— Bob Herpen (@pelle31lives) April 14, 2026
The #LetsGoFlyers' last 5-year playoff pause, from 1990-94, happened in a league when only 5/6/8/10 missed out.
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?
