It’s all about the details throughout a playoff series. Sure, we can look at the results from the two different teams and see just how they stack up against each other based no broad, team-wide statistics or how many games they won in the regular season, but it’s really all about the little minor narratives and the individual battles we see.
The Philadelphia Flyers’ upcoming series against the Carolina Hurricanes is going to be full of them. Little collisions between players or some overarching themes of some aspects of each team butting heads for the next week or so. It is a matchup guaranteed to be all about the neat and little battles that we will eventually talk to death throughout this series, for however long it lasts.
What could those battles be? We can think of some that are obvious, and some a little more fun. Sure, we can think about all the forward/defenseman collisions possible but without truly knowing what the matchups are going to be, all we can do is guess at some battles for who will outperform the other.
Dan Vladar vs. Frederik Andersen
Under the big umbrella of incredibly obvious battles between the Flyers and the Hurricanes is going to be in the crease. Two organizations who have horrible luck in acquiring goalies that are actually worthwhile, have been getting elite-level performances at exactly the right time.
For the Flyers, and this story has been beat to death by now, Dan Vladar willed the Flyers to their hot streak by being the perfect backstop to save the right goals and keep them in the race. And then they finally actually got to the playoffs and his performance continue to elevate this team and lift them into a series win, eventually.
While Vladar has been doing this almost all season long, Frederik Andersen is coming up big at the perfect time. After Carolina has suffered through an .874 save percentage for the 36-year-old Dane this season, Andersen now leads the entire NHL in save percentage these playoffs with a mind-bending .955 through all four games that he faced the Senators in.
Different paths to the same result that these are two goalies who are playing out of their mind at an opportune time. But of course, each series can be different and there is the potential of this being the downfall for either team. Vladar’s fatigue and minor injuries might finally catch up to him as he faces hundreds of shots come off the sticks of Hurricanes for the next week until he just crumbles to the ice. Or, Andersen can show the side of himself that we saw through the regular season and the realization that he is almost 37 years old rears its ugly head.
They won’t be able to directly collide into one another, but the goaltending matchup and battle is going to be one of the most interesting things about this upcoming series.
Flyers’ offensive depth vs. Hurricanes’ offensive depth
To back up a little bit and really take a gander at these two lineups side by side and what their strengths are, one thing really pops out: Just how deep these forward lineups are.
Obviously, the Hurricanes are little bit more heavy on top with the likes of Sebastian Aho and Seth Jarvis being consistently some of the best forwards in the division, but scrolling through, the teams are not too dissimilar when it comes to the overall scoring depth through the top nine. And more specifically, even trying to jam these forwards into certain roles and seeing how they stack up.
| Flyers | Hurricanes | |
| Top center | Trevor Zegras | Sebastian Aho |
| Top winger | Travis Konecny/Owen Tippett | Seth Jarvis/Nikolaj Ehlers |
| Second-line center | Christian Dvorak | Logan Stankoven |
| Scoring winger | Tyson Foerster/Porter Martone | Andrei Svechnikov |
| Young, hardworking winger | Denver Barkey | Jackson Blake |
| Shutdown center | Noah Cates/Sean Couturier | Jordan Staal |
| X-factor winger | Matvei Michkov/Alex Bump | Taylor Hall |
| The vets | Garnet Hathaway, Luke Glendening | Jordan Martinook, Eric Robinson, Will Carrier |
It becomes glaringly obvious that the Hurricanes do have a higher caliber of talent when looking at this, but with the beauty of being a young and dumb and unknown team, there are young players who could play above this projected role. Porter Martone could outscore and be more of an impact player than Andrei Svechnikov in this series and it wouldn’t be too crazy. Or even Tyson Foerster bouncing back and looking like himself would mean a lot.
And of course there’s the big elephant in the room of Matvei Michkov maybe turning up for this series right away and seeing what he can do against a different opponent and after his mid-series reset. The possibility of some Flyers forward coming up big feels just as likely as some Hurricane top dog being fairly quiet up against the Philadelphia defense.
But, that might also just be wishful thinking.
It is going to be a collision between two teams who are clearly built on depth rather than some other teams out west who are happy having a generational talent and then not giving him anything to work with whatsoever.
Whoever comes up big, it is guaranteed to be an interesting name and can mean a whole lot game to game.
Sean Couturier vs. Jordan Staal
To narrow down from the broad scope of looking at the entirety of the forward group, it’s the battle between two aging veterans doing what they do best and focusing solely on that for the entire series, that is incredibly interesting.
Sure, there could be a defender vs. forward collision that will leave us wanting to dive deep into the matchup philosophies from either coach, but looking at two somewhat old guys go at it and see who can do their job the best, is going to be worth the price of admission.
Both Sean Couturier and Jordan Staal have their jobs carved into stone: Be the shutdown center that can give a little bit of offense, but largely your job is to be right up against the top forwards on the other team so that the more offensively gifted players can have more room to potentially score some goals. Two players who have once been called one of the best two-way forwards in the sport, are now tasked with a shutdown job in the second round of the playoffs.
One side with more experience and more expectations weighing him down, and the other with the responsibility of being the captain but have embraced his new depth role and has performed incredibly well in the playoffs so far.
Couturier is going to have to deal with Aho and the potential for quickly being undone by Jarvis or Svechnikov on the flank, or face the unrelenting pressure of the Stankoven line as Blake skates like a madman and Hall provides that calm veteran presence with a cold-blooded killer lethal offense.
But Staal, is going to get Konecny crawling under his skin of Porter Martone trying to bully another veteran or Barkey skating straight at him licking his lips.
Something interesting is going to happen, no matter what. We’ll see which center can handle the job the best.
