The series isn’t over, and the Flyers still have one more win to get to the second round, but thus far Philadelphia has been perfect. They are shutting down one of the better offensive teams in 2025-26 while at times putting on a defensive clinic that hasn’t been seen in some time. Heading into the series, much was made of the fact how deep the Penguins were, with a dozen players scoring 13 or more goals. So even if the Flyers somehow stopped Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, they still had the likes of Egor Chinakhov, Anthony Mantha, or youngster Ben Kindel, among others, to contain.
Well, through nine periods, the Penguins have all of four goals. Nine of those 13 players who made this great “depth” are still looking for their first goal while Malkin — a few months shy of 40 — leads the club with half the team’s goal output. Bryan Rust has one. Erik Karlsson has the other. That depth they possessed after 82 games looks rather shallow this post-season for Pittsburgh, with nobody doing much of anything thanks to Philadelphia’s stifling defense.
On the other hand, Philadelphia has 11 players with two or more points. Although Porter Martone has gotten a lot of the spotlight (and well-deserved) with two game-winning goals, his three points ties him with Rasmus Ristolainen, Trevor Zegras, Sean Couturier, and Jamie Drysdale atop the Flyers. On the other side of the coin, Philadelphia has four players who have yet to register a point. One is defenseman Emil Andrae, who only has Game 1 to his credit before being out with an upper-body injury. Other than that, Tyson Foerster, Cam York, and Matvei Michkov are still looking for their first points.
A beautiful balance among four lines
When the experts looked at the Flyers, many people believed if you stopped Trevor Zegras and/or Travis Konency, then the Flyers would be extremely hard-pressed to create scoring chances. The anemic power play only drove that point further home. What nobody could have expected was that the fourth line of Sean Couturier, Garnet Hathaway, and Luke Glendening would have six points combined through three games.
Earlier this season, the fourth line of Rodrigo Abols, Nic Deslauriers, and Hathaway, had one point combined from the opening game against Florida through to Dec. 9. Carl Grundstrom had a point and Nikita Grebenkin (who was up and down in the lineup) had four by that time. Assuming those five players all earned those points on the fourth line, that’s still six points in two months! Or what this current playoff line has done in three games.
Further to that, the balance means that teams like Pittsburgh (or, if the Flyers get to round two, their next opponent) have a hard time matching lines. If all four lines can pitch in offensively, especially as they did in Game 1 and Game 2 where the ice was tilted in Pittsburgh’s favor, then it bodes well for Philadelphia continuing into the playoffs for another week to 10 days at least.
What makes the balance also highly effective is that if Foerster and/or Michkov are struggling a little bit, as they seem to be when it comes to registering points, that pressure to pick up the slack shouldn’t be quite as urgent. Had the Flyers relied just on four or five highly-talented players to earn the lion’s share of points, they probably would be up one game or down a game versus the Penguins heading into Game 4 Saturday night. And both Foerster and Michkov would be gripping their sticks a lot more, or possibly cheating more to make an impact. Yet, by enabling Foerster and/or Michkov to work through their mini-slump while still stacking wins, it’s the best-case scenario for Philadelphia.
Embodiment of a team
To return to the 11 Flyers who have two or more points through three games, by comparison Montreal has five, Minnesota has seven, Vegas have six. Of course, some of those teams have played only two games thus far, and could add to that total in their respective Game 3. Regardless, it demonstrates how everyone on the Flyers is contributing. Further to that, eight of the 11 goals they’ve scored have come five-on-five whereas the Pens have a pair five-on-five. The Flyers also have more goals on their rather paltry special teams (three) than Pittsburgh does five-on-five. Everybody is pulling their weight. And further to that, it appears that the Flyers are a far tighter unit on and off the ice than their Pennsylvania counterparts.
Last night head coach Rick Tocchet pointed to just how tight the club was in the locker room and off the ice. This after seeing Trevor Zegras scoring and heading directly towards the penalty box to celebrate with the handful of teammates in there whooping it up. And Nick Seeler near the Flyers’ bench after making it 3-1 in the second period doing much the same. “I’ve been in the game for 40 years and I’m not just saying that, this is one of the tightest groups,” Tocchet said. “For me even as a coach and as a player, it’s very, very tight. Like I’m around them a lot in Pittsburgh there’s team meals and after the games they’re together, they play cards. There’s a big group of guys, there’s not much loners around. We always have eight or nine guys going to dinner.
“I have nothing to do with it, it’s all them. Even when I got here you could tell it was a close group. And whoever was brought in, the new people that have come in, they just got into the group. Guys like Dvo (Christian Dvorak), Vladdy (Dan Vladar), they just kind of go into the group. So I give the guys a lot of credit over the years, of just morphing into that group.”
There’s no metrics to measure intangibles like team chemistry, culture, or character in the locker room, or if there’s cracks or division in those same area. One only has to look at what Tocchet’s last season in Vancouver was like to see that personality clashes can destroy a franchise. What’s evident is the Flyers are one victory from being one of eight teams remaining in the Stanley Cup hunt. And they could be the first to punch their ticket in! With a balanced attack from the top line to the fourth line, it’s apparent the Flyers are playing for the crest on the front. And also playing for the other names on the backs of those jerseys.
Stats courtesy of ESPN and Natural Stat Trick
