The National Hockey League early Friday morning released the complete schedule for the first round Eastern Conference series between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Pittsburgh Penguins. The series gets underway on Saturday evening at Pittsburgh’s PPG Paints Arena beginning at 8:00 p.m. Eastern and will conclude on May 2 if it goes to a seventh and deciding game.
If there’s any advantage for the far younger Flyers, it’s that the first three games will be played every other night. Following game one, the second game will be played Monday night (April 20) in Pittsburgh before shifting to Philadelphia’s Xfinity Mobile for game three on Wednesday evening (April 22). There will be a two-day break between games three and four, the latter now slated for Saturday evening at 8 p.m. Eastern.
First round schedule for the Flyers-Penguins playoff series:
Game 1: Flyers at Penguins, 8 p.m., Saturday April 18 (ESPN, SN, TVAS)
Game 2: Flyers at Penguins, 7 p.m., Monday April 20 (ESPN, SN360, TVAS)
Game 3: Penguins at Flyers, 7 p.m., Wednesday April 22 (ESPN, SN360, TVAS)
Game 4: Penguins at Flyers, 8 p.m., Saturday April 25 (TBS, truTV, HBO Max, SN, TVAS)
Game 5: Flyers at Penguins, TBA, Monday April 27 (if necessary)
Game 6: Penguins at Flyers, TBA, Wednesday April 29 (if necessary)
Game 7: Flyers at Penguins, TBA, Saturday May 2 (if necessary)
The fourth game will mean the concert slated for the same night featuring Florence + The Machine will now be either canceled or rescheduled for a later date. The fourth game couldn’t also be slated for next Friday (April 24) as the Philadelphia 76ers will be playing the third game of their National Basketball Association playoff series against the Boston Celtics. There was speculation the Flyers fourth game would be played Sunday afternoon to accommodate the concert, but the logistics in repurposing the venue after a concert for a hockey game roughly 12 hours later, only to prepare the venue for an NBA playoff game that night, seemed like a stretch. So the Flyers will host the Pens in prime time next Saturday.
The times for games five, six, and seven, if necessary are to be determined. Game 5 is slated for April 27 in Pittsburgh, Game 6 will take place in Philadelphia on April 29. If a seventh and deciding game is required it will be on May 2, another two-day break between games. The time of those starts will be determined obviously by how the other playoff matchups are going both in the Western and Eastern conferences.
Clearly, the two-day break will probably help both teams nursing injuries, but a far younger Flyers lineup would probably prefer playing every other night. So the extra day off might benefit the Penguins slightly more given the age of the roster and best players. The Flyers would probably prefer the old-school scheduling when teams would play the first four games in five nights, with two back-to-backs and a travel day in between.
The first four games of the Flyers/Penguins series will be shown on TVAS, Sportsnet and Sportsnet360 in Canada while the first three games will be shown on ESPN in the States. Game four will be seen on TBS, TruTV, and HBO Max.
