Throughout the Flyers first round series against the Penguins, a common talking point that was brought up either on the broadcast, or in other media circles, was the gap in playoff experience.
Pittsburgh’s roster had nearly four times the postseason games played compared to the youthful Flyers, whose total was even boosted disproportionally by their grizzled fourth line. The majority of the important pieces that they were relying on had never been here before, and in the case of names like Porter Martone, Alex Bump, and Denver Barkey, were barely even NHL players.
While at first it looked like the Flyers would just run them over, as the Penguins started to climb back into the series with wins in Game 4 and Game 5, the rumblings started to begin again. Would the experience of names like Crosby, Letang, Malkin, and Karlsson be enough to carry themselves all the way back against a team that has never done anything near closing out a playoff series?
Game 6 was a crossroads, either you win and advance, or you lose and face the prospect of going back to Pittsburgh for a historic Game 7 with all the pressure in the world on your shoulders.
As the game wore on and the pressure on Dan Vladar continued to mount, it seemed like the Flyers were wilting. Like they had expended all their energy and mental focus early on in the series, and it was just a matter of time before the Penguins were able to capitalize on another bounce and open the scoring.
After essentially surviving the third period, they had a chance to re-group in overtime. The first ten minutes of the extra frame was much of the same.
The Flyers were outshot 7-1, and were again relying on Vladar to keep them alive, as the nervy crowd braced for the worst every time the Penguins would spend another shift cycling the puck. But once the mid-period ice scrape break occurred, the Flyers clawed their way back. Porter Martone nearly ended the game, with Arturs Silovs’ loose stick the only thing denying him of another massive playoff moment.
It all came to a head just under three minutes to go in the first overtime, when Noah Cates, who was just 4-of-11 on faceoffs up until that point, won the offensive zone draw back to Cam York. He then dished to Matvei Michkov, who had just returned to the lineup after being scratched for Game 5, and missed two earlier chances to break the deadlock. Michkov then lifted a backhand pass to the aforementioned York, who had gone 37 games without a goal before he decided to fire a wrist shot through a Cates screen that ultimately beat Silovs, and created one of the greatest moments in Flyers recent history.
It was the picture of resilience. A team that was tired, beat up, outgunned at the top level refused to say die, and in the process, may have discovered something inside of themselves that they didn’t know they had. The gutsy nature of grinding out a win in such a high-pressure spot is indicative of something special, and while it may be hard to remember in the moment that this team isn’t yet the finished article, this experience bodes amazingly for their future together as a team. They found a way to navigate the most heated rivalry in hockey despite not really knowing what it would take, and when the chips were down, they pulled it out of the fire in a way that you’d more closely associate with a roster of grizzled playoff vets.
The poise of the defense corps, chocked full of players that had been doubted and underestimated, to contain some of the most legendary offensive players in modern NHL history, was exceedingly impressive. Players like York and Jamie Drysdale weren’t afraid of getting into the corner or taking hits to make plays. Rasmus Ristolainen has turned “Playoff Risto” from a meme into an actual reality while eating massive minutes., Nick Seeler, Emil Andrae, and Noah Juulsen have all been steady options who have chipped in at various points, and the crown jewel in Travis Sanheim has looked like a true, stud, number one defenseman.
Even getting to the playoffs at all was a massive win for development and the future of the franchise as a whole, and that’s without even getting into the way it has re-energized a dormant fanbase in so many ways. But this win against the Penguins, against players that have tormented Philadelphia for quite literally a decade and a half, is just another level. It will further galvanize this group of players who already loved one another to begin with and give them expertise into what it takes to close out one of the most stressful matchups they could have ever had.
But for now, it’s Carolina, and a chance to make a special season even more so. It may be a new era in Philly, but for the foreseeable future, they’re going to continue playing with house money. Time to let it ride.
