Going into the 2025-26 National Hockey League (NHL) season, the Philadelphia Flyers were entering their sixth year of a grueling rebuild. The Flyers had not made the playoffs since their second round exit in the 2019-20 season, and the team was not expected to make much noise going into this year. But against all odds, Philadelphia made the Stanley Cup Playoffs and defeated their rival, the Pittsburgh Penguins, to advance to the second round. For a team that has spent years searching for a direction, this roller coaster season has finally brought the franchise hope.
The Flyers had an impactful offseason with some question marks coming into the year. Their two most notable acquisitions were center/forward Tervor Zegras and goaltender Dan Vladar. Zegras was coming off two injury-riddled seasons, but the Flyers took a chance hoping he could return to his prior excellent play. Vladar, on the other hand, has been a near-premier goalie since 2020, the Flyers were hoping to unlock another level of his game. In recent years, the Flyers struggled to find consistent goaltending, Vladar finally added stability between the pipes. The final big offseason move was hiring veteran coach and Flyers Hall of Famer, Rick Tocchet, as head coach.
The Flyers started the season off strong, holding a 15-8-3 record to start December. However, on Dec. 2, Flyers key contributor Tyson Forester went down with an injury, expected to miss a large portion of the season. This injury unfortunately sparked a difficult stretch for the Flyers. Their record sat at 25-20-11 entering the Olympic break on Feb. 6, losing 12 of their previous 15 games before the break. The team sat eight points out of a playoff spot at the time.
A week following the Olympic break, on March 1, the Philadelphia Flyers had a 3.8 percent chance to make the playoffs (according to moneypuck.com) with six weeks to play.
The Olympic break was a major turning point for the Flyers season as it sparked a dramatic turn around for the team while they made their playoff push and fully embraced an “underdog” mentality. Led by Travis Konecny, Matvei Michkov, reemerging superstar (and New York native) Trevor Zegres and Dan Vladar, the Flyers were the hottest team in the NHL following the Olympic break, going an impressive 18-6-1.
The return of Tyson Foerster on April 2 and callup of Porter Martone also helped push the Flyers towards a playoff spot.
On April 12, the Flyers clinched their first playoff spot since 2020 and made NHL history by becoming the first team to make the playoffs after being nine or more points out of a playoff spot with 22 games or fewer remaining in a season. They finished the regular season with 98 points, their most in a season in eight years. Their round one matchup came against the rival Pittsburgh Penguins, sparking another chapter in the Battle of Pennsylvania.
The Flyers went into Pittsburgh for games one and two as underdogs with +135 odds to win the series. An ESPN insider went as far as to say “[Philadelphia] gets swept in the first round.” This narrative quickly changed.
Philadelphia stole game one on a game-winning goal by rookie Porter Martone, who just four weeks ago was scoring for Michigan State University. Game two was taken over by Vlader, who pitched a shutout to send the series back to Philadelphia up 2-0.
Pittsburgh started game three hot, scoring early and quieting the wild crowd in Philadelphia. Midway through the second period, Travis Konecny and Bryan Rust caused a huge brawl which saw 11 penalties between the two teams. Immediately following the brawl, the Flyers scored three goals in the second, eventually cruising to a 5-2 victory to go up 3-0 in the series.
The Penguins made the series interesting, winning the next two games to force a game six. Game six was an incredible goalie matchup between Artūrs Šilovs and Dan Valdar, which saw 77 minutes of scoreless hockey in Philadelphia. With 2:30 remaining in Overtime, Flyers Cam York sniped the puck from deep in the offensive zone for a series clinching goal, launching his stick into the crowd in celebration.
The Flyers advance to the second round and will meet the powerhouse Carolina Hurricanes. The Hurricanes are the heavy favorites in the second round, the Flyers will continue to embrace the underdog role and look to upset Carolina to advance to Conference Finals for the first time since 2010.
