There’s a good chance Sunday’s game will be the hardest one remaining for the Philadelphia Flyers in the 2025-26 season. Not only were the Dallas Stars easily the strongest team left on their regular season schedule (and potentially a much harder matchup than a potential playoff opponent if they earned a divisional spot), but the game came in the second half of a back-to-back with travel with the team still at a point where they need a massive hot streak to have a chance of seeing the second half of April.
If their performance was any indication, perhaps they have an unlikely playoff push in the cards after all. The Flyers delivered a solid all-around performance, outshooting the Stars 30-18 and collecting 53.02% of the expected goals (per Natural Stat Trick) at 5-on-5.
But it was at 5-on-4 where the two regulation goals were scored — a power-play goal by Travis Konecny and a shortie by Arttu Hyry for his first NHL goal — and 3-on-3 where it ended, courtesy of a snipe by Trevor Zegras that electrified Xfinity Mobile Arena in a way it rarely has been for a hockey game over the last eight years.
First Isn’t Worst
Every season, it feels like there are one or two things you can count on consistently going wrong. Sometimes it’s the goaltending, sometimes it’s the power play (okay, it’s often both), sometimes it’s consistently giving up milestone goals (which did happen on Sunday). But a huge reason the Flyers are on the outside looking in is their propensity to give up the first goal.
In 45 of their first 66 games (68.2%), Philadelphia found themselves facing a 1-0 deficit. That’s close to a death sentence for any team, especially one of the league’s weaker offensive clubs. But ever since their California road trip, the Flyers have flipped the switch. Sunday marked the fifth straight game Philadelphia jumped out to a 1-0 lead, and the sixth time they’ve done so in their past seven games.
The Flyers didn’t necessarily come out of the gates flying on all cylinders. Other than a nifty power-play rush by Denver Barkey that ended in a post hit, the Flyers didn’t generate a ton of high-danger chances. But they also kept Dallas out of the dangerous eras, playing to a stalemate in the opening 20 minutes. Then, they took advantage of the Stars’ second penalty of the game, nearly connecting on a couple of pretty passing plays before Travis Konecny quickly spun to the front of the net and beat Casey DeSmith far side.
A lot has been made of the Flyers’ resilience this season, and not without good reason; they are ninth in the NHL with a .417 win percentage (W%) when trailing first. But they’re still way better (.654 W%) when they take the early lead. For a young team like the Flyers, you want to see growth in areas like that, and hopefully for them, this is a sign they’ve figured out how to start games on time much more consistently.
Clutch Genes
Over the last few seasons, and really the last 16 years, the Flyers have usually shrank when the biggest moments arrived. Whether it was chances to get back in a playoff race or a series or simply create some excitement, more often than not, the team wasn’t able to meet the moment.
That makes two moments from Sunday’s game really stick out. The first came late in regulation, when Zegras took a potentially contest-costing penalty in the final three minutes. The game was in the hands of the league’s second-best power play, and although they managed one shot, it was exactly what they wanted: a backdoor feed to Wyatt Johnston, who already has the Stars’ franchise record for single-season power-play goals with 24.
But thanks to Sam Ersson, he couldn’t get to 25.
Then, it was fittingly Zegras who delivered the winner, not just as redemption for taking the penalty but building off the legendary shootout prowess brought with him from his Anaheim Ducks tenure. It was somewhat similar to how he’d score a shootout goal, too, coming fairly slowly down the right wing (although not as methodically as his shootout approach), this time staying to the outside and finding a sliver of space to deposit the game-winning goal.
Suddenly, the Flyers are firmly in the thick of the playoff race. Seven teams currently have between 83 and 89 points, with two Metropolitan Division spots and the second Eastern Conference wild card spot still very much undecided. The bad news: the Flyers’ 23 regulation wins are four fewer than any of those teams, so they’re unlikely to win a tiebreaker. The good news: they do hold a game in hand on the Columbus Blue Jackets and New York Islanders, which they trail by two and three points, respectively.
What’s Next
Not one, not two, but three showdowns with teams right near the Flyers in the crowded Eastern Conference standings this week. They have two Metropolitan Division foes on the road; first, they go to Washington to try to keep the Capitals behind them, and then a critical contest on Friday to chase down the Islanders.
Related: Flyers’ Noah Cates Making Strong Case to Be a Selke Trophy Finalist
That Islanders game will be especially tough as it’s on the second half of a back-to-back, with the Detroit Red Wings getting another crack at the Flyers on Thursday after a near-mammoth comeback on Saturday, this time at Xfinity Mobile Arena. The teams will play once more back in Detroit on April 9, but if both teams don’t keep winning, it may not mean much.
