Only five games are remaining for the Philadelphia Flyers in the 2025-26 season, and for the first time in almost three months, the team sits in a playoff position. Since the Milan Cortina Olympics concluded, only the St. Louis Blues, Buffalo Sabres and Montréal Canadiens have played better hockey than the Flyers (.690 points percentage, 14-6-1).
Even though they sold at the trade deadline, the Flyers are on the cusp of ending a five-season playoff drought, tied for the longest in franchise history. They won’t finish their regular season until next week, and making the playoffs wasn’t a mandate for the team entering the season. But there should be urgency for the Flyers to take control of their position in their three remaining games this week.
Schedule Situation
It isn’t an easy path to the playoffs for the Orange and Black. Two of their five remaining opponents are in playoff spots, and two more are barely on the outside of the bubble. That makes it paramount that the team takes advantage of the one team outside of that picture, which happens to be the first team they play.
The New Jersey Devils aren’t a pushover. They’d be in a playoff spot in the Western Conference, and they’re 6-3-1 in their last 10 games. But they’re all but mathematically eliminated from playoff contention and just fired their general manager. The Flyers haven’t played them since November, when the Devils were a much stronger team, and the Flyers still managed to hang 11 goals in two games, winning 6-3 at home and 5-3 on the road.
Of course, the Flyers have looked comfortable playing away from Xfinity Mobile Arena as of late. After dropping their first post-Olympic road game, the Flyers have won nine of their last 10 away from home, beating teams in solid playoff standing in the Minnesota Wild and Pittsburgh Penguins, as well as fellow bubble teams such as the Detroit Red Wings and, in their last road game, the New York Islanders.
Speaking of Detroit, that’s who’s up second on Philadelphia’s three-game road trip this week. The Flyers have also played the Red Wings twice this season, although both of those meetings are within the last three weeks.
Both times, the Flyers have looked like the superior team. They jumped out to a 4-0 lead on the road on March 28 (although they nearly let it slip away). On April 2, they carried play to the tune of a 73.48 expected goal share at 5-on-5, their third-highest single-game total of the season (per Natural Stat Trick). They didn’t come away with the victory, but if they play that well again, there’s a good chance the result will be different.
They’ll play their final road game of the regular season on Saturday against the Winnipeg Jets, who have surged their way back into the playoff race. That won’t be an easy game to win, although if it’s tied late, both sides should be more than fine with securing a point by reaching overtime.
But the difficulty of opponents ramps up significantly from there. The Flyers close their season with two games at home, but it’s a back-to-back with the formidable Carolina Hurricanes and Canadiens. Both teams have already clinched playoff spots, and Carolina should have the Metropolitan Division wrapped up by then.
However, both may have seeding to play for still, especially the Canadiens in a crowded top-three in the Atlantic Division. Carolina currently holds just a two-point lead for the top seed in the Eastern Conference, too. Even if that isn’t a factor, teams can’t rest all or most of their starters like in the NBA or NFL for a meaningless late-season game. A few players could come out for both teams to rest, but not enough to render them unimposing.
Long-Term Outlook
When the Flyers brass was doing their media rounds before the start of the 2025-26 season, they had a clear emphasis on what they expected from the on-ice product. They certainly didn’t want to be at the bottom of the Eastern Conference like they were in 2024-25. But it wasn’t playoffs or bust.
“There’s no pressure from me in my role or from an ownership perspective beyond me to say we need to do something drastic, dramatic because we need to have a better shot at the playoffs,” said Flyers governor Dan Hilferty in September. “This is about that steady growth.”
“I understand people want to talk playoffs and all these variables,” said head coach Rick Tocchet shortly before starting his first season as head coach. “I don’t know. But for me and my staff, we’re going to be judged, for me, on how we’ve got to get guys to maximize their talent.
With Porter Martone officially a pro and Tyson Foerster back from injury, a lot of the high-end talent currently in the organization is on the NHL roster. Many of the players who will likely be most responsible for determining whether the Flyers can return to Stanley Cup contention in the near future are already here and will reap the rewards of however far the team progresses.
Some of those young players and veterans alike are still around from the 2023-24 season, when the Flyers were in almost the exact same position – one point on the right side of the cut line with five games to go. The main difference was that those Flyers were seven games into what ballooned to a nine-game losing streak. The current team’s vibes couldn’t be higher after Martone scored his first NHL goal for Sunday’s overtime winner.
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Eleven of the 20 players who suited up for Game 82 two years ago – which saw the Flyers eliminated not when they lost but when the Red Wings scored a buzzer beater in Montréal – are still with the team. They certainly remember the sting that came with that agonizing ending.
It should also serve as a lesson for today’s team to heed. While the Flyers had some memorable playoff clinches right at the end of their season throughout the 2010s, leaving things up to chance until the 11th hour doesn’t always end well. Philadelphia could stumble a bit this week and still make the playoffs. But they’d be better served taking care of business sooner rather than later.
“Well, that’s a learning lesson, right?” Tocchet said after Sunday’s win. “When you’re chasing somebody, it’s still hard, but when you’re getting hunted, it’s harder. So we’re gonna have to learn that.”
Scouting the Scene
There are six teams still in the mix for the final two playoff spots in the Eastern Conference. The Capitals are easily in the worst spot, holding both the fewest points (87) and most games played (78). They’ve started April with lopsided losses to non-playoff teams in the Devils and New York Rangers, although they did beat the Buffalo Sabres handily in between. Three of their final four games are on the road, including a season-ending showdown with the Columbus Blue Jackets on April 14.
Speaking of the Blue Jackets, they’ve got a massive meeting with the Red Wings tonight. The teams are dead even in points (88) and games played (77), with Detroit holding a slight edge in regulation wins. The Flyers will be happy if either team wins in regulation. On one hand, only Columbus can challenge them for a divisional playoff spot. But the Flyers also have a say in how the Red Wings finish with their game on Thursday. The other three teams Columbus finishes with are all in playoff position.
The Red Wings are in the midst of a four-game homestand right now that also includes the Devils. They’ve got one of the easiest last games of the bubble teams (at the Florida Panthers), but they do face the Tampa Bay Lightning right before. The Senators play the Florida teams in their next two games, followed by a huge game with the Islanders before finishing with two non-playoff opponents in New Jersey and the Toronto Maple Leafs.
As for the Islanders and new head coach Peter DeBoer, they’re at home for each of their last four contests. They have virtually a must-win game on Thursday against the Maple Leafs before the aforementioned Senators showdown. Like the Flyers, they also finish with the Canadiens and Hurricanes, getting Montréal in the first half of their back-to-back that ends in Philadelphia and Carolina on the second half of a back-to-back that starts there, too.
