In his first season as Head Coach of the Philadelphia Flyers, former Vancouver Canucks Head Coach Rick Tocchet has advanced to the second round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs. With their win today, Tocchet, ex-Canucks defenceman Noah Juulsen, and the Flyers have managed to save themselves from a potential series comeback from Artūrs Šilovs and the Pittsbrugh Penguins.
The most notable part of this series was the Penguins’ quick shift in starting goaltenders. Šilovs stepped in for Stuart Skinner in Game 4, winning his first two games and saving Pittsburgh from being swept in the first round. He recorded a SV% of .900 or more during these two games. In Game 6, he stopped all but one of the 31 shots he faced, with Philadelphia ultimately ending the series in overtime by a score of 1–0.
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Tocchet spent nearly three seasons as the Canucks’ Head Coach, helping Vancouver to Game 7 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Finals in his first full season behind the bench. During that season, the Canucks registered a record of 50–23–9, winning the Pacific Division at the end of the regular season and earning Tocchet his first Jack Adams Award. He parted ways with the organization at the end of the 2024–25 season, joining the Flyers on a five-year contract.
Also a member of the Flyers is Juulsen, who spent four seasons with the Canucks organization before also heading to Philadelphia during the 2025 off-season. The defenceman has played in six of the Flyers’ games this post-season, putting up two assists in this span of time.
In the Metropolitan Division Final, the Flyers will face another former Canuck in Jalen Chatfield and his team, the Carolina Hurricanes. The Hurricanes also swept their first-round series, eliminating former Canucks Head Coach Travis Green and the Ottawa Senators from the post-season.
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