Who: Philadelphia Flyers (43-27-12, 98 points, 3rd place Metropolitan Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (41-25-16, 98 points, 2nd place Metropolitan Division)
When: 8:00 p.m. ET
How to Watch: Local on Sportsnet Pittsburgh and TVAS, national on ESPN and NBC Sports, streaming on ESPN+
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Pens’ Path Ahead: The series continues Monday with Game 2 at PPG Paints Arena on Monday night. Then the series swings to Philadelphia for road games on Wednesday and Saturday night.
Opponent Track: The Flyers snagged the final playoff spot in the East after finishing the season as one of the hottest teams in the NHL. Since the end of the Olympic break, this team went 18-7-1 to tie the Buffalo Sabres and Colorado Avalanche for the most wins in the league over that stretch. While the Pens were resting their starters, the Flyers finished the season out on a three-game win streak capped off with a back-to-back against the Carolina Hurricanes and Montreal Canadiens.
Season Series: The Pens and Flyers split this series in the regular season, although both of the Flyers’ wins came in extra time. The Flyers bookended the series with shootout wins on Oct. 28 and March 7. The Penguins outscored their in-state rivals by a combined score of 11-4 in wins on Dec. 1 and Jan. 15.
Hiden Stat: This marks the eighth all-time Battle of Pennsylvania, which officially ties the New York Islanders and New York Rangers for the most all-time NHL playoff series between in-state rivals, per NHL Stats.
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Hidden Stat II: The Flyers are the first team in NHL history to qualify for the playoffs after facing a point deficit of at least nine points 60 games into the regular season, per NHL Stats.
Getting to know the Flyers
Projected lines (from Friday’s practice)
FORWARDS
Tyson Foerster – Trevor Zegras – Owen Tippett
Travis Konecny – Christian Dvorak – Porter Martone
Denver Barkey – Noah Cates – Matvei Michkov
Luke Glendening – Sean Couturier – Garnet Hathaway
DEFENSEMEN
Travis Sanheim / Rasmus Ristolainen
Goalies: Dan Vladar, Samuel Ersson
Potential scratches: Garrett Wilson, Carl Grundstrom, Noah Juulsen
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Injured Reserve: Rodrigo Abols (fractured ankle), Nikita Grebenkin (upper body)
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The Flyers capped off the regular season by signing their No. 6 pick from the 2025 draft, Porter Martone, to an entry-level contract. Martone responded by putting up 10 points (four goals, six assists) in his first nine NHL games. He could be noticeable during this season for his size— he’s listed by the Flyers at 6-foot-3— and his habit of posting up in front of the net.
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Dan Vladar is likely to get the start in net against the Pens. He’s coming off a month of April during which he posted a 5-1-0 record, .921 save percentage and 1.81 goals against average.
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Rasmus Ristolainen, who is in his 13th NHL season, is set to make his playoff debut tonight with the Flyers.
Regular season stats
via hockeydb
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There are a few pieces of Flyers history on this stat sheet. Matvei Michkov is the first Flyers player since Simon Gagne in 2001 to start out his Flyers career with consecutive 20-goal seasons, per NHL Stats.
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Trevor Zegras also scored 26 goals in his first season with the Flyers, the most by any first-year player with the franchise since Wayne Simmonds in 2012, per NHL Stats.
Take a closer look at the Flyers’ 18-7-1 run since returning from the Olympic break, and there seem to be some clear issues with this team. Here are some stats from the Flyers over that span:
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Power play: 14.9 percent (30th in NHL)
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Penalty kill: 74.0 percent (26th)
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Shots per game: 25.1 (27th)
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Goals per game: 3.00 (21st)
But here’s where they excel:
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Shots against per game: 25.0 (5th fewest in NHL)
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Goals against per game: 2.38 (3rd fewest)
The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz provided a look at some of the Flyers’ midseason defensive changes in early March. As written by Kurz:
“A big part of it is just energy,” said Cam York. “We want to be as aggressive as we can in the (defensive) zone. I think the time off just let us refresh a little bit, mentally and physically. That goes a long way being able to defend hard and close out time and space for the other guys.”
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“Captain Sean Couturier said: ‘I think we’re just harder to play against by being more aggressive, taking away time and space.’
“That aggressiveness that York and Couturier mentioned is by design. Tocchet has attempted to simplify the Flyers’ defensive zone structure, even going so far as to move away a bit from the standard zone defense that he’s known for implementing in previous head-coaching stops.”
The Flyers don’t always get a lot of run support, so they’ve relied in large part on this shutdown defense at even strength during their late-season climb into the playoff picture. The Penguins’ ability to solve this could be key to taking control early in the series.
And now for the Pens
Projected lines (from Thursday and Friday’s practice)
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FORWARDS
Egor Chinakhov – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust
Tommy Novak – Rickard Rakell – Evgeni Malkin
Elmer Soderblom – Ben Kindel – Anthony Mantha
Connor Dewar – Blake Lizotte – Noel Acciari
DEFENSEMEN
Parker Wotherspoon / Erik Karlsson
Goalies: Stuart Skinner and Arturs Silovs
Potential Scratches: Ilya Solovyov, Justin Brazeau, Kevin Hayes
IR: Filip Hallander, Caleb Jones (season-ending shoulder surgery)
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Connor Dewar has been back at practice after missing the end of the regular season with a lower-body injury. Getting both him and Blake Lizotte back means that the Penguins will be able to reunite the fourth line of Dewar, Lizotte and Noel Acciari that clicked so well earlier this season.
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Justin Brazeau was the odd man out at practice this week now that Lizotte is back on the fourth line. The Pens also seem to be preparing to try Elmer Soderblom on the third line alongside Ben Kindel.
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As of Friday’s practice, the Penguins goaltenders hadn’t been told who will be starting Saturday’s matchup. Stuart Skinner certainly has the edge in experience after back-to-back conference final appearances with the Edmonton Oilers over the last two seasons.
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This will mark Erik Karlsson’s first time back in the playoffs since he went to the 2019 Western Conference Finals with the San Jose Sharks. It will also mark Egor Chinakhov’s first postseason action in the league.
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Both of the NHL’s active leading playoff scorers will be on the ice in Sidney Crosby (201 goals in 180 playoff games) and Evgeni Malkin (180 goals in 177 playoff games). Among active defensemen, only the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Victor Hedman ranks ahead of Kris Letang (90 goals in 149 games).
