What a world of difference the Olympic break served the Philadelphia Flyers.
The month of January proved to be very costly for the Orange and Black, as they went 4-8-3 in the month, including a stretch of 11 losses in 13 games before splitting their two February games before the break.
However, things have completely flipped since their return as they’ve gone 12-4-1 over their last 17 games, including a California sweep, recent victories over Detroit and Dallas, and three separate 3-game winning streaks – something they didn’t manage to pull off since November.
The path to the playoffs becomes a whole lot more complicated for all involved, but the Flyers have joined the party, and will be looking to put an end to their franchise-long 5-year drought.
This coming week is going to be a daunting task as they visit the Washington Capitals on Tuesday, return home to face off against Detroit on Thursday, and head back out on the road to play the New York Islanders on Friday before returning home to host the Boston Bruins on Sunday.
The Flyers are currently 3 points up on the Capitals with a game in hand, tied with the Red Wings (but lose out on the tiebreaker), are 3 points back of the Islanders with a game in hand, and 6 points back of Boston with a game in hand.
Those are just the teams they’ll be facing off against this week. They also have the Ottawa Senators, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Pittsburgh Penguins to focus on. They’re tied with Ottawa at 86 points, are 2 back of Columbus for the final Wild Card spot, and 2 back of Pittsburgh for the final spot in the Metropolitan Division.
Unfortunately, the Flyers will lose to almost anyone when it comes to the tiebreaker scenarios, so they’re going to have to come out on top in points. Nevertheless, they’ll be afforded great opportunities to do so with games against the aforementioned teams, as well as a third matchup with Detroit on the 9th of April.
Their late-season push has been orchestrated by a wide array of characters, including both goaltenders, Owen Tippett, Noah Cates, and Trevor Zegras among others.
Over their last 10 games, Tippett leads the way with 7 goals and 11 points, Cates has 5 goals and 9 points, and Zegras, Matvei Michkov, and Christian Dvorak each have 7 points. Dan Vladař is 4-1-1 over his last 6 contests with a .928 SV%, whereas Samuel Ersson is 5-0-0 since returning from the break with a .933 SV%.
The Flyers have also seen production come from the youngsters like Denver Barkey and Alex Bump, some of the veterans like Sean Couturier and Luke Glendening, and their defense has been a lot stronger as a complete unit with Emil Andrae rounding out the group.
Porter Martone, who just recently signed his ELC, is expected to make his NHL debut against Washington. His paperwork has been readied ahead of Tuesday’s matchup in D.C., so he won’t need to wait to make his debut in front of the home crowd on Thursday.
After all the hullabaloo from social media regarding the Flyers, it’s simply nice to see this team on a roll. They were never going to bottom out or come close to the basement dwellers this year, which put a lot of attention on their rebuilding plans and overall path.
Not trading Rasmus Ristolainen upset quite a big faction of the fanbase, but they’ve since gone 9-2-1 in their last 12 games post-trade deadline. The end result was either going to be missing out on the playoffs by a little bit or just squeaking in, and it seems to be following that path to a tee.
Enjoy the final weeks of the 2025-26 regular season while you can, this is the best they’ve looked since at least the early portion of the 2023-24 season. Martone’s arrival could be a huge X-factor, but this week’s slate of games will dictate their season, one way or the other.
