The Philadelphia Flyers are playoff-bound for the first time since the COVID bubble in 2020 and will be rehashing their rivalry with the Pittsburgh Penguins, starting on Saturday night.
With the playoff schedule finally being revealed, the Flyers will be hosting Game 3 on Wednesday night, which will be the first postseason game they’ve hosted since Game 6 of the 2018 playoffs – when they were eliminated by the Penguins.
The tale of the tape between the two rivals is actually pretty interesting. Both teams entered the 2025-26 season with very little expectation as many had pegged the to finish at or near the bottom of the Metropolitan Division. They ended up defying the odds, claiming the final 2 divisional spots, but succeeded in very different ways.
Pittsburgh Penguins
The Penguins, a veteran-laden team, are still led by Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Additionally, veterans like Erik Karlsson, Kris Letang, Anthony Mantha, Bryan Rust, and Rickard Rakell featured prominently all season when healthy.
They do have young talent that played key roles including Egor Chinakhov, Ben Kindel, and Justin Brazeau, but the veterans have always taken centre-stage.
Crosby led the team with 74 points in 68 games played, which was good for his 21st consecutive point-per-game season. Karlsson followed with 51 assists and 66 points in 75 games, Rust with 29 goals and 65 points in 72 games, Mantha with a team-high 33 goals and 64 points in 81 games, Malkin with 42 assists and 61 points in 56 games, and Rakell with 24 goals and 48 points in 60 games.
They received an additional 18 goals from Chinakhov in 43 games, 17 goals from the 18-year-old Kindel, 17 goals from Brazeau, and 16 goals from Thomas Novak in 82 games.
Where the Series Can Shift
Where things will differ greatly will be in between the pipes as Artūrs Šilovs and Stuart Skinner had particularly below average seasons. Šilovs, who was acquired from the Vancouver Canucks, finished with a 19-12-8 record to go along with a .887 SV% and a 3.07 GAA.
The Latvia native was having a strong start to his season when he was 13-7-8 with a .901 SV% and a 2.70 GAA, which included a 5-2-2 run with a sparkling .935 SV% and 1.80 GAA, as he was trying to inch away from Skinner as the number one starter.
Unfortunately he struggled to close the season with a .850 SV% and a 3.60 GAA in 11 games, which included just 2 games with a save percentage above .900.
Comparatively, Skinner wasn’t any better after arriving to Pittsburgh mid-season in a trade that featured Tristan Jarry going the other way to Edmonton. He finished his first year with the Penguins holding a 12-9-5 record, a 2.99 GAA, and a .885 SV%.
Skinner had a decent early stretch with his new team when he went 7-1-0 in an 8-game stretch in January with a 1.60 GAA and a .934 SV%, but struggled to the tune of a 5-5-5 record, a 3.40 GAA, and a .872 SV% in his final 16 games.
It will be interesting to see who gets the nod for Game 1 as Skinner carries more playoff experience after having been in between the pipes for the Oilers over the last two Stanley Cup Final runs.
He wasn’t necessarily a standout in any of his last 3 playoff runs with an overall record of 26-22, a 2.88 GAA, and a .893 SV%. Last year specifically, Skinner posted a 7-7 record with 3 shutouts, despite a 2.99 GAA and a .889 SV%.
The Edmonton, Alberta native, was a tough watch in the Final though, as he went 1-3 with a 3.80 GAA and an abysmal .861 SV%. That was in contrast to his 3-4 record, 2.30 GAA, and a .909 SV% the year prior against the Florida Panthers.
As for Šilovs, he does have a decent track record after backstopping the Abbotsford Canucks to a Calder Cup last year, and featuring a strong 10-game cameo in the 2024 playoffs – under head coach Rick Tocchet – when starter Thatcher Demko got injured.
Philadelphia Flyers
The goaltending matchup will be under constant scrutiny and will be the biggest x-factor. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the Flyers feel a different level of comfortability in between the pipes with Dan Vladař.
The team MVP was a standout performer all season long and will be the x-factor for the Flyers. He posted a career-season with a 29-14-7 record, a sparkling 2.42 GAA, and a .906 SV%.
While Vladař wasn’t necessarily at his best this season against the Penguins, having posted a 1-1-0 record in 2 games with a 3.84 GAA and a .840 SV%, his work near the end of the season shouldn’t go unnoticed.
The Czechia native went 9-3-1 over his final 13 games with a .913 SV% and a 2.10 GAA, which included massive victories in must-win games against the Detroit Red Wings, New York Islanders, Boston Bruins, and Carolina Hurricanes.
Unlike his counterparts, Vladař has only played in 2 postseason games over his career, both in a relief role when he was a Boston Bruin in 2020 and a Calgary Flame in 2022. Nevertheless, Vladař was a different player in 2025-26, and will be relied upon heavily if the Flyers have any chance to move on to the next round.
However, Vladař isn’t the only performer in the Orange and Black. The Flyers were paced by Travis Konecny’s 27 goals and team-high 68 points, Trevor Zegras’ 26 goals and 67 points, and Matvei Michkov, Christian Dvorak, and Owen Tippett all hitting 51 points.
They were also rejuvenated by the return of Tyson Foerster (13 goals in 29 games) and the arrival of Porter Martone (10 points in 9 games). Noah Cates quietly put up 18 goals and 47 points as well, while Travis Sanheim led the back-end with 11 goals and 37 points.
What’s important to note is that their offense looked a lot better after the Olympic break, and a big part of that was because of Michkov. He paced the team with 22 points in the final 26 games, and unsurprisingly his linemate, Cates, trailed only him with 21 points.
Zegras, Dvorak, Tippett, Konecny, Sanheim, and Sean Couturier all finished with double digit points during that span, but it was Michkov who had a particularly under-the-radar finish to the season, which will bode well for both player and team.
Where the Flyers and Penguins Differ
The Flyers aren’t known for the offensive flair but they found ways to win tightly contested, playoff-like games down the stretch, which will bode well for their chances in this series.
While the Penguins finished 3rd in the league in goals scored (290), the Flyers were 20th (240). However, the Flyers were 10th in goals allowed (239) compared to the Penguins coming in at 24 (258).
A big reason for that comes from how their team systems operate. The Flyers finished 26th in the league in shots (2,088) but were 4th in shots allowed (2,087), whereas the Penguins were with 10th in shots (2,343) but middle of the pack in shots against (2,245).
But perhaps the biggest difference comes from their special teams units as the Penguins boasted the 7th most potent power play (24.14%) and the 6th most effective penalty kill (81.3%). In contrast the Flyers had the worst power play for the 4th straight year at 15.74% and 22nd ranked penalty kill at just 77.55%.
Unsurprisingly they played a massive factor in their season series this year with the Penguins going 7 for 18 on the power play, including 6 for 8 in their 2 wins, compared to the Flyers going 4 for 17.
The Flyers found ways to score at even-strength all year, as well as in their season series, but they’re going to have to shore up their penalty kill. It was a unit that had started out the year at 83% through their first 38 games, but finished the year at 71.2% in their final 23 games.
What could help the Flyers is that things weren’t so peachy for the Penguins to finish off the season. Despite boasting top-10 units, their penalty kill faltered a little bit at 75.7% since the Olympic Break, which included a rough 50% stretch at the end of March.
Their power play is also coming with 7 goals over their last 37 attempts, but you can never underestimate a unit run by Crosby, Malkin, and Karlsson. They had their way with the Flyers this year and is something that assistant coach Todd Reirden will look to address before Saturday night.
Final Thoughts
The Flyers youth will be tested against the battle-ready Penguins, but in the end it will boil down to two fundamentals of hockey; goaltending and special teams.
On one side you have the high-flying offense of the Penguins with future hall-of-famers in Crosby, Malkin, and Karlsson, but they’re defensive and goaltending could provide to be an anchor, considering how poorly they’ve done at both positions all year.
Comparatively the Flyers will feel great about their goaltending because of Vladař, but can they sustain their strong even-strength play and defensive suppression of shots on goal. Both their specialty team units will be need to be on their best behaviour if they have any shot of moving onto the second round, but they’ve shown a proclivity of winning despite their shortcomings.
