When you think of some of the greatest rivalries in the history of the NHL, a few come to mind. Obviously Bruins vs. Canadiens, Red Wings vs. Avalanche, and Oilers vs. Flames are all top tier rivalries with rich history, violence, and hatred, but there is one longstanding rivalry that has been seemingly fizzling out over the past couple of years – or at least that’s what we thought.
Yes, that would be the Battle of Pennsylvania, which highlights the Flyers and the Penguins, two franchises rich in history, passion, and one actually just being rich while the other… well we’ll get to that later. So why did this once heated battle between NHL blue bloods (yes, I said blue bloods, the Original 6 aren’t the only blue bloods) seemingly start to die, and now why is it all of a sudden back?
Rivalry Origin:
To fully understand the Flyers-Penguins rivalry, we first have to go all the way back to the beginning. The Flyers and Penguins joined the NHL together in the league’s first expansion in 1967. From that moment on they would be tied together forever. There have been countless moments from this rivalry that many would consider memorable, but early on both teams were trying to find their footing and identity in this new NHL. The Flyers found it first, becoming the first team part of the 1967 expansion to win a Stanley Cup, winning two in 1974 and 1975. The Penguins did not have the same success early on. They struggled to go deep in the playoffs, and were struggling financially for a while in the late 70s and early 80s. This “rivalry” seemed to be the Flyers dominating, while the Penguins were the little brother. Then came the 1984 NHL Draft.
Mario Lemieux, Jaromír Jágr, and Eric Lindros:
The Penguins were so bad and so broke that in 1983-1984 there were talks of relocation, or even the possibility of the franchise folding altogether. That all changed when the second-greatest hockey player to lace up the skates found his way to Pittsburgh and revived the franchise.
Mario Lemieux might have gone down as the greatest hockey player ever if he didn’t have that unfortunate battle with cancer, but either way he was a Pittsburgh Penguin and MAN did they need him. Five years after drafting Lemieux, the Flyers and Penguins met for the first time ever in the playoffs. The once big brother Flyers were looking to continue the dominance they had over their in-state competition. That did not happen. The Penguins won that series, setting a precedent for each team’s future.
From there, the Flyers and Penguins continued to stockpile talent. All-time players Jaromír Jágr and Eric Lindros made their way to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia respectively, as these two franchises were setting up to be two of the best in the league for years to come. However, only one team broke through. Together, Lemieux and Jágr went on to win back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1991 and 1992, tying the Flyers with two. On top of that, Lindros himself never got over the hump, the closest time being steamrolled by the dynastic Detroit Red Wings in the 1997 Stanley Cup Final.
In the 1999-2000 season, the teams once again met in the playoffs, playing one of the most memorable games in NHL history. The famous longest game in the NHL’s modern era was played that series as the Flyers and Penguins went to five overtimes in Game 4 before the Flyers came out on top in both the game and later the series.
In their 33 years of existence to that point, the Flyers and Penguins had similar playoff results against each other. Both had also won two Stanley Cups and looked to be marquee franchises for the long-term future. Then the century turned, and everything changed.
The Early 2000s:
This is where the rivalry started to take its real jump to hatred more than anything. The Penguins were once again the laughingstock of the NHL. Not even the aging Lemieux was enough to keep the Pittsburgh fans happy. The team stunk and the franchise looked to once again be going underwater. Even back-to-back years of a first overall pick in Marc-André Fleury and a second overall pick in Evgeni Malkin couldn’t bring fans in. The future of the Penguins in Pittsburgh looked doomed. The Civic Arena had become the oldest arena in the NHL. With the city of Pittsburgh seemingly uninterested in investing in a new hockey arena due to the fact the Penguins flat out stunk, there were talks of the team being sold or even relocating to Kansas City.
THEN IN COMES GARY BETTMAN WITH ONE LAST DITCH EFFORT TO SAVE THE PENGUINS!
(Heather Cattai/Heather Barry Images, LLC)
Now how interesting is it that after a lockout, the greatest prospect since Lemieux seemingly gets sent to a team with history that is threatening to relocate. Crosby was an instant star. Even the most casual of sports fans, not even just hockey fans, knew who this kid was. He was poised to be a future Hall of Famer before even registering a minute of ice time.
In his first game in Philly, Crosby got beat to a pulp, catching sticks up high all night, and even ended up ripping off the mic that ESPN had put on him because of how frustrated he was. He then showed who he would be as a player against the Flyers the rest of his career, potting the game-winning goal in overtime to send Flyers fans home sad.
From that point forward, Crosby became a superstar, while the Flyers struggled the following seasons looking for their own superstar to battle Sid the Kid.
2008, 2009, 2010:
These were the years where the rivalry started to bubble up before it hit is boiling point. While the rivalry wasn’t as hectic as it ended up being only half a decade later, these were the three years where one of the Flyers or Penguins ended up in the Stanley Cup Final.
In 2008 the two teams met in the Eastern Conference Finals, both looking for that hard-to-capture third Stanley Cup that had evaded these two franchises for a while. The Penguins got the best of the Flyers that series. The Penguins ended up losing the Stanley Cup Final to the Red Wings that year, meaning the rivals were still tied with two Stanley Cups apiece.
In 2009, the Flyers lost yet again to the Penguins, this time in the first round of the playoffs. As Flyers fans vividly remember, the Flyers imploded in Game 6, blowing a 3-0 lead after Max Talbot got his ass beat by Daniel Carcillo for the greater good of the Penguins. The Penguins then went on to avenge the loss the previous season, beating the Red Wings in a seven-game Stanley Cup Final, the first of Crosby’s career. It was looking like the Flyers were going to once again be a team good enough to compete for a Cup, only to have the Penguins once again be just a bit better like they were in the 90s.
In 2010, the teams looked to be on a collision course for the Eastern Conference Finals again after the Flyers had an all time comeback against the Boston Bruins. Unfortunately for hockey fans, the Penguins were beaten in game seven by the eighth-seeded Montréal Canadiens. The Flyers went on to the Stanley Cup Final, only to lose in six games to the Chicago Blackhawks. While the teams did not meet each other in the playoffs, there was finally a guy on the Flyers that looked like he could compete with Crosby for the foreseeable future, and his name was Claude Giroux.
Giroux, Crosby, and the 2011-2012 season:
This was the season where this rivalry seemed to peak. Both of these teams were looking like Cup contenders. Crosby was out most of the season, but he was able to make it back before the playoffs started. Malkin won the Hart Trophy. Giroux was part of the best line in hockey that year. And both teams ended up as top three scoring teams in the league.
Also happening this year were some of the most memorable moments from this rivalry. There was the infamous line brawl right before the playoffs where Flyers head coach Peter Laviolette was on a war path to the Penguins bench. He was screaming and being held back by his staff after almost climbing over the side of the bench, all while NBC’s Pierre McGuire stood there in between both benches not knowing what in the world was going on. It was only fitting that it was one of the last games in the regular season before those two teams met in the first round of the playoffs.
For a series that took place in the first round, it is still seen as one of the most memorable in playoff history. Game 1 was a 3-0 comeback by the Flyers that resulted in an overtime goal by Jake Voráček in Pittsburgh, stealing a game from the Penguins. Game 2 saw Giroux and some rookie by the name of Sean Couturier each score a hat trick as the Flyers blitzed the Penguins after scoring eight goals.
Game 3. That was the peak of the rivalry. In the first period alone there were three ejections and 72 combined penalty minutes between the two teams. Multiple players were ejected throughout the game, multiple players were suspended after the game, and there were 12 total goals this game. Crosby and Giroux even dropped the mitts this game. This was THE game when you think of the Flyers-Penguins rivalry.
The Flyers won that game, but they lost the next one BADLY as the Penguins put up 10 goals in Game 4 and then won Game 5 by a 3-2 score. They were looking to do what the Flyers had done two seasons before: coming back from being down 0-3. All this led up to Game 6 back in Philadelphia. The Flyers won the game at home, 5-1, to knock the Penguins out of the playoffs. Unbeknownst to the Flyers and their fans, this was the last time the rivalry would really fell like a rivalry.
Crosby’s Back-to-Back Cups, the 2018 Playoffs, and the 2019 Stadium Series:
In the years following that 2012 playoff series, neither the Flyers nor the Penguins made any deep run in the playoffs, nor did they play each other in the playoffs. Injuries plagued both Giroux and Crosby, meaning there wasn’t a lot of firepower when both teams matched up in the regular season. While there was still some juice during the regular season games, the “oomf” that was there in the playoffs the years prior was no longer there.
Then in 2016, the Penguins won another Stanley Cup. Then in 2017, the Penguins won yet another Stanley Cup. A rivalry that had one Cup separating the two teams and two superstars had almost disintegrated. There was no longer any more debate, the Penguins were the kings of Pennsylvania, and it was not close.
In 2017-2018, the Flyers had a resurgent year. Giroux got robbed of the Hart Trophy, Couturier finally broke out, and the Flyers finally looked to have a mix of a young core group of players to compliment Giroux and Voráček for the first time in team history. They met the Penguins in the first round of the playoffs just to get taken down in six games with no real feeling of a Flyers upset. It felt like the Penguins were this demon the Flyers could not exorcise.
In 2018-2019, there were more regular season moments between the teams. Malkin tried to take off Michael Raffl’s head with his stick, and then in the Stadium Series game Wayne Simmonds laid a perfectly legal hit that knocked Brian Dumoulin out of the game, and the ensuring scrum knocked out Kris Letang as well. The Flyers won that game in overtime after a 3-1 comeback late in the third period, a cool moment for sure but nothing compared to what Crosby and the Penguins had pulled off the three seasons prior.
After that game NBC released an hour long mic’d up special around the game, and, well, it seemed like the Penguins didn’t hate the Flyers. It felt more that they were just annoyed by them at this point. The rivalry felt as it was dead from that moment on. The Flyers officially felt like the little brother in this rivalry, and that’s never a good place to be.
As Joel Embiid once said about the Sixers and Celtics, “This is not a rivalry, they always kick our ass.” While the Flyers did win in the regular season every now and then, in the playoffs they were constantly beaten by Crosby and the Penguins besides that 2012 series.
COVID shutdown and the following years
Flyers-Penguins games used to mean something. Unfortunately, this was the dark period for the Flyers. They STUNK for 4 years straight from 2021-2024. There was no juice in the rivalry. The games never felt important. There was no hate on either side. This was just one team constantly being better than the other team. The rivalry felt dead. If you were to poll each fanbase and ask who their biggest rival was in this timeframe, I bet you a majority of fans on both sides would have another team over their counterpart from across the state. Hell, some Flyers fans over the past year or two might’ve even answered the Ducks! The rivalry felt like it was going to melt away into nothing these past couple of years. An aging core of Crosby, Malkin, and Letang, Giroux being traded to Florida then signing back home in Ottawa, and even both teams just being boring and bad made it so when there was an even playing field, so what was it really for anyways?
And then…
October 28th, 2025:
I don’t know what happened, but the regular season game between the Flyers and Penguins on NHL Frozen Frenzy night felt like it brought the rivalry all the way back. There were scrums all game. Back and forth play from both teams. Both teams were yapping and slashing each other a bunch. A late goal by Crosby to tie it up at two. An overtime period that saw some of the most insane hockey you can get in a five minute overtime, including two game-winning goals called back, one from each team. And finally a melee after the OT horn that saw eight players (four on both teams) get game misconducts, including Crosby and Trevor Zegras both getting tossed from the game.
You know that scene in ratatouille where Anton Ego takes the first bite and instantly flashes back to him as a kid? Well, watching a young forward with long hair get under the Penguins’ skin to the point an entire post-whistle brawl took place and got Crosby ejected made me feel like I was watching a young Giroux again. No, I am not saying that Trevor Zegras will end up being Claude Giroux, but the point I am trying to make is that the Flyers, for the first time in years, have guys in the locker room that HATE the Penguins. Zegras has had problems with the Penguins before dating back to his time with Anaheim. Matvei Michkov had some moments with them last season. Hell, Tyson Foerster was even in on the shithousery that took place in the Frozen Frenzy game. The Flyers’ new wave of players came in and treated this game as a rivalry game for the first time in a long time. THAT is the juice that has been missing: hate and passion. As much as we like to give John Tortorella a hard time for how things ended here, his quote about entitlement and lack of passion after his first season as bench boss has been validated more and more as the years have passed. This young group of players CARE now, to the point where the Penguins are reacting in a way we have not seen them react to the Flyers in a long time.
While I doubt either team makes the playoffs this season, even after both teams’ hot starts, the match has been lit between the two for the season. I doubt the Penguins will forget the end of that overtime period by the time these teams play again on December 1st. There is something brewing in Pennsylvania, and unlike 99% of the time when brewing something, we do want whatever is brewing to explode.
The Flyers-Penguins rivalry might be back folks, and if so, that would be great for the NHL.
