Photo Credits; FNG’s Rob Windfelder
“We’re not going into it like, hey we’re just happy to be here. We’re here to win the series and you gotta have that mindset“. Flyers Head Coach Rick Tocchet
The Mindset
The Flyers had a quick practice on Friday morning before shipping out to Carolina in the afternoon to begin Round 2 of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs. At the training center in Voorhees all focus was on this upcoming series. Everyone is in synch, this is not the time to savor the 1st round victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins. This is go time. The here and now is Round 2 vs The Carolina Hurricanes.
The Flyers eliminated the Penguins in Game 6 in Philly on Wednesday night. It was a 0-0 overtime thriller. The series was a grueling, contentious, and physically explosive. Tons of drama and moments that will become part of Philly hockey folklore, but not just yet. The team is united in this mindset, stay focused “the job is not done“.
Quick Shift
After all there really is no time in the schedule for living in the extremely recent past anyway. Game 6 ended late Wednesday night. Things came together very rapidly with the late announcement of the early start of Round 2 in Carolina on Saturday night. The Flyers are wise to focus on the task at hand. The historic run to the playoffs and 1st Round victory were steeping stones leading up to this greater challenge and opportunity.
The Eyeball Test
Carolina loves to enter the zone with numbers. Of course, what team doesn’t? But they are effective at doing so. They frequently have four skaters crossing the blue line at the same time as the puck.
This could open them up to odd man rushes in the other direction on turnovers, but you can’t really cherry-pick when they’ve already got four guys in your zone. The Hurricanes do not make a lot of mistakes. Their actions are deliberate.
You can’t help but notice that the Canes don’t mind shooting from outside the danger areas on the rush. They will come in with numbers but take shots from high in the slot or before they reach the faceoff dots.
Perhaps there is something to the element of surprise, or just taking the shooting lane before the defender is totally in place. They do it often and it works for them.
Sometimes you’ll see the Flyers still attempting to make the final pass when they are already out of time and space. The play is still coming together and they are already right on top of the goaltender. Look for Carolina to work from a bit further out.
Not to say the Hurricanes don’t work in close because they do, and they are really good at that as well. Hockey teams want to get the puck moving across the slot keeping the goaltender moving from side to side until something opens up. The Hurricanes do this very quickly and crisply. They score often from sharp angles at the sides of the net after they have the goaltender out of position. They move the puck well, it’s decisive, it’s fast, and it’s hard to defend against.
The Flyers
The Flyers did a fantastic job of policing the area in front of their own net during the 1st round. They kept the Penguins off the porch for the most part. They shut down the key passing lanes across the slot. They did lots of things right. The forwards were also diligent in their back-checking.
Pittsburgh still has some fire-power and the Flyers effectively shut it down for the most part. The Flyers need to continue to utilize the defensive minded, fundamentally sound, disciplined style of hockey that got them here in order to hang with the Canes. Philadelphia is the projected underdog but, as they’ve already proven, they are full of surprises.
By the Numbers
Keep in mind the Flyers have played six games so far and Carolina swept their series against the Ottawa Senators. The Sens scored 5 goals over the course of the series. Two Ottawa players scored all 5 of their goals, that’s it. Drake Batherson scored 3, Dylan Cozens scored the other two. Carolina had the Senators locked out.
The Hurricanes scored 11 goals between five goal scorers. This will also tell you who to keep an eye on. Logan Stankoven 4 goals, Sebastian Aho 3 goals, Taylor Hall 2 goals. Blake and Martinook each had one. Conversely the Flyers scored a total of 16 goals spread out over 14 different goal scorers.
The Penguins prepared for Round 1, they had a game plan, they focused on certain Flyers. Top Philadelphia scoring leaders were not racking up multiple goals during the series. Porter Martone scored both game winning goals in games 1 and 2. That put him on the radar as well and the Pens did not allow him to score again throughout the series.
The Flyers were, as John Tortorellla used to call it, “scoring by committee”. You can focus defensively on a handful of key Flyers but that’s not going to shut the entire team down. Someone is going to step up and light the lamp and that’s a huge factor in this tight knit team’s success. Great example, Rasmus Ristolainen is the Flyers points leader at the conclusion of the 1st round. Playoff Risto does exist.
Keys to the Series
Epic head to head coaching match-up. Two gritty former Flyer forwards. Rick Tocchet vs Rod Brind’Amour. Both of these guys were fierce competitors for the Orange and Black.
In the playoffs a hot goaltender can take you far, Dan Vladar has certainly been just that for the Flyers down the stretch and into the playoffs. In round one Vladar was 4-2 with an impressive 1.61 GAA, .937 SV%, including two shutouts. Vladar was named the team’s MVP for his performance during the regular season and was key to the Flyers moving on to Round 2.
The Flyers and Canes faced each other 4 times during the regular season with every match-up being settled either in overtime or by a shootout. Carolina took the season series 3 games to 1. The Flyers won the most recent contest to clinch their playoff berth on April 13th.
As the top team in the East Many believe Carolina is destined to make a return to the Stanley Cup Final this year. The Flyers are the team who “shouldn’t be here” that absolute believes that they should be here. They’ve proved many wrong already so who knows what else they may have up their sleeve. We’re about to find out.
Flyers vs Hurricanes Game 1 Saturday May 2nd in Carolina 8PM.
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