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Rick Tocchet’s Philadelphia Flyers posted 98 points (43-27-12 record) in the 2025-26 regular season. They finished third in the Metropolitan Division in the regular season. Their first-round playoff opponent, the Pittsburgh Penguins, also had 98 points (41-25-16). However, the Penguins took second place in the Metro — and home ice advantage in this series, based off the regulation wins tiebreaker (34 to 27).

Games One, Two, Five (if necessary) and Seven (if necessary) are at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh. Games Three, Four and (if necessary) Game Six will be played at Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia. The teams split their four-game regular season series with each club winning once at home and once in the other team’s home barn. However, both Philadelphia wins came via shootout.

Heading into the playoffs, the Flyers have their full roster available. However, Owen Tippett and some others are playing banged up from games during the stretch drive. The Penguins are in the same boat. Such is playoff hockey.

To no one's surprise. Vladar was the Flyers' MVP this season. But Samuel Ersson played quite well in his own right after the Olympic break despite his ugly overall numbers. https://t.co/lMkoib2udx
— Bill Meltzer (@billmeltzer) April 18, 2026

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Where to watch

Time and Broadcast: 8:00 p.m. EDT on ESPN (national) and NBCSP (local)
Listen online: FlyersRadio 24/7
RAV4 keys to the game for Philadelphia: click here
Series preview (Flyers.NHL.com): click here

Flyers scoring leaderboard

Travis Konecny — 68 points (27g, 41a)
Trevor Zegras — 67 points (26g, 41a)
Owen Tippett — 51 points (28g, 23a)
Matvei Michkov — 51 points (20g, 31a)
Christian Dvorak — 51 points (18g, 33a)
Noah Cates — 47 points (19g, 28a)
Travis Sanheim — 37 points (11g, 26a)
Sean Couturier — 36 points (12g, 24a)
Jamie Drysdale — 32 points (8g, 24a)
Cam York — 26 points (4g, 22a) in 74 games
Tyson Forster — 17 points (13g, 4a) in 29 games
Denver Barkey — 17 points (5g, 12a) in 43 games

Beyond the top 12

Nikita Grebenkin — 14 points (4g, 10a) in 55 games
Rasmus Ristolainen — 14 points (1g, 13a) in 44 games
Carl Grundstrom — 13 points (9g, 4a) in 47 games
Emil Andrae — 13 points (2g, 11a) in 61 games
Porter Martone — 10 points (4g,6a) in 9 games
Nick Seeler — 10 points (4g, 6a)
Rodrigo Abols — 10 points (3g, 7a) in 42 games
Noah Juulsen — 10 points (1g, 9a) in 52 games
Alex Bump — 9 points (5g, 4a) in 17 games
Like Glendening — 5 points (2g, 3a) in 18 games
Garnet Hathaway — 3 points (1g, 2a) in 66 games

Flyers goaltender stats

Dan Vladar — 52 GP, 29-14-7, 2.42 GAA, .906 SV%
Samuel Ersson — 32 GP, 13-11-5, 3.15 GAA, .867 SV%
Aleksei Kolosov — 4 GP, 0-2-0, 4.00 GAA, .830 SV%

Flyers Lineup

The Flyers held an optional morning skate on Saturday at PPG Paints Arena. Rick Tocchet hinted at — but of course didn’t elaborate upon — possible lineup/matchup tweaks for the road games in Pittsburgh to start the series. Wouldn’t carry over necessarily to home games. Of course, that could also be a smokescreen and he runs the same combos as late stretch drive.

The lineup from Monday’s playoff clincher is listed below. The actual Game One starting lineup will be posted after warmups. Black Aces such as goaltender Carson Bjarnason are not listed among the scratches below. Only players who were with the club during the stretch drive are included on the list.

Tyson Foerster – Trevor Zegras – Owen Tippett
Travis Konecny – Christian Dvorak – Porter Martone
Denver Barkey – Noah Cates – Matvei Michkov
Luke Glendening – Sean Couturier – Garnet Hathaway

Travis Sanheim – Rasmus Ristolainen
Cam York – Jamie Drysdale
Nick Seeler – Emil Andrae

Dan Vladar
[Samuel Ersson]

Scratches: Carl Grundstrom (healthy), Alex Bump (healthy), Noah Juulsen (healthy), Nikita Grebenkin (upper body), Garrett Wilson (healthy).