PLAYOFF GAMEDAY - GAME ONE, ROUND ONE - FLYERS

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Philadelphia Flyers @ Pittsburgh Penguins
8PM/ET - PPG Paints Arena

Series Tied 0-0

It's time to accept an uncomfortable fact: if Gritty wasn't the Flyers mascot, you'd love him.

To be honest, he's kind of easy to love.


This is his first playoffs. He's going to be a menace. He might kill a child. Who knows? 

But it's time for us to accept another uncomfortable fact: Gritty must die.


The fact that Pittsburgh's main focus in this series is the Flyers' mascot shows a bit about this team. 
Who are the Philadelphia Flyers anyway?

The days of Derian Hatcher, Scott Hartnell, and Claude Giroux are long gone.
Remember Mike Richards and Jeff Carter? Los Angeles does.


Hey, if you're expecting timely jokes, you're in the wrong place.

Besides, no one knows enough about the current Philadelphia Flyers to hate them.

But we will. 
We all will. 

So let's get our minds right.

Who are the 2026 Philadelphia Flyers?

And while this team isn’t a finished product just yet and probably shouldn’t be expected to make a deep run right away, they have showcased a remarkable amount of grit and determination to even make it this far. A season that seemed to be in the balance just three months ago will culminate in a long-awaited Battle of Pennsylvania, and that’s all due to the effort and perseverance of their new coach and emerging young core. No matter what happens now, that’s something to get excited about.

Flyers fans getting excited? Don't like the sound of that.

Let's see what someone else says. Dobber Hockey?

Philadelphia rests on structure, discipline, and the single biggest edge on the board: goaltending. Vladar has a 31-point slot-SV% advantage over Silovs. Philadelphia’s power play won’t break out unless Zegras goes on a tear, but if the Flyers stay out of the box, the Penguins’ PP won’t matter. And if games are tight in the third, the shootout data says Philadelphia gets the benefit of the doubt.
The Flyers strong point is their goaltending? What the hell is going on???

Here's Sportsnet:
Though a few veterans with playoff experience remain, for the club’s new blood, the 2026 post-season will be their introduction to playoff hockey. It will mark a clear step forward for a Philly side that’s been wallowing in the division’s basement of late, their future uncertain. And it will give the likes of Zegras, Tippett and Matvei Michkov a chance to begin building their legacies on the game’s biggest stage.

But it won’t come easy.

So they're a young team that made the playoffs despite no one assuming they could. That's always tough to play against. The old men need to put these damn kids down.

LINES (from Daily Faceoff)


Chinakov - Crosby - Rust
Novak - Rakell - Malkin
Soderblom - Kindel - Mantha
Dewar - Lizotte - Acciari

Wotherspoon - Karlsson
Girard - Letang
Shea - Clifton

Skinner


Foerster - Zegras - Tippett
Konecy - Dvorak - Martone
Barkley - Cates - Michkov
Couturier - Glendenning - Hathaway

Sanheim - Ristolainen
York - Drysdale
Seeler - Andrae

Vladar

Pick one of those people to hate and really focus in on it.
They're your enemy now. You want bad things to happen to them.
Buy a dart board or pay an Etsy witch, whatever you have to do.

Yes, we live primarily in the past, but you're not alone if you're still traumatized by 2012.
Those nightmares will live forever.


Did you know that apparently these two teams also played in the first round in 2018? No memory of that. Seriously.

However, this is Pens vs Flyers for a new generation.
It may not have the stupid violence and cheap shots of the past.
Then again, it might. Really, no one even knows who the Philadelphia Flyers are. Everything is in the realm of possibility because they're basically stock photos of hockey players.

"Porter Martone?" Sounds AI-generated.

He's no Claude Giroux.

Either way, the Penguins are back in the playoffs. 
No one thought this would happen. This was supposed to be a lottery team.
Crosby was supposed to go to Colorado or Montreal. Malkin was going to be shipped out at the deadline.
The door was closed. 


Yet... here we are.

There's basically no expectations for this run. If they defy the odds and win the Cup, awesome. If they fail in four games, it's not awesome, but it will still be great to have the old men in the playoffs. 
If they vomit all over themselves, it'll be 2012 all over. Not ideal, but we'll take it.

To be honest, it just feels good to be doing this again.







As for actual predictions? Again, who knows? The Pens have players that the entire hockey world has heard of for decades. The Flyers have players that get generated when you've simmed too many seasons of an EA game. It feels like a Pens win, but everyone has seen a team of young guys win a series just because they don't know they shouldn't be winning.

That said: Pens in three.


Do It.

Go Pens.


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