This time in each of the last two years, the Philadelphia Flyers were at their lowest. It was March 27, 2025, when the Flyers fired John Tortorella as head coach after a falling out with Cam York and defeated postgame comments after a 7-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs that dropped the team to 1-10-1 in its last 12 games.
Things weren’t much better around this time in 2023-24. A 4-1 loss to the Florida Panthers on March 24 began a disastrous 0-7-2 stretch that knocked the Flyers out of a playoff spot at the 11th hour. Each skid followed sell-offs at the trade deadline, affirming that the team’s rebuild still had a long way to go.
Both situations developed in the same way this season. The Flyers sold at the deadline, moving Bobby Brink to the Minnesota Wild for David Jiříček (who’s not on the NHL roster) and trading Nic Deslauriers to the Carolina Hurricanes for a conditional draft pick. In terms of being a likely playoff team, let alone a true contender, there is a lot of work for Daniel Brière and company to do.
But the Flyers are finally starting to show they can thrive when the games matter the most. It’s likely too little, too late after a January plummet that saw them fall from eighth to 23rd in the NHL by points percentage. However, they’re at least giving fans a reason to tune in to late-season games other than tracking lottery odds or hoping against hope they can pull out of a funk.
Springing Ahead
The Olympic break was clearly the rest the Flyers needed. After limping into the hiatus with that aforementioned brutal January (4-8-3), the Flyers picked up three points in their first two games of February before the Olympic Games began.
After a late regulation loss in their first game back, Philadelphia has shown remarkable consistency. They haven’t lost consecutive games, even including overtime losses, since a four-game slump to finish January. This isn’t just beating up on bad teams, either; the Flyers are 4-2-1 against teams currently in a playoff spot and 4-1-0 against teams outside of the current picture but within four points of a spot.
More importantly, in the long term, it’s been encouraging to see positive signs from many of the team’s under-24 talent. Denver Barkey has almost a half-season’s worth of games under his belt and is second on the team in expected goals for percentage at 5-on-5. Alex Bump has six points in his first 11 NHL games. Matvei Michkov has been more productive, with 10 points in 16 games, a 51-point pace compared to his 43-point rate before the break. Jamie Drysdale has three of his seven goals since the break, too.
Pump the Breaks
While the Flyers have shown strong consistency as of late, especially for such a young team, they haven’t been able to get hot enough to make up the significant gap separating them from a playoff spot. Twice they’ve failed to extend a three-game win streak to four for the first time in two seasons. Twice they’ve lost tight-checking games to the Columbus Blue Jackets, games that could’ve put the Flyers in a playoff spot had they prevailed on both occasions.
There also isn’t a ton in the overall numbers to suggest the team is making a true leap. Before the Olympics, the Flyers were 15th in the NHL with a 50.14% expected goals rate (per Natural Stat Trick); since returning, they’re 19th with a nearly identical 50.16% expected goal share. The power play has been pitiful, and the penalty kill merely passable. They’re still playing the same low-event, aesthetically displeasing style.
Even their wins haven’t always been pretty. On Saturday, the Flyers played a near-perfect 53 minutes, jumping out to a 4-0 lead in a critical showdown with the Detroit Red Wings. Then, they allowed three goals in a 2:31 span, flirting with a cataclysmic collapse before Sean Couturier’s empty-netter stemmed the tide. It created a lot more stress than necessary, especially in the first half of a difficult back-to-back, with the Dallas Stars coming to Philadelphia on Sunday night.
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One could argue that goaltending is the biggest reason for the Flyers’ ascent. Dan Vladař has largely still been solid, while Sam Ersson has somehow gone from sieve to star after that three-week layoff, making Philadelphia’s .913 team save percentage since the break the second highest in the NHL. But if Ersson is making the team look better than they are right now, then he definitely made them look worse than they were earlier in the season, with his pre-Olympic .856 save percentage the league’s worst (min. five games played).
Jury’s Still Out
Despite holding the league’s third-highest points percentage since Feb. 23, the Flyers haven’t made much of a dent in their playoff odds. Moneypuck.com has them at 18.5% to make the playoffs; The Athletic is slightly more bearish at 15%. Part of that is due to how competitive the Eastern Conference is this season (from ‘NHL 2025-26 Stanley Cup playoff chances and projected standings,’ The Athletic, March 29, 2026).
Still, the Flyers are on pace for 95 points, their best clip since 2019-20 and a total that would have made the playoffs in the East each of the last three campaigns. But there’s still much to be decided over the final 10 games. After Sunday’s meeting with Dallas, each of their next four and five of their next six games will be against teams they’re competing with for the four East playoff spots that are still up for grabs.
