The Flyers could be back in the playoffs as early as Sunday.
Philadelphia trounced the Winnipeg Jets, 7-1, on Saturday night at Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg. And, earlier, the New York Islanders lost to the Ottawa Senators, 3-0, so the Flyers stand just a point away from their first playoff berth since 2020.
If the Islanders lose on Sunday to Montreal, the Flyers are in.
The Flyers have a three-point edge over New York and each team has two games to play.
The winners raced to a 3-1 lead in the first period.
Rookie Porter Martone opened the scoring just 1:17 into the game. It was his third goal of the season.
In an in-game interview, Martone said the Flyers were able to regroup nicely after Thursday night’s 6-3 loss at Detroit.
The message from the coaching staff after the loss in Motor City?
“I think almost reset,” Martone said. “Learn from the things we did wrong and just build on it. It’s a learning lesson, we flushed away that one and we’re just coming here with a new head today, play our game.”
Then, after a Jet goal tied it, Matvei Michkov and Sean Couturier connected. Michkov notched his 18th goal at 8:24 and Couturier followed at 8:49.
It was more of the same in the second period.
Travis Sanheim and Noah Cates hit the net at 11:41 and 19:28 respectively. Then, in the third, Couturier scored his second goal at 6:28. Nick Seeler wrapped it up with a goal at 13:32. It was the largest margin of victory for the Flyers this season.
Dan Vladar picked up the win in goal for Philadelphia.
On Saturday afternoon, after the Islanders game ended, coach Rick Tocchet cautioned his team against getting overconfident because of the Islanders outcome.
“No, I think the guys understand it, we have to take care of business,” he said. “If we start scoreboard watching and other teams lose, are we supposed to relax? No. As a matter of fact, we shouldn’t even worry about the standings, just a ‘we-control-our-destiny’ attitude.”
After the Islanders play Montreal, they finish up with Carolina on Tuesday. The Flyers play Carolina on Monday and Montreal on Tuesday. Both games are at home.
Couturier said the Flyers need to stay focused.
“The job’s not done yet,” Couturier said. “We have two more games to get in.’
The Flyers haven’t lost back-to-back road games since late January. The Flyers finish with 23 road wins and that ranks in the top five in team history.
“I think we’ve responded pretty well all year,” Couturier said with regards to bouncing back after a road loss. “We believe in our group. Some bad games will happen but it’s the way we respond. We’ve done a great job all year and tonight was another example.”
>Preaching disciplined play
In pre-game comments, Tocchet stressed the importance of disciplined play. The Flyers gave up three power-play goals at Detroit on Thursday night and that was the difference in the game.
“We want to be aggressive but we want to be in control,” Tocchet said. “You want to get to the net, you want to push back. After the whistle at this time of year it doesn’t really matter. It’s something that we have to stay away from.”
This is especially important because the Flyers do some of their best work at full strength (five-on-five). That’s partly because the Flyers are so bad on the power play (last in the NHL).
“The message (after the Detroit game) was we like our five-on-five play,” Tocchet said. “We like our chances. Now when you start taking a lot of penalties, you give up a five-on-three. . .it’s a disaster. So we want to play five-on-five hockey for sure.”
>Short shots
Two Flyers are now among the five players in the last 30 years to score 25 or more goals in their first season with the team: Michkov achieved the mark last year, registering 26, and Trevor Zegras recently hit the 25 mark in the New Jersey game. The others in team history: Mike Knuble, 34 (2005-06); Danny Briere, 31 (2007-08); Wayne Simmonds, 28 (2011-12).
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