The Philadelphia Flyers are in the playoffs — we cannot say it enough. This team that everyone counted out and assumed that they would’ve just finish somewhere out of the playoffs but not as terrible as the other teams to get some blue chip prospect out of it; defied those expectations and went on a dramatic, emotional, and thrilling run to eventually punching their ticket in the penultimate game of their season.
Now, it’s just the actual “playing in a series” thing that is left and it feels like a total mystery as to what will happen. If it was up against anyone who was leading their division for almost the entire season and are historically one of the better teams in the league, then sure, we would be happy if the Flyers got one of the games — but against the Pittsburgh Penguins? It really feels possible to pull something off.
But first, they need to ice a lineup that can compete with that team led by a bunch of aging veterans with one foot in the grave of their hockey careers, and a bunch of unproven talent and reclamation projects.
Predicting the Flyers’ lineup for the playoffs
The Flyers are in an interesting position heading into the playoffs. While other teams were able to set their foot in a playoff spot early in the season, and then just coast through the rest of the year, knowing that they can beat anyone on a given night and rightfully earn that chance to play in the postseason when it’s all said and done, the Flyers rocketed up the standings in historic fashion.
During this surge into the playoffs, as the Rick Tocchet-led crew bullied their way through a bunch of mediocre Eastern Conference teams and plopped themselves down at third in the division, largely kept the same lineup in-tact. He found pairings and partnerships that worked and kept to it, knowing that whatever challenge his team faced, that it wouldn’t be changing who played with who that affected it during this run, but just an attitude and approach to the game rather than personnel.
Knowing all of this, we doubt that the lineup changes that much compared to what we saw down the stretch, but there are little inklings we can take, or possible scenarios that can come into play throughout the series where a lineup change is warranted.
So, let’s run through some of the lines we fully expect to remain in-tact for Game 1.
Tyson Foerster — Trevor Zegras — Owen Tippett
This line has just been too good. Zegras solidifying himself at center, being flanked by two premier wingers who can score off the rush, have excellent shots to fire off the scoring chances that Zegras creates off his stick; while also paying attention to play in all three zones.
They’re listed as the Flyers’ first line for a reason, just because of their ultra-reliability in seemingly all situations no matter the score, situation, competition, or anything.
Travis Konecny — Christian Dvorak — Porter Martone
Yeah. This is going to still happen. Porter Martone has been giving a whole lot of credit to both Konecny and Dvorak during his first weeks in the NHL and to get him up to speed, which has led him to have an unreal start to his career with 10 points in his first nine games. With this in mind and just how much they’ve been scoring — they have outscored the opponent 5-1 while on the ice at 5-on-5 — and generating chances, it makes perfect sense to keep them together.
The only instance we can see where this trio will be broken up is if the offensive talent needs to be spread, or they become a defensive liability. Dvorak and Konecny themselves aren’t the most defensively strong players, and then add in a rookie to the mix, and it’s really just trying to outscore their problems. Which, they are, so it doesn’t matter too much, but if the shooting percentage dries up, there could be a little swap of some wingers.
Denver Barkey/Alex Bump — Noah Cates — Matvei Michkov
This one is a tricky one. Noah Cates and Matvei Michkov are developing a strong partnership which has led to the center having a career year in scoring and the 21-year-old Russian winger to scoring 50 points in what was always considered a sophomore slump season. They are, obviously, going to stay in the lineup and should remain locked together as center and right winger through the playoffs, unless something terrible happens and Tocchet pulls out something drastic.
The most obvious rotation that we could see in the entire Flyers lineup is between rookies Denver Barkey and Alex Bump. Both of these youngsters have been swapping in and out next to Cates and Michkov during this playoff push and both have had great, and not-so-good performances in this position.
With an absolute stellar goal scored against Montreal Tuesday night, Bump might be the frontrunner to start in this position over Barkey for Game 1. Head coach Rick Tocchet after Tuesday’s 4-2 win said that Bump wasn’t sitting because he deserved it, but it was just a numbers game and he pleaded to Keith Jones to find a spot for him in the lineup. That all together makes us think that it will be handed to the older Bump and Barkey will sit and watch from the press box for the first Flyers playoff game since 2020.
But, Barkey can certainly earn his way back and if that line needs to play more grindy hockey with an annoying level of forechecking instead of the shot and skill that Bump possesses. Two young players with different skillsets and the ability to plug-and-play on a certain line is certainly a welcome addition.
Luke Glendening — Sean Couturier — Garnet Hathaway
Look, while Rick Tocchet has made some incredible strides throughout this season and he’s certainly welcomed in new tactics, he is still a hockey man at heart. And giving the veterans a time to shine during the playoffs instead of adding a young rookie into the mix for the fourth line is something so predictable.
The best thing is that this trio has been extremely good compared to expectations. They are a fourth line that has outscored their opponents 5-3 while also driving play in their favor. It just simply works and everyone is looking better than they did before this line was put together — the ultimate “greater than the sum of their parts” line.
It’s just going to work. And if it doesn’t, then Denver Barkey is certainly an option here. Or, if they are desperate the potential black aces like Anthony Richard or Jacob Gaucher, could come into play for this depth role.
The blue line should remain the same
While we can maybe see a tweak here and there for the forwards, to give a slightly different dynamic, the Flyers’ blue line is even more cemented.
Travis Sanheim — Rasmus Ristolainen
While it isn’t everyone favorite first pairing in the world, we can’t deny that it has worked for this really hot stretch of the Flyers that got them into the playoffs in the first place. Cam York and Travis Sanheim worked wonderfully together last season and they looked just fine starting this season, but giving York maybe fewer minutes helped give him a little bit of a boost at times during this hot stretch.
And the numbers don’t lie. Every single offensive metric has improved in the minutes Sanheim has spent with Ristolainen, compared to those spent with York. It is extremely narrow margins — the Flyers average 24.42 shots on goal per 60 with Ristolainen, compared to 23.02 with York, for example — but it is still giving this team a slight edge overall.
Cam York — Jamie Drysdale
We already know just how impressive Drysdale has been this season, and while York has had a really quiet season, he does deserve some credit for still being here and on this pairing to give his partner a foundation to drive the play a little more.
There’s nothing really much else to say about this pairing before we get into game action, but it’s one that could provide something meaningful through the series.
Nick Seeler — Emil Andrae
This is really the only pairing that had some options. The Flyers’ top four is locked in and while we would all be absolutely terrified if Noah Juulsen was on the ice during the playoffs, it is certainly not out of the realm of possibility. You can just imagine it, like the other scenario we laid out, where Tocchet believes there needs to be more size and physicality on this back end so Andrae comes out and Juulsen comes in.
But we pray for that to not be the case. There is a reason why the Flyers have 62.07 percent of the goals scored when Andrae is on the ice. And among all Flyers defensemen, he leads the pack with just an on-ice 1.5 goals against per 60. While Juulsen has the worst on the team, with a whole 2.46 goals against per 60. An entire goal difference between the two defensemen and that could be the difference in the series.
Andrae simply deserves it and should get in for every game, no matter what. A Seeler-Juulsen pairing would be like asking Sidney Crosby to please dunk all over them and score a hat trick, with a nice little smile.
Overall, while this exercise was essentially listing out the Flyers’ current lineup and what it has been for the last month, it is good to see the little holes where we could possibly see a slight change just because it’s the playoffs.10
