It wasn’t always easy, but the Philadelphia Flyers survived their First Round matchup with the Montreal Canadiens and advanced to the Second Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2020.
The Flyers eliminated the Canadiens on Friday night with a 3-2 victory in Game 6, and secured a matchup in the next round with the New York Islanders.
It continues due to what has been an incredible run by the Flyers since the beginning of January.
They were the hottest team in the league during the stretch run of the regular season, and are now 7-2 during the Return To Play and look like a legitimate Stanley Cup participant.
[NBC 2020 STANLEY CUP PLAYOFF HUB]
They were not necessarily at their best Friday night and needed a lot of things to go their way to close out the series. Carter Hart, their young star goalkeeper, was once again an excellent net, especially in the second period when the Flyers were a bit defensive on their heels. They also had a bit of puck luck on their side to get some cheerful goals behind Carey Price. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Each championship caliber team must win a few games like this during the playoffs.
The important thing is, simply, that you find a way to get those profits.
They do not ask you how you have the profit at this time of year, just ask them as you have them.
Right now, the Flyers are getting a lot of wins, and they have put themselves in a great position to go through what has been an unexpectedly great 2019-20 season.
What gives her such a great opportunity?
Let’s start with the fact that they finally seem to have the goalkeeper they have been missing for decades. Hart has been sensational this entire postseason and has looked like the goalkeeper the Flyers had hoped he would be in his full development. If he did not live up to expectations, he would at least have met them. A boy, no. Having 1 goalkeeper on an entry-level contract is a game-changer for each team.
Then there is the fact that the Flyers are 7-2 in the postseason and through to the Second Round, despite getting almost zero goal production from their top goal scorers. So far this postseason, the team of Sean Couturier, Claude Giroux, Travis Konecny, Kevin Hayes, and James van Riemsdyk (the scorers of the Flyers’ top five goals in the regular season) have combined for ONE (Hayes on Friday) goal in the postseason. And the Flyers are still winning games.
It would be easy to write this off as negative, maybe even a concern, but I will take it in a different direction. It’s actually encouraging for the Flyers. Very encouraging. The reality we in the NHL never seem to want to acknowledge is that star players without goals are more often kept than they are scoring. Your top players will not score goals every night, especially in the playoffs, which means you better have a third and fourth line that can score until the top players start again. The Flyers get that. The deep players pick up the snail and buy more time for the players at the top to break out. And the more games they play, the more likely they are to win.
Then we come to the matchups.
It’s not always just about how your team plays. Sometimes it’s about who your team should play for. Or do not have to play. Thanks to an unusual sequence of events (the season being paused, an extended 24-team playoff), the Flyers go undefeated in Round Robin to steal a No. 1 seed they otherwise would not have had a chance at , Montreal created the Penguins in the play-in round) the Flyers first two playoff opponents will be the 24th and 11th ranked teams in the NHL, respectively.
The islanders will in no way become a picnic. They are a good team, a well-coached team, and a frustrating team to play against. But the Flyers are in a position where they will not have to play until Boston or Tampa Bay until the conference finals, and consistently avoid Eastern Conference powers Pittsburgh and Washington completely.
Nothing is guaranteed, especially in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but that is a favorable position to be in. They have a chance to do something special here, and so far they have benefited from it.
No. 1 Philadelphia Flyers vs. Now. 8 Montreal Canadiens (PHI wins 4-2)
Wednesday 12 August: Flyers 2, Canadiens 1 (recap)
Friday, August 14th: Canadiens 5, Flyers 0 (recap)
Sunday, August 16th: Flyers 1, Canadiens 0 (recap)
Tuesday, August 18th: Flyers 2, Canadiens 0 (recap)
Wednesday, August 19th: Canadiens 5, Flyers 3 (recap)
Friday, August 21st: Flyers 3, Canadiens 2 (recap)
MORE:
• Stanley Cup Playoffs First Round schedule
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Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro hockey talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.
