April 03, 2026
It felt like every time Porter Martone touched the ice on Thursday night, he had the puck and was about to do something with it.
He was constantly retrieving pucks out of the corners and wheeling back around toward the front of the net to either throw a shot on or to try to sneak a pass through.
He sprung linemates Travis Konecny and Christian Dvorak onto a 2-on-1, first with a blocked shot in his own zone that dampened a Detroit Red Wings chance, and then with a slick touch pass at the blue line that he redirected right to Konecny skating at full speed through center ice.
Then in the third, with the Flyers down and after a successful coach's challenge, Martone collected his first NHL point when he fired another shot that hit Konecny on the way into the net as the veteran winger was falling into the crease, and goaltender John Gibson, from contact.
But Martone looked far more dangerous than just that first assist.
For Thursday night on the whole, Martone skated 18:15 with a game-high, by far, nine shots on goal.
The 19-year-old winger looked every bit the top prospect that fans have been waiting for ever since he was drafted sixth overall last summer, and who they finally got to see skate in a Flyers sweater on the home Xfinity Mobile Arena rink.
He commanded attention at all times, both from the Red Wings and even the officials, and that part surprised none of his new teammates.
It just all went toward a brutal 4-2 loss to Detroit that really put a strain on the Flyers' playoff chances coming down the final stretch of the season.
"He kind of knows his role," Konecny, who got a first glimpse of Martone while playing with him for Team Canada in last summer's IIHF World Championship, said about him postgame. "He knows what he's good at, and he kind of sticks to it. He's in good areas, and he's only gonna get better.
"It's really encouraging, and it's important to have him for this little stretch here. He's a key piece right now."
But at a point where the Flyers are going to have to take whatever they can get.
Porter Martone has his first NHL point (after some goalie interference/contact controversy)!!!! 😂🚨 pic.twitter.com/YWSviSJLXm
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) April 3, 2026
A few other thoughts from Thursday night's loss to Detroit, starting with the state of the Eastern Conference playoff race...
The Flyers have seven games left now, and simply put, they're all must-wins, as Konecny noted postgame Thursday night.
They're still sitting at 86 points in the standings. Ottawa has the second Wild Card spot in the East now thanks to their win over Buffalo on Thursday night, and Columbus and Detroit both sit ahead of the Flyers on the bubble. All three teams have 88 points.
The New York Islanders are occupying third in the Metropolitan Division at 89 points and had Thursday off with 76 of 82 games played. The Flyers immediately left for Elmont to face the Isles later Friday as the second leg of a home-road back-to-back.
They need that game if they're still going to catch either the Islanders or whoever holds the second Wild Card between Detroit, Columbus, or Ottawa. There's no other way around it.
Friday night is pretty much sink or swim for this Philadelphia team, and if they're still swimming after that, they'd still have to win about four of those last six – including one more against Detroit on April 9 that will likely have to be taken in regulation – to get up to 96 points, at minimum, and have a shot to keep playing.
As of Friday morning, MoneyPuck's playoff odds have the Flyers with a 14.3 percent chance to still make the postseason.
Nothing about the remaining road for them, though, is going to be easy for them. They're out of room to slip.
35 percentage point swing in playoff chances for the Isles tonight. Last chance of the Flyers. https://t.co/SJsT3j6EOs pic.twitter.com/1OMamaAygH
— MoneyPuck.com (@MoneyPuckdotcom) April 3, 2026
For as impactful as Porter Martone and Tyson Foerster, who scored in his return from a several-month injury absence, were, who you didn't really see or hear from may have been just as noticeable.
Matvei Michkov was kind of nowhere to be found on Thursday, and his line altogether, with Noah Cates and Denver Barkey, seemed to just have a rough night in general, struggling to control and protect the puck.
And look, most discussion about Michkov this season has invited a volatile conversation. It's been a rough sophomore season for him, and numerous factors have gone into that. There's no getting around it. It doesn't mean he's a bust. It doesn't mean he's any less important to the Flyers' future, and it doesn't mean he can't come back next year and rebound back into being the future star we all saw flashes of.
But in the here and now for this season, Michkov is still one of their most offensively creative players, and they're at a point where they absolutely need his best if they're going to survive.
He didn't bring it, and hasn't scored in weeks now (though he has brought a steady stream of assists until the past couple of games). Barkey and Cates really didn't either.
But they all have to find it fast for Friday night and the rest of the way.
Matvei Michkov will have to rebound from an underwhelming second season.
In no way do either of these points help now, but Foerster's return to the lineup and the Flyers' place in the last leg of the race brought on two things to daydream about.
With Foerster, he was playing a complete, physical, and shoot-first type of game that arguably had him skating as the Flyers' best forward before his injury and ensuing surgery in December sidelined him. He already had 10 goals through 21 games at that time, and more eyes were really starting to take notice of him.
Had he kept going through a full season, I do think the conversation would've started to head toward looking at Foerster as a true breakout star, while he just might've been looking at breaking into the 35-40-goal range.
A bit in tandem with that, man, if the Flyers just didn't faceplant through January, we're probably talking about them already having a spot and getting ready for the playoffs.
Looking back at that stretch, all they really had to do to stay in good shape was play around .500 hockey, because the conference just wasn't separating itself.
That isn't even revisionist history. It was obvious then, and it's painfully truer now that the Flyers have no more breathing room and are still sprinting to catch up and sneak in.
Hard lesson learned, I suppose. But it's still yet to be seen how badly it really is going to hurt.
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