April 16, 2024
Danny Wild/USA TODAY Sports
The path to the playoffs is clear for Travis Konecny and the Flyers, though extremely tough.
Monday night's scoreboard watching brought the Flyers zero help.
The Islanders topped the Devils to punch their ticket, the Capitals blanked the Bruins, the Penguins beat the Predators, and in a furious comeback, the Red Wings defeated the Canadiens in overtime.
They're all ahead of the Flyers now in the race for that last Eastern Conference wild card spot, and with one game left for each.
There's still a chance for the Flyers to make the postseason, though it only just got that much tougher heading into Game 82 on Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center.
The path forward is at least clear.
For the Flyers to make the playoffs, the following has to happen:
• They need to beat the Capitals in regulation on Tuesday night. Going into overtime or the shootout to give Washington the loser's point at minimum does them no good. The Flyers need an outright win after 60 minutes of hockey.
• They'll also need the Red Wings to lose the Canadiens in regulation on Tuesday night in Montreal as the second part of a back-to-back between the two to end the season, and 24 hours after the Canadiens blew a 4-1 lead.
• Then finally, the Penguins would have to lose to the Islanders up in Belmont Park on Wednesday night in their last game, again in regulation.
So for there to be playoff hockey in South Philly this spring, the next two nights need a clean two points across the board from the Flyers, Canadiens, and Islanders. Overtime can't happen.
Which is an extremely tough draw, one that MoneyPuck projects has only a 5.9 percent chance of happening for the Flyers, while The Athletic's model gives them an even slimmer 3 percent shot – hockey-reference's probability tool doesn't even list them with one at all now.
But they still have a chance going into the final game, as faint as it is.
"We've been doubted for most parts of the season," defenseman Travis Sanheim said after practice on Monday. "So just use it as motivation. One game at a time. Tomorrow's another one. We'll be ready to go."
One more look at the standings heading into a make-or-break Tuesday night:
| Rk) Team | Pts | W-L-OTL | RW |
| M3) Islanders* | 92 | 38-27-16 | 28 |
| --- | |||
| WC1) Lightning* | 96 | 44-29-8 | 36 |
| WC2) Capitals | 89 | 39-31-11 | 31 |
| --- | |||
| 3) Red Wings | 89 | 40-32-9 | 27 |
| 4) Penguins | 88 | 38-31-12 | 32 |
| 5) Flyers | 87 | 38-32-11 | 30 |
M– Metro; WC – Wild Card; *Spot Clinched; RW – Regulation Wins
And just in the event that the Flyers do make it, it'll be the Rangers waiting for them in the first round, who clinched the Presidents' Trophy on Monday night with a league-best 114 points following a 4-0 shutout of Ottawa.
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