March 31, 2026

The Flyers 'are in the ballgame,' maybe with that last spark they need

Trevor Zegras and the Flyers have cut down the deficit in the playoff race, and Porter Martone is joining the lineup. The stars might be aligning in Philadelphia.

By Nick Tricome
PhillyVoice Staff

Zegras-Goal-Flyers-Stars-3.29.26-NHL.jpg

Kyle Ross/Imagn Images

Trevor Zegras and the Flyers have won three straight to stay in the playoff race.

Rick Tocchet stood in the middle of the Flyers' locker room and said what the players already knew, but still just as much wanted to hear.

"We're in the ballgame here, boys," said the coach, as captured by team cameras, after the Flyers beat the Western behemoth Dallas Stars 2-1 in overtime on Sunday. "We just took that f---in' team out, and we were the better team, like all f---kin' night, so hang your hat on that."

Because the Philadelphia Flyers are very much alive, they're fighting, and they might only be getting stronger coming down this last stretch.

Trevor Zegras' turn to take the puck down the ice and shoot it himself in the extra frame gave the Flyers the game-winner at home over Dallas on Sunday.

Owen Tippett's continuing takeover and hat trick in Detroit pulled the Red Wings down as it sprung the Flyers up on Saturday.

And a 5-1 outburst against the Blackhawks in South Philly on Thursday quickly course-corrected from a poorly-timed dud against the Columbus Blue Jackets from a couple of nights earlier.

With three straight impactful wins, the Flyers closed their gap in the Eastern Conference playoff race down to just two points. They have 86 points in total in the standings as of Tuesday morning, trailing the Blue Jackets, with 88, for the second Wild Card spot and the New York Islanders, with 89, for third in the Metropolitan Division.

One extra key: The Flyers have 73 games played, along with the Red Wings and Ottawa Senators, who are each still in the mix. The Blue Jackets have completed 74 of their 82 games, and the Islanders 75 of them.

They're in the ballgame, like Tocchet said, and greater than that, they just might be playing better than anyone still making the chase right now.

The Flyers are 8-1-1 in their last 10 games, and since coming back from the Olympic break in late February, they're 12-4-1 over their last 17 contests. Only the Buffalo Sabres, at 13-2-2, have been better during that span.

Maybe it's a bit too late, and with too much needing to happen outside of their play, for the Flyers to fully sneak their way into the playoffs – that pre-Olympic tailspin and a couple of listless performances after have certainly made it seem that way sometimes.

Or maybe the Flyers are clicking just in time, with the stars beginning to align.

"I think we just believe," said winger Travis Konecny, who scored Sunday's opening goal. "We're not gonna really feed into anything. We'll just keep playing hard, playing for one another, and see how it shakes out at the end."

But here's how it's shaking out right now...

• Tippett, ever since the trade deadline passed earlier in the month, has been skating with a newfound comfort and a seeming realization of how to use his special blend of speed, strength, and a powerful shot to its fullest. The 27-year-old winger has scored eight goals in the last 12 games, and stands at 27 goals for the season. If he keeps playing the way he has, he's going to break past the 30-goal mark and quite possibly carry the Flyers past the midway point of April.

• Zegras has gotten his look as a center and has been constantly generating play up the ice with Tippett on his wing. He has five points in the past five games, and after looking like the kind of offensive playmaker the Flyers have desperately needed for a while to start the season, he might be one of the key difference makers to push them into the postseason by the end of it.

• Travis Sanheim and Rasmus Ristolainen have brought their Olympic experience back to the team and have formed a top defensive pairing that's continually willing to get physical while taking on well beyond 20 minutes from night to night, even if their play doesn't necessarily, or directly, result in points on the stat sheet. Even so, it's the kind of tough play required to exist within the playoff field, even if it may not hold up to the more elite names who will be there.

• Above all, the Flyers are getting saves, not just from Dan Vladar, who continues to carry the torch as the No. 1 netminder, but from Sam Ersson, who, not so quietly anymore, has turned a struggle of a year around, which included one-goal efforts against the Blackhawks and Stars in those crucial wins (and one big save with the pad against Dallas late that probably save that whole game).

SAM. ERSSON. BIGGEST SAVE OF HIS CAREER? INSANE.#LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/tCWgpg6eRC
— Flyers Clips (@Flyers_Clips) March 30, 2026

• Finally, there's the big reinforcement that just arrived. Porter Martone signed his entry-level contract, was at Xfinity Mobile Arena and watching Sunday night, and will make his Flyers debut later Tuesday in Washington against the Capitals. The big power forward, who tore through the collegiate season at Michigan State with a relentless will to barrel his way down the wall and shoot, will be jumping straight into the lineup, with the kind of 'get to the net and score' style of a game that may just be the last push the Flyers need to pull this run off.

And that's all among other aspects that have been working, like Jamie Drysdale's increasingly stronger control of the puck, and the fact that Matvei Michkov, in a wash of a sophomore year, quietly has seven assists over the last seven games.

It all has the Flyers in the ballgame, which right now, with nine games left, is all the chance they need and all they really had to know.

To everything else, from the other teams in the chase with them, the potential help they might need in the standings, and to any of the noise outside of that Philadelphia locker room, Tocchet had one more known but welcomed point to make...

"You know what? F--- everybody," the coach exclaimed as his players roared.