April 15, 2024
Kyle Ross/USA TODAY Sports
Travis Konecny and the Flyers kept themselves alive with Saturday's win over the Devils.
The Flyers did their part to keep themselves alive.
At the very last minute, they conquered one of their biggest demons of the season and finally beat the Rangers on the road, then came back to the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday and held on for a critical 1-0 win over the Devils.
Now there's one game left on Tuesday night against the Capitals right back here in South Philly.
To have a chance at the playoffs, the Flyers need a win in game 82, in regulation. And to make the playoffs, they're going to need some extra help.
Because after that late seven-game winless streak they suddenly snapped out of, there's no other way now.
"This stretch that we had probably came at the worst time," center Scott Laughton said after Saturday's win. "Couldn't pick up a couple extra points there, which would've been huge at this time, but we're not looking back. We're looking forward. We continue to compete and guys are playing for each other – we have all year. We're gonna try and get in here. Huge game coming up...
"Little bit of scoreboard watching, too."
Here's the scenario, starting with the standings...
| Rk) Team | Pts | W-L-OTL | G |
| M3) Islanders | 90 | 37-27-16 | 80 |
| --- | |||
| WC1) Lightning* | 96 | 44-28-8 | 80 |
| WC2) Capitals | 87 | 38-31-11 | 80 |
| --- | |||
| 3) Red Wings | 87 | 39-32-9 | 80 |
| 4) Flyers | 87 | 38-32-11 | 81 |
| 5) Penguins | 86 | 37-31-12 | 80 |
M – Metro; WC – Wild Card; *Spot clinched
The Lightning have the first wild card spot in the East clinched, and at this point, the Islanders are too far ahead with that third Metro division seed for the Flyers to catch them.
Their only remaining way in is through the second wild card, which they're fighting the Red Wings, Capitals, and Penguins for, and at the disadvantage of having one less game in hand – the Flyers only have their game Tuesday night left, while the other three all have two to work with.
Here are the remaining regular season games for each team in the hunt:
| Flyers | Capitals | Penguins | Red Wings |
| WSH | BOS | NSH | MTL |
| @PHI | @NYI | @MTL |
Washington and Detroit will both be playing back-to-backs on Monday and Tuesday nights.
The Capitals will be getting a Bruins team that's after the No. 1 seed in the Atlantic and still in the mix for the Presidents' Trophy, so they won't exactly be getting an opponent that is in cruise control heading into the playoffs.
The Red Wings, meanwhile, are getting two straight against a Canadiens team that is way down in the standings but has shown that they can and will catch teams napping while they play for pride and to be a spoiler – just ask the Flyers about that.
The Penguins will have the Predators on Monday night, who have been on a tear through the back half of the season and have one more game to try and secure the West's No. 1 wild card spot over Vegas. Then Pittsburgh will get the Islanders on Wednesday, who still need to lock down the No. 3 seed in the Metro themselves.
So the Flyers' path isn't easy, but their competition's isn't necessarily either.
Still, they'll need to see each of those teams lose outright over the next couple of nights (likely twice in Detroit's case), and again, will need to beat Washington outright in regulation on Tuesday night, too, as a four-point swing.
For the Flyers, 89 points and a prayer is the way through.
But the odds of that are still very much slim – possible, yes, but slim.
The odds for each of the remaining teams in the race via models from MoneyPuck, hockey-reference, and The Athletic as of Monday morning:
| Model | Flyers | Capitals | Penguins | Red Wings |
| MoneyPuck | 18% | 29.4% | 23.7% | 33.8% |
| hockey-reference | 3.5% | 20.4% | 15% | 65.4% |
| The Athletic | 11% | 31% | 16% | 46% |
And one more view of optimism for a team that few predicted would have even been in this position to begin with: Much weirder things have happened in the NHL, and certainly to the Philadelphia Flyers.
"I'm glad they get to play a meaningful game on Tuesday," head coach John Tortorella said.
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