May 07, 2026
Charles LeClaire/Imagn Images
Denver Barkey and the Flyers have been playing some form of "must-win" hockey for nearly two months now.
The situation facing the Philadelphia Flyers is tough.
They're down 2-0 to the top-seeded Carolina Hurricanes in their second-round Stanley Cup playoff series, as they come back home to Xfinity Mobile Arena Thursday night for a crucial Game 3, and they're banged up.
Noah Cates was ruled out for the rest of the series after being spotted getting wheeled along atop a cart after Game 2, Owen Tippett is still out after not having appeared in either of the first two second-round games, and Christian Dvorak will suit up for Thursday night, but the center's missing practice on Wednesday in Voorhees did point to a lot of punishment catching up to him.
Plus, there's the part that the Hurricanes, as one of the fastest and most relentlessly checking teams in the field, can't be expected to take their foot off the gas now.
It's a lot to climb back from, and a scenario where it would be easy for a young and relatively inexperienced team to get overwhelmed by.
But the Flyers aren't blinking.
Learning? For sure, and maybe a bit painfully, too, when it comes to spots like Game 2 in Carolina on Monday night, where they did a ton right, but still lost anyway.
But they're not shying away from the moment or the stakes, even when it comes to some of the youngest players on the team. After all, the Flyers have been playing some kind of variation of a "must-win game" for almost two months now.
Thursday night is just going to be a new form of it.
"I don't see guys nervous," head coach Rick Tocchet said following Thursday morning's optional skate at the arena. "I'm sure there's butterflies, but the kids, I think the last two months have helped them for this moment, right?
"They've lived it for two months of 'We gotta win this game.' We're on that West Coast trip, and we had to win these games, so they got a taste of this kind of – it is a must-win, per se...I think they're getting the taste of it where their heart rate is not at 300 right now. I think they're calm. Calm before the storm type of thing.
"So they've lived it the last month, that's why it's so invaluable, this development of the mental and the physical part of the game."
And that will pay off in the long haul for the Flyers with their increasing number of skaters in only their early 20s.
But right now, they're on the immediate task at hand; trying to get back into this series with a home win in Game 3.
"Listen, we gotta win this game tonight," Tocchet continued. "It's tough to come back from a series three up. This is our game...We win this game, we're back in the series. We lose now, we're really behind the eight ball."
He would know.
Tocchet was a part of the 2000 Flyers, who rallied to win four straight over the Penguins in the second-round of that season's playoffs, which included the notorious 5 overtime win in Game 4.
"We had a veteran-led team," Tocchet recalled. "There wasn't a lot of panic."
And he's not seeing it now, 26 years later. The difference is it's the Flyers' youth that's helping to keep the collective cool.
Rookies Porter Martorne, Alex Bump, and Denver Barkey skated on a line together Monday night in Game 2, where none were any older than 22.
Porter Martone and the Flyers' youth have been a focal point of the team's playoff run.
Sure, they made mistakes in the losing effort, and they were aware of that. But they were also aware that they were doing good things on the ice, that the team overall had put in a strong effort, and that, really, Monday night was the difference of one last chance – one last bounce – that the Flyers couldn't get to go through.
They had the right idea on how to play against Carolina.
"Being down 2-0 in the series isn't what we would like. It's obviously a hole to dig out of, but we have a lot of belief in this group," Martone said after practice in Voorhees on Tuesday. "We gotta go play our best game of the season tomorrow.
"We're just gonna go out there and stick to what we do best, and hopefully get the result we want."
But it is going to take more out of everyone who is still skating.
Tippett remaining out leaves the Flyers short of his unique blend of speed, strength, and a powerful shot that they really could've used toward protecting the puck from Carolina through the first two games.
And having Cates sidelined, as one of their most consistent checking forwards, is a clear hit to their center depth, which is expected to move Trevor Zegras back to the faceoff dot as a result, while likely shifting the roles down the middle, at least a bit, for Barkey, Dvorak, captain Sean Couturier, and further down the lineup if they need him, veteran Luke Glendening.
That all-rookie line of Bump, Barkey, and Martone, which showed promise Monday night, might not be rolled back out again for Game 3 because of those injuries, too.
There's no panic, though.
If anything, Thursday night is a new spin on yet another "must-win" for the Flyers.
And the way Barkey is seeing it, the aim is to shrink the series down to a first to two.
"They won their two games on home ice," Barkey said Thursday morning. "Now our focus is winning our two games on home ice. Then you go into a Game 5, and after that, it's the first to win two more games. We're just focused at the task at hand tonight, and stealing two games on home ice."
"We're right there. The belief's still here," Barkey added. "Game 2 could've gone either way, so yeah, the belief's still there. We're just ready to go tonight."
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