May 09, 2026
Eric Hartline/Imagn Images
Travis Konecny and the Flyers have struggled to make good on their breaks against the Hurricanes.
It's a bad spot for the Flyers.
They melted down on Thursday night, with too many missed chances, too many punchless power plays, and then a barrage of penalties born out of aggravation.
And now they're heading into Saturday down 3-0 to the Carolina Hurricanes in their second-round Stanley Cup Playoff series, just hoping to stave off a sweep.
But they are still here. They're still playing, and as slim as it might seem now, they do still have a chance.
So Game 4 at Xfinity Mobile Arena later Saturday has to start with that.
"For me, it's an opportunity," head coach Rick Tocchet said Saturday morning during the team's optional skate in Voorhees. "In your career, some guys are lucky to get a lot of opportunities, some don't. So this is another opportunity to play – and I think I said it yesterday – a playoff game in the second round in your building, I mean, you gotta have energy, you gotta have excitement. The worse thing to think is you're down 3-0, how do you come back? That's all negativity. We gotta think positively.
"I know we gotta climb up the mountain and all that stuff, but somebody told me, you can't climb Mount Everest without getting to the first camp base, right? So we're trying to find that camp base, get some oxygen, refuel, and get to the second camp base. That's how you gotta think."
It's all the Flyers really can do in this spot.
“It's 3-0, but we're still here,” Trevor Zegras said of the Flyers' situation.
For as deep of a hole as they're in approaching Saturday night, the Flyers can't bring themselves to hate how they've played against the top-seeded Carolina.
The 3-0 shutout in Game 1 was a wash. The Hurricanes had them beat, plain and simple. But the 3-2 overtime loss in Game 2 was a matter of one last bounce that the Flyers could never seem to just jam through, and then Game 3 back at home, they liked their energy at the start, they liked how they were getting after the puck at even strength, and they liked the early chances they were generating.
Yet they couldn't bury any of those chances. The power play wasn't helping either, almost operating at a near standstill, it felt, which eventually led to frustration boiling over as the Hurricanes took over.
And yet still, if a couple of bounces go differently, or if a couple of more shots find the net, then maybe this series is a different story.
The Flyers just need that one to break. It was true through the first three games against Carolina, and it's still true now with their backs to the wall, just to a narrower but just as urgent view.
"I feel like the last couple games have kind of just been a couple bounces away from a different ballgame," said Trevor Zegras on Friday, after he scored the Flyers' lone goal in Game 3. "When you're up 3-0, you feel like, almost in a sense, like the series should be over. You just want it to be done. I think if we can go out and get one tomorrow, they'll tighten up a little bit."
"When you're up 3-0, I think it's just tough," Zegras added. "Getting that fourth one is obviously the hardest one. We gotta do our job to make it as hard as possible tomorrow."
And he would know now. The Flyers were just in that spot last round against the rival Pittsburgh Penguins, and it took two more tough games and one more drag-out battle deep into overtime for a young team to finally learn that lesson and fully close out.
"I mean, I know how you guys all felt during that Pitt series, because we were feeling it too," veteran winger Travis Konecny said after Saturday morning's skate. "It's stressful."
So is the situation they're in now, which will force them to apply their experience from the first round in a totally reverse way.
Konecny had one of Game 3's early opportunities on a breakaway that he couldn't get by goaltender Frederik Andersen's blocker with the shot.
He finished the regular season with 27 goals, which was second on the team behind the 28 scored by Owen Tippett, who will remain out for Game 4 with a still undisclosed injury.
But through the Flyers' nine playoff games so far, Konecny has only scored once, in the Game 4 loss to Pittsburgh last round, and has no points at all through the Carolina series.
He's a key offensive presence for the Flyers, and has been for years, but like the rest of the team, he's struggled to cut through Carolina and find that one break.
"Obviously, I think there's more there," Konecny said. "You spend a lot of time trying to do the right things, and make sure you're not giving up opportunities the other way. There's so many little things to think about on the other side of shutting a team down, and positionally, where to be and how to play certain guys.
"I think I just need to free myself up a little bit and just go play, take over 5-on-5 as a line, and just get back to having fun. Just don't overthink it."
And go from there.
It's all he can really do in this spot, all the Flyers can do, and hope by the end of Saturday night that it was all enough to earn at least one more day.
"It's 3-0," Zegras said. "But we're still here."
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