April 26, 2026
Eric Hartline/Imagn Images
Travis Konecny and the Flyers are going to need more to fully put away the Penguins.
The Flyers' leading figures, each taking their turns in front of a wave of cameras and recorders amid a quiet locker room, all spoke with a certain type of awareness.
They had just lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-2, Saturday night in South Philadelphia, for Game 4 of their first-round Stanley Cup Playoff series. The idea of a sweep had been taken off the table. The Penguins came out desperate to keep their season alive, which the Flyers expected as much of going in. And yet still, they couldn't fully match that energy to close out the best-of-seven set early, and at home.
For an otherwise young Philadelphia roster, Saturday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena became another new situation to learn how to navigate, another new lesson to learn: OK, they won the first three playoff games, so how do they win the fourth to wrap it up?
That can be tricky for a developing team taking its first turn through the postseason, and the Flyers have an awareness of that now.
Taking your foot off the gas isn't an option. You have to slam down on it even harder.
"I mean, that was the first opportunity for us to close out the series," veteran winger Travis Konecny said. "I don't know if it was just a little bit mental that we came out that way, but we'll regroup.
"We've played one now that guys can feed off of, and we know what it's like now to play in that game to try to close it. Just fix our mistakes, head into the next game."
"Just a good lesson for us," defenseman Travis Sanheim added. "I think just understanding how hard it is to get that fourth one, we got another chance on Monday. We'll get ready and be ready for that one."
Penguins goaltender Arturs Silovs made 28 saves on Noah Cates and the Flyers Saturday night in Game 4.
The Flyers still left Saturday night holding most of the cards. They're leading the series, 3-1, still needing just that one more win to move on, while having heavily controlled their victories in Games 1-3.
They had their moments where they could've fully climbed back into Game 4, too, in front of another psyched-up home crowd that was ready to see them do it, but they were always kept a step or two short.
Denver Barkey's first career playoff goal before the end of the second period gave the arena a needed jolt and brought the Flyers to a 2-1 game, but the rookie's inarguable high-sticking penalty in the first put his team in the initial hole to begin with when Sidney Crosby scored immediately into that ensuing power play.
Travis Konecny did similar with a blast from in front seven minutes into the third, which kept the Flyers within one, 3-2. But that was in makeup of a puck battle he lost along the wall to Crosby a few minutes earlier, where it freed up Kris Letang to dial up a slapshot that zipped straight to the back of the Philadelphia net.
"Kicking myself on the Letang goal, the four-on-four," Konecny said. "I just lost the wall battle, and then it was two back then we got one right back. So it kind of feels like we could've tied the game up if I didn't make that mistake."
Flyers netminder Dan Vladar fights away a shot during the second period Saturday night in Game 4.
Dan Vladar wanted a couple of moments back, too.
The Flyers' leading netminder made 17 saves Saturday night, but Crosby's shot on the power play clipped his glove before it went in. Then Penguins forward Rickard Rakell snuck in and caught him behind the net as he looked to play the puck, blocking the outlet pass along the wall before sweeping around to score on the open net to put Pittsburgh up 2-0.
They were always working from behind after that.
"It was my bad of hitting him," Vladar explained afterward. "You do it in practice, you do it 20 times, 20 times it goes past him...This is just what it is."
Leaving the Flyers to learn another new lesson: Getting that last win to close out is tougher than you realize.
They're aware of that now.
But they'll try again Monday night, when they go back to Pittsburgh for Game 5.
"I liked the fight back," head coach Rick Tocchet said at the postgame dais down the hall. "I mean, hey, listen, that's a good hockey team over there. It's hard to win every game. But, you know, that's it. We just gotta go back to the drawing board."
The process of a team learning to close out a playoff series isn't exclusive to the Flyers, and applies to every passing round, even all the way up to the end when the Stanley Cup is waiting right there on the table.
You only have to look just a bit of a way back to the Florida Panthers and the first of their back-to-back Cup wins over the Edmonton Oilers two years ago to find proof of it.
The Panthers stormed out to a 3-0 series lead to set up for a stunning Cup Final sweep with just one more win, but then the Oilers woke up into a goal-scoring onslaught across Games 4, 5, and 6 to force the ultimate do-or-die Game 7.
And it took Florida grinding out and surviving down to the very last second, with superstars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl almost never leaving the ice for Edmonton, to finally make it.
Then, after head coach Paul Maurice got his turn to hoist the Cup, he told ESPN's Emily Kaplan this: "There's nothing easy. So we needed to lose three in the finals to learn how to win four, and the fact that it was so hard makes it so special."
That last one is tricky, no matter what kind of team your are.
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