{"id":472283,"date":"2026-02-26T03:44:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T03:44:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/472283\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T03:44:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T03:44:32","slug":"flyers-postgame-blog-team-wastes-a-great-vladar-start-as-playoff-hopes-quickly-fade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/472283\/","title":{"rendered":"Flyers Postgame Blog: Team Wastes a Great Vladar Start as Playoff Hopes Quickly Fade"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Philadelphia Flyers suffered a back-breaking 3-1 loss to the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night as their playoff hopes start to fade away. <\/p>\n

Heading into Wednesday\u2019s contest, it was well known that if the Flyers wanted a chance to crack the postseason, they needed to start the final stretch on a hot streak. Philadelphia entered Wednesday\u2019s game four points behind Washington and eight points out of both the wild card and the final Metropolitan division spot. <\/p>\n

Now, the Flyers trail the Caps by six points. That is certainly not ideal for a team that was already facing a tough, but doable challenge to sneak into the postseason. <\/p>\n

To make things clear, the Flyers are still not out of it. The Eastern Conference is such a mess that all it could take is a good run. However, it\u2019s becoming increasingly difficult with each loss, especially against a division foe. <\/p>\n

Per MoneyPuck.com<\/a>, the Flyers\u2019 playoff chances dropped to 7.32% with the loss. <\/p>\n

The good news for Philly: the Flyers have a chance to flush this one with a game against the struggling Rangers on Thursday. <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a look at how Philly ended up losing the game on Wednesday. <\/p>\n

Read More: Flyers Can\u2019t Solve Thompson, Lose 3-1 in First Game After the Break<\/a><\/p>\n

Flyers waste another brilliant game from Vladar<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with the good now. Dan Vladar was brilliant in his first start back after the Olympics. The Flyers\u2019 netminder stopped 26 of 28 shots. He kept his team in it, even when they had no answer for the opposing goalie, Logan Thompson.<\/p>\n

I think he would want the Trevor van Riemsdyk goal back. However, I don\u2019t know how much of the back-door goal scored by Rasmus Sandin you can put on Vladar. Instead, I wonder how he was able to sneak to the blue relatively unmarked. <\/p>\n

As for the Flyers\u2019 offense, I thought that for 50 minutes, they put together a decent effort; they just ran into a hot goalie. Specifically, I thought the Cates line looked really strong. Matvei Michkov really did look refreshed, and he had a number of great chances that were turned aside by Thompson.<\/p>\n

I liked the Flyers\u2019 top two defensive pairs, and I really thought Rasmus Ristolainen continued his terrific play from the Olympics back in the NHL. He was making smart plays, using his physicality, and even flashed some offense. <\/p>\n

I was intrigued by the Zegras\u2013Dvorak\u2013Konecny reunion, but was honestly underwhelmed by the Flyers\u2019 top line. <\/p>\n

Ultimately, the Flyers did not play poorly. They were stumped by Thompson, who never really slipped. After tying the game early in the third period, the Flyers\u2019 play seemed to dip. They looked a little tired, letting Washington take hold of the game. <\/p>\n

Then, of course, the power play struggled once again, even with the 6-on-4 advantage. The late-game power play could have been a literal game-changer. Instead, the power play picked up where it left off and struggled mightily. <\/p>\n

Now, let\u2019s see how the Flyers respond on Thursday vs. the Rangers.<\/p>\n

Read More: A Determined Matvei Michkov Discusses the Break, Tocchet Relationship, & Position Change Ahead of Flyers Final 26 Games<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Philadelphia Flyers suffered a back-breaking 3-1 loss to the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night as their playoff…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5112],"tags":[6878,1468,36308,46460,5,4,1467,56,5205,109],"class_list":{"0":"post-472283","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-flyers","8":"tag-dan-vladar","9":"tag-flyers","10":"tag-flyers-game","11":"tag-flyers-postgame-blog","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-philadelphia","15":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","16":"tag-philadelphiaflyers","17":"tag-washington-capitals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116134876193865486","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}