![\"Philadelphia](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/TMC-Z-Flyers607396-1.jpg\")
Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Samuel Ersson stops the puck during a game against the Los Angeles Kings, Thursday, March 19, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo\/Jessie Alcheh)<\/p>\nOne reason the Flyers might still have faint hopes for a playoff spot can be found in how they handle back-to-back game situations.<\/p>\n
Specifically, the second half of those challenges.<\/p>\n
Last season they were downright dreadful. If you can find a team that was worse than Philadelphia\u2019s 1-10-2 record in those situations, please drop us a line.<\/p>\n
This season? Much better. How about 5-5-1, including two victories in the last week or so. And these weren\u2019t cupcakes on the back ends. First, an overtime win at Minnesota after playing the night before more than a 1,000 miles away at home against Washington.<\/p>\n
Then, after a gutsy overtime win at Anaheim on Wednesday night, they come right back and finished off the Kings in a shootout at Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
How have they managed to flip the script?<\/p>\n
For one thing, they\u2019re getting better contributions out of their lower lines, including the fourth. On Thursday night, coach Rick Tocchet put a defenseman, Emil Andrae, in at fourth-line center because he was short of forwards due to injury. That worked out fine.<\/p>\n
Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Samuel Ersson stops the puck during a game against the Los Angeles Kings, Thursday, March 19, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo\/Jessie Alcheh)<\/p>\n
And let\u2019s not forget the play of goaltender Sam Ersson, who usually draws the short straw by playing the latter part of these bookend games. In Thursday night\u2019s game, he was right on the money and pulled his record over the .500 mark with the win over the Kings.<\/p>\n
How important is it winning the back end of these tightly scheduled encounters down the stretch<\/p>\n
Well, partly because of the Olympics, the Flyers are going to play three more back-to-backs this year. And being six points out of a playoff spot with just 14 games to play as of Friday, the Flyers can\u2019t afford to stub their toe in any of these schedule challenges.<\/p>\n
There are three more two-in-24-hours problems left: March 28-29 (Detroit-Dallas), April 2-3 (Detroit, New York Islanders) and April 13-14 (Carolina, Montreal).<\/p>\n
If the Flyers can win any of the first games of these consecutive games, they simply have to keep the pedal to the metal. There\u2019s little room for error.<\/p>\n
Securing the future<\/p>\n
Flyers general manager Daniel Briere has some big decisions to make when it comes to contract signings for a couple of his star players.<\/p>\n
Namely, Trevor Zegras is scheduled to become a free agent at the end of the season and goaltender Dan Vladar, while he may be signed for next season, has played so well this season that the Flyers certainly don\u2019t want to get into a bidding war a year from now.<\/p>\n
Both the seasons of Zegras and Vladar have exceeded expectations. Zegras is only 25 and has a bright future. He\u2019s a savvy playmaker, a sniper and a killer in shootouts. Vlader is still only 28 and never seems to have two subpar games in a row.<\/p>\n
The recommendation is to get these two guys signed and pay them what the market dictates. From here, they look like a big part of the Flyers\u2019 future.<\/p>\n
Power-play help needed<\/p>\n
It might sound a bit simplistic but when the free-agent market opens this July, shouldn\u2019t the Flyers be looking at a proven power-play scorer or two?<\/p>\n
Right now the team is on schedule to finish last in the NHL with the man advantage for the fourth time in the last five years.<\/p>\n
Aside from the eight power-play goals scored by Zegras, no one else has more than four. That\u2019s not going to cut it.<\/p>\n
How many close games have the Flyers lost because they went 0-for-4 or 0-for-5 on the power play? It has to be frustrating for coach Rick Tocchet.<\/p>\n
Part of the problem this season has been a dropoff by certain proven scorers. Example: Last year Travis Konecny had eight power-play goals. This year: One.<\/p>\n
One suggestion: More shooting, less passing. Often the Flyers look for the perfect play by moving the puck around the perimeter. There are some nights when they pack bodies in front and go for the greasy goal.<\/p>\n
More of that and less of the finesse stuff.<\/p>\n
Wayne Fish is a freelance writer. Follow his coverage at www.flyingfishhockey.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One reason the Flyers might still have faint hopes for a playoff spot can be found in how…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5112],"tags":[1468,5,4,1467,56,5205,43,5095],"class_list":{"0":"post-515447","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-flyers","8":"tag-flyers","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","13":"tag-philadelphiaflyers","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-top-stories-tmc"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116269100297841268","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515447","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=515447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}