{"id":557302,"date":"2026-04-21T14:24:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T14:24:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/557302\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T14:24:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T14:24:22","slug":"flyers-have-to-thank-division-rival-coach-for-playoff-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/557302\/","title":{"rendered":"Flyers have to thank division rival coach for playoff run"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Philadelphia Flyers have gotten off to an emphatic start<\/a> in their 2026 Stanley Cup playoff run. Monday night\u2019s 3-0 blanking of the Pittsburgh Penguins puts Philly in the driver\u2019s seat. Two more games of this, and Sidney Crosby\u2019s offseason could get to a much earlier start than anticipated.<\/p>\n

But this playoff run almost didn\u2019t happen. There was a point at which the Flyers seemed out of a playoff spot for good.<\/p>\n

On March 15, the Flyers were six points out of a postseason berth. But a strong run, including a 7-3-0 mark in their final 10 games, sealed a return to the playoffs for Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

The reasons for the strong finish to the season are abundant. From Dan Vladar\u2019s heroic year to the return of Tyson Foerster. But as insider Elliotte Friedman noted, it was a conversation that happened months earlier that changed the Flyers\u2019 fortunes this season<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to Friedman\u2019s narrative, Flyers\u2019 coach Rick Tocchet had a conversation with current New York Islanders head coach Peter DeBoer. During that conversation, DeBoer offered Tocchet some insights into improving the Flyers\u2019 defensive game.<\/p>\n

The tips evidently worked. Things turned around for the Flyers, which led to a postseason appearance. <\/p>\n

Of course, it\u2019s worth noting that DeBoer wasn\u2019t the coach of the Islanders when the conversation took place. In fact, DeBoer offered his insights while he was not under contract by an NHL club, and both coaches were assistants on Jon Cooper\u2019s staff at the 2026 Winter Olympics.<\/p>\n

The outcome is certainly ironic because the tips DeBoer offered served to dethrone the team that he would eventually coach. The Islanders held on to a playoff spot for more of the season. But as the Islanders faded down the stretch, Tocchet\u2019s Flyers overtook them.<\/p>\n

Flyers’ defense has been the story in series against Penguins<\/p>\n

So, it\u2019s been the Flyers\u2019 defense that has truly stood up in their series against the Penguins. Pittsburgh has had a resurgent season thanks to its offense. After all, Crosby continues to be an elite scorer, with Evgeni Malkin getting a few sips from the fountain of youth. The supporting cast around Crosby and Malkin has chipped in significantly, helping lead the Penguins to an unlikely finish this season.<\/p>\n

But that offense hasn\u2019t been enough against the Flyers\u2019 tight defense. In two games thus far, the Penguins have managed just two goals. Not many would have predicted that outcome after two games.<\/p>\n

Of course, it\u2019s no surprise to Flyers fans to see their team playing extremely well<\/a>. However, the 2-0 series lead is even more impressive when considering Philly won the first two games on the road.<\/p>\n

With the series moving back to Philadelphia, it seems the Flyers will have the Penguins on the ropes. This series could be over much sooner than most anticipated. So, it remains to be seen if the Penguins and their championship experience can still make a series out of things moving forward.<\/p>\n

\"\"Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Philadelphia Flyers have gotten off to an emphatic start in their 2026 Stanley Cup playoff run. Monday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5110],"tags":[5,122,3328,159,5190,5189,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-557302","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-islanders","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-islanders","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-islanders","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkislanders","14":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116443157233704223","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557302","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=557302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}