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The Philadelphia Flyers are going to have to prepare for a very quick turnaround for their upcoming series against the Metropolitan Division rival Carolina Hurricanes in Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

On Thursday night, it was announced that Game 1 between the Flyers and Hurricanes will be set for 8 p.m. on Saturday night, with the Flyers having to travel down to Raleigh, North Carolina, for the first two games.

Thursday was a scheduled, and well-deserved, day off for the team after a teeth-gritting 1-0 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 6 on Wednesday night.

Notably, both the Buffalo Sabres and Boston Bruins, and Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning, still have their Round 1 matchups ongoing.

Their respective Game 6s will take place on Sunday, though, at the time of this writing, a time has not been specified for either game.

As for the Flyers and Hurricanes, Carolina took the season series by a decisive 3-1 margin, and it could very well have been a 4-0 sweep if not for some late-season heroics from the Flyers.

NHL Star Admiring Flyers' Porter Martone From AfarTop <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers">Philadelphia Flyers</a> prospect Porter Martone has impressed his teammates, the organization, and fans with how well he's played so far, but he's quickly earning the respect of his peers, too.

Back on April 13, with the Hurricanes resting a number of key players, including Sebastian Aho, Jaccob Slavin, Seth Jarvis, captain Jordan Staal, and Andrei Svechnikov, the Flyers stole a 3-2 decision in a a lengthy shootout to book their trip to the playoffs.

A significantly weakened Hurricanes team still jumped out to a 2-0 lead, though Matvei Michkov, Trevor Zegras, and Porter Martone all delivered in the clutch to knot things up at 2-2.

Dan Vladar was his usual reliable self, making 24 saves on 26 shots and stopping all four Hurricanes attempts he faced in the shootout that night.

Vladar is coming off a monster 42-save shutout of the Penguins in Game 6, so the Czech netminder is white-hot heading into this bloodbath with Carolina.

The Flyers' offense has struggled so far in the playoffs, as Rasmus Ristolainen leads the team with five points, and Travis Sanheim and Martone are the only two Flyers with multiple goals (two apiece).

They'll need to ramp it up to have any chance of beating the vaunted Hurricanes, especially having to start fast on the road beginning Saturday night.

On Wednesday night, the Montreal Canadiens went up 3-2 in their series against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Former Chicago Blackhawks third overall pick Kirby Dach scored one of Montreal’s 3 goals in the victory. 

Earlier in the series, Marty St. Louis kept Dach in the lineup after a horrific game that included a bad turnover that led to a Lightning overtime winner. Since then, he’s been one of the Canadiens’ most impactful forwards. 

On the other side is Tampa Bay’s Brandon Hagel, who is also a former Chicago Blackhawks forward. Although he didn’t impact the scoresheet in Game 5, he’s been their best player, drawing a lot of attention to the fact that the Blackhawks traded him away. 

On Thursday, all four prominent players the Blackhawks traded at the deadline were on the ice for their new teams. One of them had a good night, and the other three went out with a whimper. 

First, Nick Foligno and the Minnesota Wild defeated the Dallas Stars 5-2, earning a first-round victory in Game 6 at home. Foligno didn’t have any points while playing on a line with his brother, Marcus, but he was a physical specimen all over the ice for the entire game. 

Foligno is more of a depth piece to the Wild than he was as the captain of the Blackhawks. He throws his weight around, brings a sense of urgency on every shift, and provides a steady game in all three zones. 

The nightcap was Game 6 between the Anaheim Ducks and the Edmonton Oilers. With a 3-2 series lead, the Ducks had a chance to eliminate Jason Dickinson, Connor Murphy, Colton Dach, and the Oilers. 

From the puck drop on, the Ducks were the better team. Eventually, they skated their way to a 5-2 win of their own and will move on to the second round for the first time since 2017. 

Connor Murphy scored a goal for the Oilers in Game 6, and it was assisted by Colton Dach. Dickinson almost single-handedly won Game 1 with two goals of his own. The Blackhawks, who moved on to the Oilers, did their job, but it wasn’t enough. 

Anaheim’s head coach is former Blackhawks head coach and three-time Stanley Cup champion Joel Quenneville. There are a lot of parallels between what Quenneville has now and what he had when he first got the Blackhawks into the playoffs. He seems to be saying the right things and putting the right systems into place once again. 

Even when Quenneville was in Florida, he had the team on the rise. When he left, they kept it going and have been to three straight finals and won two. Now, the Ducks are trying to do something similar. 

Stan Bowman, who was Quenneville’s GM for part of his tenure in Chicago, is the GM of the Oilers. Some of his moves have been questionable, and there is now a lot of pressure to make Connor McDavid happy before he packs his bags. 

Up next are three Game 6’s on Friday, including the big Canadiens (Kirby Dach) vs Lightning (Brandon Hagel) matchup. Foligno and the Wild will face the Colorado Avalanche in Round 2. 

Blackhawks Are Far Away From True Contention In Central DivisionThe Chicago Blackhawks are far away from contention in the Central Division.

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Here are your links for today:

Devils Links

“Hischier has made it known his goal is to win a Stanley Cup with the New Jersey Devils, and he’s certainly a player they need to keep around if they’re serious about doing so. He has averaged 32.4 goals and 72.6 points per 82 games over the last three seasons. That production alone makes him irreplaceable, let alone all that gets put on his plate defensively and in the faceoff dot. It’s rare to find players who can not only hold their own, but excel, with the kind of usage Hischier draws.” [Infernal Access ($)]

“Despite the disappointing season, the New Jersey Devils still had a few players who exceeded expectations.” [Devils on the Rush ($)]

What might new contracts look like for Nico Hischier, Simon Nemec and Arseny Gritsyuk? Some projections: [New Jersey Hockey Now]

Hockey Links

The Flyers, Wild and Ducks advance, and the Penguins, Stars and Oilers are done:

Lady Byng finalists:

“The on-ice officials not only missed Greig uppercutting a defenseless Hurricanes defenseman, but they also put Brind’Amour’s team on the PK afterward, something the Canes coach said shouldn’t be acceptable given how many people in the building saw the incident take place. But after years of watching mistakes such as this, Brind’Amour didn’t place blame on the two refs and two linesmen on the ice. Instead, he went back to an argument he has been making since he stepped behind the bench: the NHL’s officials need more help to get things right.” [The Athletic ($)]

“Jessica Campbell will not return to the Seattle Kraken bench next season, the team announced Thursday. Campbell’s contract is expiring this summer, and sources told ESPN that she has received interest across the league.” [ESPN]

A cool moment before Tuesday’s Bruins-Sabres game in Buffalo: “Seconds into ‘O Canada,’ national anthem singer Cami Clune’s microphone malfunctioned. A dutiful crowd of 19,070 — Shane and Andrea Doan included — rushed to her aid with a full-throated, word-for-word reinforcement.” [The Athletic ($)]

Feel free to discuss these and any other hockey-related stories in the comments below.

The offseason is here a little earlier than the Penguins wanted it to be. As they shift into that mode, here’s what to watch for in the upcoming weeks for the early portion of decisions that will need to be made and events to unfold prior to the busy period around the draft and free agency.

Step 1: The Wilkes-Barre playoff run

Pittsburgh’s season is over but there’s still important information to glean for the organization within their AHL team. There are several players in Wilkes-Barre now, from Sergei Murashov to Rutger McGroarty, Ville Koivunen, Avery Hayes and Harrison Brunicke that will have very good chances to graduate to the NHL as soon as the start of next season. The organization would love to see a deep run by WBS to see which young players rise to the occasion and pique their interest when it comes to sorting out their squad for next season and which holes they might still want to fill via trades and free agents over the summer. The Pens probably wouldn’t have traded for Arturs Silovs without his 2025 Calder Cup run, this year their targets could well be internal for projecting to the NHL club.

Step 2: Find out draft position

Pittsburgh’s draft spot is currently 22nd, with draft position being set by regular season performance and not playoff results (until Conference Finals and Stanley Cup teams getting bumped to the end of the order, anyways). The Pens’ slot could move up to 20th if both the Flyers beat Carolina next round AND Vegas doesn’t advance to the Western Conference Final. If one of those items occur then the Pittsburgh pick moves to 21st. If neither of them happen, the pick remains 22nd. Vegas is up 3-2 in their series on Utah to move onto the next round and Carolina is a heavy favorite, so for draft positioning there might not be a move up from 22nd, but it’s one of those things to sit back and wait and see how it goes.

Step 3: Sort out Evgeni Malkin

This could take hours, days, weeks or even months to reach a conclusion. Malkin has made no secret his desire to return in 2026-27 with the Penguins. Kyle Dubas, on the other hand, has been in no rush to extend the star forward. Malkin will turn 40 this summer and the Penguins want to get younger, but he did produce 61 points in 56 games this season. Objectively, there shouldn’t be much to think about here to give the franchise icon a one-year extension. He’s still a productive player that could and should help the team next season and likely even come at a discounted rate. (It also doesn’t hurt that Malkin will help sell tickets and merch while keeping Sidney Crosby happier).

Step 4: Ownership transition

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman recently said the sale of the Penguins from FSG to the Hoffmann announced in December is ‘on track’ but didn’t give a timetable of when it would be completed. That requires Board of Governors approval and they haven’t had a meeting recently to get to that business. Immediate reactions might be for some sort of drastic change or shifts but it usually doesn’t pan out like that from the very start. It’s still an important item to check off the list, even if it likely won’t alter the offseason or team direction.

Step 5: Other free agents

The unrestricted free agents on the NHL roster, along with Malkin, are Kevin Hayes, Anthony Mantha, Noel Acciari, Connor Dewar, Connor Clifton, Ryan Shea, Ilya Solovyov and Stuart Skinner. In an effort to get younger, most of these names have likely played their final game as a Penguin. To varying levels, a few (most likely Dewar, Shea and Solovyov) will at least be approached for a possible return, if not get outright efforts to keep for next season. Maybe that applies to some of Acciari, Mantha and Skinner too, though I’d personally put those three names in a much less likely to return category at this point.

For restricted free agents, the Pens have Egor Chinakhov and Arturs Silovs to deal with (plus Koivunen and Joel Blomqvist down in the AHL). In this day and age it’s not uncommon to not tender an RFA and try to get a better deal for the team – that happened with Dewar and Phil Tomasino last year, but it’s a no-brainer that everyone mentioned in this category will get a qualifying offer and have their rights retained by the Pens.

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There are certainly other items to consider and items to get to as well, depending on how aggressive the team might feel about what to do with someone like Ryan Graves or whatever might happen with the Kris Letang situation, whose no movement contract turns to a 10-team no trade on July 1st. Items like that are not as pressing or immediate for this early look at the offseason items and decisions that will unfold first.

On Friday night, the Montreal Canadiens will have a golden opportunity to qualify for the second round of the playoffs by beating the Tampa Bay Lightning for a fourth time. If they do manage it, it will only have taken four years for the Kent Hughes/Jeff Gorton/Martin St-Louis regime to win a playoff round. That would be remarkable.

If you compare them with the Canadiens’ long-time rivals, the Toronto Maple Leafs, they hired Brendan Shanahan and Kyle Dubas to mould their rebuild in 2014. They missed the playoffs in their first two seasons, just like the Canadiens did in their first two seasons with the new administration at the helm.

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Both franchises made the playoffs in their front office’s third season at the helm. That was in 2017 for the Leafs, when they lost in the first round to the Washington Capitals in six games. For Montreal, that was in 2025, when they too lost to the Caps in the first round, but in five games.

Then, for the next two seasons, Toronto lost to the Boston Bruins in seven games. The following year, they lost to the Columbus Blue Jackets in the qualifying round. In 2021, they lost to Montreal in seven games after leading the series 3-1. In 2022, they lost to the Lightning in seven games. It took the Shanahan/Dubas duo nine years to finally win a round in the playoffs.

The Canadiens could potentially do it in four and a half years, half the time. Why? Because the Habs have been built the right way. They did not focus solely on the big names and handcuff themselves with big contracts and no movement clauses. The Leafs had Morgan Reilly, William Nylander, Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews and John Tavares from 2018 onwards. There was a lot of star power that faded when it really counted, and Toronto couldn’t overcome it.

This year in the playoffs, Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky have been struggling to put up points at even strength. Suzuki has five points, four of which have come on the man-advantage; Caufield has four points, all on the power play, just like Slafkovsky’s three points.

Still, the Canadiens lead the series. Why? Because of their depth, which they have because Hughes was able to sign his top guns to reasonable contracts with team-friendly cap hits. The way he handled the negotiations for Caufield, Slafkovsky, Guhle and Hutson has been exemplary, and he’s been able to add good complementary pieces along the way like Mike Matheson, Zach Bolduc, Noah Dobson, Alexandre Texier, Alexandre Carrier, Alex Newhook and even Kirby Dach of late has stepped up.

Of course, you can’t call a rebuild an unmitigated success until a Stanley Cup has been won, but if the Canadiens manage to reach the second round in such a short time, it will be further evidence that they are doing things the right way.

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