{"id":177220,"date":"2026-04-27T13:02:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T13:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/177220\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T13:02:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T13:02:18","slug":"game-preview-philadelphia-flyers-pittsburgh-penguins-round-1-game-5-4-27-2026-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/177220\/","title":{"rendered":"Game Preview: Philadelphia Flyers @ Pittsburgh Penguins , Round 1 Game 5, 4\/27\/2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Who:\u00a0Philadelphia Flyers\u00a0(3-1) @ Pittsburgh Penguins\u00a0(1-3) in Game 5 of the best of seven series<\/p>\n

When: 7:00 p.m. ET<\/p>\n

How to Watch: Locally broadcast on Sportsnet Pittsburgh and NBC Sports Philadelphia, nationally on ESPN, streaming on ESPN+<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Pens\u2019 Path Ahead: The Penguins are fighting to make sure they have a path ahead. That would be a Game 6, back in Philadelphia<\/a> on Wednesday night if Pittsburgh wins today to extend the series.<\/p>\n

Opponent Track: The Flyers are up 3-1 in the series and looking to close out and move onto next round against the Carolina Hurricanes<\/a>. Carolina wrapped up a sweep of Ottawa<\/a> on Saturday and now sits back to await the PIT\/PHI winner in the next round.<\/p>\n

Hidden Stat: From Pens PR, Arturs Silovs<\/a>\u00a0(28 saves in Game 4) became the second goaltender in franchise history to make his Penguins playoff debut in an elimination contest and earn a win, following\u00a0Frank Pietrangelo\u00a0(Game 6 of 1991 division semifinals).<\/p>\n

Hidden Stat 2.0: By my count the Penguins are 11-13 in the Sidney Crosby<\/a> era when facing elimination in the playoffs (11-12 in the games Crosby has played, 0-1 when he hasn\u2019t in 2011 vs TB). The Pens have won two games in the same series when facing elimination on three occasions (2009 vs DET, 2012 vs PHI, 2016 vs TB).<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Getting to know the Flyers<\/p>\n

Projected lines<\/p>\n

FORWARDS<\/p>\n

Travis Konecny<\/a> \u2013 Christian Dvorak<\/a> \u2013 Porter Martone<\/p>\n

Denver Barkey<\/a> \u2013 Trevor Zegras<\/a> \u2013 Owen Tippett<\/a><\/p>\n

Alex Bump<\/a> \u2013 Noah Cates<\/a> \u2013 Tyson Foerster<\/a><\/p>\n

Luke Glendening<\/a> \u2013 Sean Couturier<\/a> \u2013 Garnet Hathaway<\/a><\/p>\n

DEFENSEMEN<\/p>\n

Travis Sanheim<\/a> \/ Rasmus Ristolainen<\/a><\/p>\n

Cam York<\/a> \/ Jamie Drysdale<\/a><\/p>\n

Nick Seeler<\/a> \/ Noah Juulsen<\/a><\/p>\n

Goalies:\u00a0Dan Vladar and Samuel Ersson<\/a><\/p>\n

Potential scratches: Matvei Michkov<\/a>, Garrett Wilson<\/a>, Carl Grundstrom<\/a>, Emil Andrae<\/a>, Helge Grans<\/a>, David Jiricek<\/a>, Oscar Eklind, Oliver Bonk, Hunter McDonald, Jacob Gaucher, Aleksei Kolosov<\/a>, Carson Bjarnason<\/p>\n

Injured Reserve: Rodrigo Abols<\/a> (fractured ankle), Nikita Grebenkin<\/a> (upper body)<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

It looks like there is going to be a lineup change among forwards for the Flyers for the first time in this series. Michkov is going out and Alex Bump is headed in<\/a> to make his NHL playoff debut, based on a practice the Flyers held yesterday before traveling to Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

Michkov hasn\u2019t done much of anything (no points, four shots on goal and barely averaging above 10 minutes per game) but was Philadelphia\u2019s fourth highest scorer with 51 points in the regular season. Removing him would take some skill out of their lineup, even though he hasn\u2019t been able to get much of anything going as it was.<\/p>\n

There was another change in the middle lines with Barkey and Foerster trading spots. Barkey scored a goal in Game 4 on a nice setup from Zegras, it looks like the Flyers will be wanting to see them play together.<\/p>\n

Updated the scratch list for the Flyers, with their AHL affiliate didn\u2019t qualify for the playoffs they have quite the taxi squad of young players sticking around.<\/p>\n

And now for the Pens\"\"<\/p>\n

Projected lines<\/p>\n

FORWARDS<\/p>\n

Rickard Rakell<\/a> \u2013 Sidney Crosby \u2013 Bryan Rust<\/a><\/p>\n

Egor Chinakhov<\/a> \u2013 Tommy Novak<\/a> \u2013 Evgeni Malkin<\/a><\/p>\n

Elmer Soderblom<\/a> \u2013 Ben Kindel<\/a> \u2013 Anthony Mantha<\/a><\/p>\n

Connor Dewar \u2013 Blake Lizotte<\/a> \u2013 Noel Acciari<\/a><\/p>\n

DEFENSEMEN<\/p>\n

Parker Wotherspoon<\/a> \/ Erik Karlsson<\/a><\/p>\n

Sam Girard<\/a> \/ Kris Letang<\/a><\/p>\n

Ryan Shea<\/a> \/ Ilya Solovyov<\/a><\/p>\n

Goalies:\u00a0 Arturs Silovs and Stuart Skinner<\/a><\/p>\n

Potential Scratches:\u00a0Connor Clifton<\/a>, Justin Brazeau<\/a>, Kevin Hayes<\/a>, Ryan Graves<\/a>, Jack St. Ivany<\/a>, Sergei Murashov<\/a><\/p>\n

IR:\u00a0Filip Hallander<\/a>, Caleb Jones<\/a> (season-ending shoulder surgery)<\/p>\n

The Penguins did not have practice yesterday while traveling back home. That probably means there will be a well-attended gameday skate this morning for the club where we\u2019ll see what, if any, changes happen from last game. Being as it was a win, the status quo sounds like the play at this point.<\/p>\n

We updated the Penguin scratch list as well, technically Murashov is up with the NHL roster right now to serve as an informal emergency third goalie. It\u2019s expected he\u2019ll be assigned back to the AHL by the time WBS\u2019s series kicks off on Thursday against Hershey, assuming the NHL Penguins are still alive and kicking by that point.<\/p>\n

Crazy good stat about Letang being the first Penguin defenseman to register a playoff GWG in an elimination game since Darius Kasparaitis \u2018sniped\u2019 Dominik Hasek in the 2001 series against Buffalo. Wild last game was the first time since back then given all the playoff games played in the Crosby era, though from the hidden stat above there were \u2018only\u2019 10 GWG\u2019s when facing elimination prior to Letang\u2019s goal on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Multi-point monsters<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Evgeni Malkin had a two-point night in Game 1 to tie Joe Sakic for seventh all-time in NHL playoff history multi-point games. Sidney Crosby still sits solidly in third place after his multi-point last outing in Game 3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Who:\u00a0Philadelphia Flyers\u00a0(3-1) @ Pittsburgh Penguins\u00a0(1-3) in Game 5 of the best of seven series When: 7:00 p.m. ET…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[37795,27608,17943,24346,1064,39156,10170,11246,46831,27609,10171,37797,58252,48987,38708,79249,24320,41972,61064,9125,27188,15355,6059,46826,4973,79250,45351,44363,41855,9479,18587,15643,58242,46827,15618,46832,27228,46814,46825,29228,66278,46824,539,58255,69,4845,73,75,74,1067,44335,10175,78331,13221,48986,58964,43870,44610,5160,8664,57302,32556,12444,31362,41856,44336,37666,44337],"class_list":{"0":"post-177220","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-aleksei-kolosov","9":"tag-alex-bump","10":"tag-anthony-mantha","11":"tag-arturs-silovs","12":"tag-ben-kindel","13":"tag-blake-lizotte","14":"tag-bryan-rust","15":"tag-caleb-jones","16":"tag-cam-york","17":"tag-carl-grundstrom","18":"tag-carolina-hurricanes","19":"tag-christian-dvorak","20":"tag-connor-clifton","21":"tag-connor-dewar","22":"tag-dan-vladar","23":"tag-david-jiricek","24":"tag-denver-barkey","25":"tag-egor-chinakhov","26":"tag-elmer-soderblom","27":"tag-emil-andrae","28":"tag-erik-karlsson","29":"tag-evgeni-malkin","30":"tag-filip-hallander","31":"tag-garnet-hathaway","32":"tag-garrett-wilson","33":"tag-helge-grans","34":"tag-ilya-solovyov","35":"tag-jack-st-ivany","36":"tag-jamie-drysdale","37":"tag-justin-brazeau","38":"tag-kevin-hayes","39":"tag-kris-letang","40":"tag-luke-glendening","41":"tag-matvei-michkov","42":"tag-nbc-sports-philadelphia","43":"tag-nick-seeler","44":"tag-nikita-grebenkin","45":"tag-noah-cates","46":"tag-noah-juulsen","47":"tag-noel-acciari","48":"tag-ottawa","49":"tag-owen-tippett","50":"tag-pa","51":"tag-parker-wotherspoon","52":"tag-philadelphia","53":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","54":"tag-pittsburgh","55":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","56":"tag-pittsburgh-news","57":"tag-pittsburgh-penguins","58":"tag-rasmus-ristolainen","59":"tag-rickard-rakell","60":"tag-rodrigo-abols","61":"tag-ryan-graves","62":"tag-ryan-shea","63":"tag-sam-girard","64":"tag-samuel-ersson","65":"tag-sean-couturier","66":"tag-sergei-murashov","67":"tag-sidney-crosby","68":"tag-sportsnet-pittsburgh","69":"tag-stuart-skinner","70":"tag-the-penguins","71":"tag-tommy-novak","72":"tag-travis-konecny","73":"tag-travis-sanheim","74":"tag-trevor-zegras","75":"tag-tyson-foerster"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}