{"id":569220,"date":"2026-04-07T05:33:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T05:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/569220\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T05:33:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T05:33:07","slug":"flyers-bought-into-changes-now-must-punctuate-playoff-push-nbc-sports-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/569220\/","title":{"rendered":"Flyers \u2018bought into\u2019 changes, now must punctuate playoff push \u2013 NBC Sports Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even after the Olympic break, the Flyers had “a lot of belief,”<\/a> Rick Tocchet said.<\/p>\n

They went into that break with 12 losses over their last 15 games<\/a>. The playoffs seemed like a distant thought.<\/p>\n

Now, with five games to go, the Flyers can nail down a postseason berth for the first time since 2020. They moved into third place of the Metropolitan Division with a thrilling overtime win Sunday at a raucous Xfinity Mobile Arena.<\/p>\n

The Flyers control their destiny in a tight race<\/a>. The belief has paid off. What made them believe back in February?<\/p>\n

“I think, honestly, we sat down and said we wanted to change a few things,” Tocchet said Sunday after his team’s win. “That was big because they bought into that.”<\/p>\n

Since Feb. 26, the Flyers have won 14 of their last 20 games (14-5-1), a stretch in which they’ve allowed the NHL’s second-fewest goals per game at 2.35.<\/p>\n

The changes were about how the Flyers wanted to pressure and defend.<\/p>\n

“I think the neutral zone was probably the biggest one for us and a few things defensively,” Cam York said Monday after practice. “But I think the Olympic break allowed us just to kind of regroup physically and mentally. We want to defend really aggressive and strong. It’s tough to do that when you’re tired or banged up, so I think the break just gave us a chance to kind of refresh.”<\/p>\n

The Flyers’ adjustments have been augmented by their goaltending. Dan Vladar has had a breakout season<\/a> with 26 wins, a 2.43 goals-against average and .906 save percentage. Samuel Ersson has gone 5-1-0 after the Olympic break with a 1.86 goals-against average and .913 save percentage.<\/p>\n

Tocchet has liked the Flyers’ execution between the blue lines. It has helped them dictate play more.<\/p>\n

“The neutral zone can win or lose you games,” the Flyers’ head coach said. “I would say eight to 10 years ago, it was probably the last thing on the list for coaches. You always worried about the offensive and defensive zones; nobody really talked about the neutral zone. But I think now more than ever, if you can control that zone with the forecheck or regroups … and I think we’ve been a better regroup team.<\/p>\n

“I think the analytics tell us we’re playing a little bit faster, we’re upgrading the middle, we’re making plays out of it, which is good. But also the neutral-zone forecheck, I think we’ve been clogging it up pretty good. We could probably press, too, a little bit more in the games. I think we back up a little too much. But that’s something we’ve got to keep working on; I don’t care if you’re up 3-2, up 4-2, we still want to press. You don’t want to go back into a prevent defense; that’s not what we’re preaching.”<\/p>\n

While the Flyers have tightened things up defensively the last month and a half, they’ve gotten a jolt of offense recently from Porter Martone and Tyson Foerster. Martone has recorded an overtime winner, two assists and 20 shots since leaving college a little over a week ago<\/a>. Last Thursday, Foerster scored a goal in his first game back after missing four months with an arm injury<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“They’re two smart players and they also bring size,” Sean Couturier said. “I think at this time of the year, you’re kind of looking for that \u2014 the big bodies and responsible play. I don’t really care if Marty’s quite young and has only four games of experience; he seems to be pretty responsible and plays a mature game already.”<\/p>\n

The Flyers hope to get more of that as they look to fend off the Islanders, Blue Jackets and Capitals for third place. With 90 points at 39-26-12, they’re one point up on New York, two up on Columbus and three up on Washington. They have a game in hand on both the Islanders and Capitals.<\/p>\n

“We’re just taking it game by game,” Foerster said. “I think we control our fate now, so we’ve just got to win.”<\/p>\n

The Flyers’ final five-game stretch starts Tuesday with a visit to the Devils (7 p.m. ET\/NBCSP).<\/p>\n

“I think we’ve just got to continue with that same mindset of being hungry,” York said. “We’ve been looking up at these teams above us and wanting to take their spot. Now that we’re there, I think we’ve just got to continue to play the same way.<\/p>\n

“We’ve done a really good job of not really giving teams a whole lot, have been defending really well, goalies have been great and we’ve been scoring when we need to score. I think it’s just about maintaining that level of play. I think our minds are in a good place right now.”<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even after the Olympic break, the Flyers had “a lot of belief,” Rick Tocchet said. They went into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[109735,385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-569220","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-flyers-analysis","9":"tag-nhl","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}