Playing their final road game of the 2025-26 regular season, Rick Tocchet's Philadelphia Flyers (40-27-12) are in Manitoba on Saturday to take on Scott Arniel's Winnipeg Jets (35-31-12).
Game time at Canada Life Centre is 7:00 p.m. EDT. The game will be broadcast on NBCP.
The Flyers (92 points, 25 regulation wins) enter Saturday with a tenuous hold on third place in the Metropolitan Division. For Philly, the math is currently simple: win and they need not worry about how the New York Islanders (91 points, 29 RW) or Columbus Blue Jackets (90 points, 27 RW) fare in their respective games on Saturday. Lose and the Flyers need the other two teams to also lose.
Philadelphia enters Saturday's game coming off a 6-3 road loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday. Discipline and special teams were the Flyers' undoing in similar fashion to their 6-4 road loss to the Washington Capitals on March 31.
The Flyers saw their three-game winning streak snapped in Detroit last game. Meanwhile, the Jets carry a three-game winning streak of their own into Saturday's match. They have points in eight of their last 10 games (7-2-1). Winnipeg (82 points, 28 RW) sits three points behind the Los Angeles Kings (85 points, 20 RW) for the final wildcard playoff spot in the Western Conference. The Kings host the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. EDT.
Here are the RAV4 Things to follow on Saturday.
1. Disciplined play
The Flyers played a generally dominant first period in Detroit on Thursday. However, a penalty on Matvei Michkov led to the Red Wings scoring the game's first goal. After the buzzer at the end of the period -- with the Flyers on a power play -- Porter Martone took an extra penalty during a scrum that broke out before the teams returned to the locker room. Early in the second period, Owen Tippett collided with Detroit goaltender John Gibson. Tippett was penalized for goaltender interference.
Detroit scored on the ensuing 5-on-3. They scored again during the remaining 5-on-4 time. For good measure, the Flyers coughed up a shorthanded goal the next time they had a power play. Now the game went from eminently winnable to a cavernous deficit. Still later, the Flyers gave up a goal during a 4-on-4.
The Flyers cannot afford for something like this to happen again. They need to be aggressive between the whistles but not gift-wrap power plays to the opponent. The other part of the discipline equation is puck management and defensive structure. Philly has been much better in these areas since the Olympic break. Unfortunately on Thursday, after a very strong start those areas also unraveled at key junctures. Philadelphia needs to return to form quickly.
2. Special teams
If the Flyers cannot win the special teams battle in Winnipeg on Saturday, they need to at least break even. This even includes any 4-on-4 situations; which are not officially classified as special teams but involve extra real estate to attack or defend.
The Flyers' penalty kill has run extremely hot or cold all season with lengthy streaks in either direction. Unfortunately, the PK has become unreliable again since the Olympic break (tied for 27th at 72.7 percent success). Actually, the team excelled in killing penalties until roughly Thanksgiving week. At Thanksgiving -- through the first 22 games of the season -- the Flyers ranked 4th in the NHL at 86.2 percent success on the PK. However, the team's post-Thanksgiving PK numbers rank 28th in the NHL: 74.0 percent or an opposing power play goal allowed on average in a little more than one out of every four opportunities.
Coupled with their power play showing only brief upswings followed by prolonged droughts (14.3 percent success since the Olympics and a league-worst 15.6 percent for the full season), special teams have been a consistent issue.
Five-on-five play, more often than not, has been the Flyers' saving grace this season. That may need to be the case again on Saturday in Winnipeg.
3. The Hellebuyck Factor
Jets superstar goaltender Connor Hellebuyck (23-21-11, 2.74 GAA, .899 save percentage) has not quite been able to match his consistent brilliance from last season when he won the Hart Trophy as well as the Vezina. This year, he dealt with injury (the Jets struggled mightily without him) and inconsistency. However, Hellebuyck dominated at the Olympics and was a key driver of Team USA's gold medal victory.
Over his last eight starts, Hellebuyck has looked more like himself: 6-2-0 record, 2.14 goals against average, .910 save percentage.
There's no secret way to defeat the goalie, who is an excellent positional goaltender. Hellebuyck is tall (6-foot-4) and accustomed to playing deep in his net. The ways to beat him: set up screens and deflections. Get him moving laterally if possible. Once squared to the shooter, especially on clear-sighted shots, Hellebuyck is rarely beaten. Opponents often aim to test him high to the glove side, which is often an indicator if the perpetual workhorse netminder is getting a little bit fatigued.
For his career, Hellebuyck is 4-6-1 against the Flyers with a 2.50 goals against average and .920 save percentage in 11 games.
4. Konecny
Entering game 80 of the regular season, Travis Konecny still holds the Flyers' team lead in total points (67). Only Owen Tippett (28) has scored more goals than Konecny's 27 tallies. Trevor Zegras (41) has one more assist than Konecny's 40 helpers. However, TK has only one point (0g, 1a) in the Flyers' last four games and nine points (3g, 6a) in the last 15 games.
