The Pittsburgh Penguins will play the Philadelphia Flyers in the Eastern Conference First Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Flyers (42-27-12) clinched a playoff berth and third place in the Metropolitan Division with a 3-2 shootout victory against the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday.
The Penguins (41-24-16) clinched a playoff berth and second place in the division April 9 and will have home-ice advantage in the best-of-7 series.
“Couldn't have drawn it up any better, Battle of Pennsylvania, and it's going to be a good one,” Flyers forward Owen Tippett said. “We're excited.”
This is the first time since the 2021-22 season the Penguins have made the playoffs. The Flyers qualified for the first time since 2019-20.
The Penguins are led by center Sidney Crosby, who has 74 points (29 goals, 45 assists). Forward Anthony Mantha leads the Penguins with 32 goals, followed by Crosby and forward Bryan Rust with 29 each. Defenseman Erik Karlsson is second in points with 66 (15 goals, 51 assists), one more than Rust.
Goalie Arturs Silovs is 19-11-8 with a 3.04 goals-against average, .889 save percentage and two shutouts. Stuart Skinner, acquired in a trade with the Edmonton Oilers on Dec. 12, is 12-9-5 with a 2.91 GAA and .888 save percentage. He helped the Oilers reach the Stanley Cup Final each of the past two seasons.
“I won a couple of cups with Crosby, (Evgeni) Malkin, (Kris) Letang (in 2016 and 2017). These guys, they don't die,” said Philadelphia coach Rick Tocchet, a former Pittsburgh assistant. “These guys are just warriors. We're going to have our hands full, and we have to have some game-planning here this week. But those guys don't die. It's going to be a tough series, and we're going to have to go after those guys.”
The Flyers are led by forward Travis Konecny (68 points; 27 goals, 41 assists) and center Trevor Zegras (67 points; 26 goals, 41 assists). Their points leader among defensemen is Travis Sanheim with 37 (11 goals, 26 assists).
Goalie Dan Vladar is 29-14-7 with a 2.42 GAA and .906 save percentage. Samuel Ersson is 13-11-5 with a 3.15 GAA and .867 save percentage.
The Flyers were 2-2-0 this season against the Penguins, who were 2-0-2. Pittsburgh outscored Philadelphia 16-9.
Zegras (three assists) and forward Denver Barkey (one goal, two assists) led the Flyers against the Penguins with three points each; no one had more than one goal. Ersson was 1-0-0 with a 3.45 GAA and .875 save percentage. Vladar was 1-1-0 with a 3.84 GAA and .840 save percentage.
“They’ve got a couple Hall of Famers, I know that for sure,” Zegras said of the Penguins. “They're a great team, and they've had a great regular season. We had some good battles with them, so it should be fun.”
Rust led the Penguins with six points (two goals, four assists) in four games against the Flyers. Crosby had five points (four goals, one assist) in three games. Skinner was 1-0-1 with a 2.88 GAA and .880 save percentage, and Silovs was 0-0-1 with a 1.85 GAA and .941 save percentage. Tristan Jarry, traded to Edmonton in the deal for Skinner, made 28 saves in a 5-1 win in Philadelphia on Dec. 1.
This will be the eighth time the intrastate rivals will face off in the playoffs. The first was the 1989 Patrick Division Finals, won by the Flyers in seven games. Philadelphia defeated Pittsburgh in five games in the 1997 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals en route to the Stanley Cup Final, where the Flyers were swept by the Detroit Red Wings. The Flyers won the 2000 conference semifinals in six games and the 2012 conference quarterfinals in six.
The Penguins eliminated the Flyers in the 2008 Eastern Conference Final (five games) before losing the Cup Final to the Red Wings in six. The following season, they defeated the Flyers in the conference quarterfinals (six games) en route to winning the Stanley Cup. Pittsburgh won the most recent series, the 2018 first round, in six.
