Penguins ride momentum into Game 6 against Flyers in Eastern 1st Round

The Coaches Room is a regular feature throughout the 2025-26 season by former NHL coaches and assistants who turn their critical gaze to the game and explain it through the lens of a teacher.

In this edition, Dan Bylsma, former coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Buffalo Sabres and Seattle Kraken and assistant with the New York Islanders and Detroit Red Wings breaks down each team’s approach heading into Game 6 of the Eastern Conference First Round between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. ET; HBO MAX, SN-PIT, truTV, TNT, NBCSP, SN360, TVAS).

You try not to talk about momentum going into the different games, but the Pittsburgh Penguins, at least in their minds, have shifted the momentum back to them and they have the Flyers on the run a little bit heading into Game 6 of the Eastern Conference First Round on Wednesday. They just need to win one more game to get back to Game 7.

Obviously, down 3-0 in the series, they had to win one game, and they’ve built on that narrative. Now, they’ve just got to win one more game.

From my playing experience, now there’s pressure in the other room, like, “Oh, God. Now, we’ve got to go back home.” It’s not a must-win game for the Flyers, but it’s definitely, “We have to win here at home. Otherwise, we’ve got to go back to Pittsburgh for Game 7.” 

So, a lot more pressure is focused on the minds of Philadelphia and the focus for Pittsburgh is just, “We’ve got to win one more game. We’ve to win one more game.”

During the first two games in particular, Philadelphia won the emotional level. I didn't think Pittsburgh got to the necessary level and the emotion of their game and the energy of their game for them to have success.

Especially in the battle of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, there's a fine line in that emotional battle. That doesn't mean scrums. That doesn’t mean getting five guys in the penalty box, like what happened Game 3. That's not the emotional level, the scrum level that I think is necessary to have an advantage in the series.

You could say that the emotional level in the Flyers’ 5-2 win in Game 3 changed the complexion of the game in second period when each team had five guys go in the penalty box and the Penguins were down short-handed and they got scored on. That's how the game turns. 

But I think the adjustment that the Penguins made is that they've gotten their emotions, they've gotten their energy up to another level while not getting in the penalty box. It's not necessarily about staying out of the box. It’s more about staying out of the scrum, taking everybody off the ice situations.

So, they've gotten their emotional level up, but they've stayed out of making it a scrum game.

We were in similar situation with the Penguins against the Flyers in the first round in 2012. We lost the first three games and were able to win the next two to get to Game 6 in Philadelphia. 

But regardless of the score of the games, we never got emotional control of that series back. We never got off the nastiness and the focus on getting back or winning the physical fight or getting involved in a physical fight. We never got off that.

By going out and winning Game 4 and then winning Game 5, Pittsburgh and coach Dan Muse have gotten the focus back on just winning a hockey game and playing the way they need to play and it’s really not about the other stuff.

In 2012, we were never able to get off that craziness of the physicality. And that was punctuated — good job by the Flyers in that particular case — on the first shift of Game 6 when Claude Giroux knocked Sidney Crosby down with a hit and it just continued. The Flyers won 5-1 and the series was over.

From the Flyers perspective going into Game 6, I think one of the keys for them to have success in this series is the special teams. Pittsburgh, at least from a head-to-head standpoint, had a big advantage during the regular season both on the power play and penalty kill, and that's still been the case.

The Flyers did a good job of killing off penalties in the first two games. But the physical game, the emotional game, tends to get the game into a power play/penalty kill situation. 

I think Philadelphia’s mindset is, “We can and we will beat these guys 5-on-5, and if we can minimize and keep them off the board on the power play, we're going to get back to winning hockey games.”

From a schematics standpoint, the Flyers have shown that they can have success with quick transition and coming out of the defensive zone quickly against the Penguins defense. So, I would be heavily emphasizing how we can continue to do that.

I think you show your team the things that you've done to have success. You show your team the things that I think have frustrated the Penguins. 

At times in this series, the Penguins have had a tough time getting opportunities, chances and shots on net. I think you remind your team that's where you've had success when you talk about playing 5-on-5. 

It’s, “That's where we're going to win this hockey game. This is why we've done well 5-on-5. We've done a good job defensively against this group, we've frustrated their good players, and we’ve got to continue to do that.”