Penguins-Flyers Series Preview.

 2M Pittsburgh vs Philadelphia 3M

We are back with another Playoff preview here on the ETEH Blog in 2026, so today we are looking at the 1st Series that was locked in the Eastern Conference playoff picture, as we're going to be looking at the 2nd and 3rd teams in the Metro as Pittsburgh who surprised a lot of people and lead by Crosby and Malkin were able to not only make the playoffs for the first time in 4 years but also gain home ice advantage in round 1 are taking on their Pennsylvanian rivals in round 1 in Philly as the inexpiernced Flyers who had a massive playoff push after the olympics and are one of the hottest teams snuck into 3rd in the Metro and will now play the Pen's in round 1. 

History of Rivalry Between teams in playoffs:

Now if you look at the history of these two teams playing in the playoffs, they have played each other quite a bit in the postseason although it hasn’t been in almost 10 years, as this is the 8th all time playoff meeting between the Pennsylvanian teams, now the first 3 matchups in NHL history were won by Philly in 89,97 and 2000, the next two playoff series they had went Pittsburgh’s way and lead them to a cup final in back to back years as Pittsburgh beat them in 08 and 09, then back in the 2012 series that most remember the Flyers came away with the victory over the Penguins and in their last meeting 8 years ago in round 1 it was the Penguins who took the series in 6 to advance to round 2, so in their previous 7 meetings the Flyers have won 4 times to Pittsburgh’s 3 wins, so it will be interesting if Philly nabs their 5th battle of Pennsylvania series win or if the Penguins even up the all time series and get their 4th win.

Season Series Record: 

Pittsburgh 2-0-2 16-11+5

Philly 2-2-0 11-16-5

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Each teams X-Factors: Chinakov vs Vladar

Next we go over to the two teams X-Factors in my opinion for this series and the two X-Factors in my eyes are Penguins in-season acquisition Yegor Chinakov and Flyers starting goalie Dan Vladar. Now of course for the Penguins their veterans are X-Factors in and of themselves but the reason the Penguins have had such a good season is because they have had good all around scoring this year and a big piece of that has been Chinakov, Chinakov was acquired midseason from the Blue Jackets as he wasn't getting playing time in CBJ but in Pittsburgh he has gotten middle six minutes and thrived putting up 18 goals and 36 points in 43 games which is crazy and I feel if he can bring that production into the playoffs then the Penguins should be able to win the series, while on the flip side I feel the X-Factor for the Flyers has to be Vladar in net. Now the problem for Philly the last few years has been they haven't gotten good goaltending which is why they kept faltering and even earlier in the year Ersson wasn't playing great but Vladar was the stabilizer all season long and even with Ersson playing better lately Vladar has to be the starter, his numbers are great, he has played over 50 games and he is 15 games above .500, now he doesn't have much playoff experience as he only came on in relief on two separate occasions (once in 2020 and 2022), so if he looks shaky in the playoffs then this may be a short series but if he plays like he has all season then it may swing the series in Philadelphia's favor, but those are my X-Factors for this series.

Which teams are best at 3 Positions:

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Offense: now when it comes to which of these two teams has the better offense, I think it is quite obvious that the Penguins have the way better offense, now no offence to the Flyers as they have some pretty solid pieces but they have young players like Martone and Michkov in their top six who I think eventually will wind up being lethal players, but the Penguins have so much experience top to bottom on their forward group with veterans who know what it takes to win and also some younger players that I think the advantage has to go to Pittsburgh as the Flyers forward group should be good in a few years, but with the depth and firepower the Penguins have up front they get the edge offensively.

Defence: on the defensive side of the puck I feel the matchup is a ton closer then the offensive side is as I think guys like Letang, Graves and Karlsson matchup pretty well against Sanheim, York and Drysdale, so all in all these two teams defenses matchup pretty well but I would give the slight advantage to Pittsburgh again as I do think the Penguins 3rd pair and depth is just a tad bit better then the Flyers depth, so in my eyes the Penguins do have the defensive edge.

Goaltending: while in net I feel it is also quite obvious that the Penguins have the advantage as no offense to Vladar who has had a wonderful season as the Flyers starter and as I mentioned before could be a different maker, but Pittsburgh has two really solid goalies which include Skinner who just helped the Oilers to back to back finals and Silovs who a few years ago was stellar in the postseason for Vancouver while Vladar has no playoff experience, so I do like Vladar but I am definitely giving the goalie advantage to Pittsburgh as well.

Biggest on Ice Matchup: Vladar vs Skinner/Silovs

So when it comes to the biggest matchup in my eyes in this series for the Flyers and Penguins, I would have to go over to the net and say the goalie battle in this Pennsylvanian matchup is the biggest and most intriguing matchup here. Now like I mentioned above Vladar has had quite a season for the Flyers this year but is untested in the postseason only coming on in relief one time with Boston and another with Calgary, while the Penguins have two goalies who went on deep runs the past two years in Silovs and Skinner, so I feel like if we see vintage Skinner or Silovs starts and play well then the series leans more towards the Penguins, but if Vladar ups his game in the postseason and doesn't only do as well as the Penguins goalie but maybe even outplays him, I could see the series tip in Phillies favor, so it will be interesting to watch but I believe this is the most intriguing battle in the battle of Pennsylvania.

Predictions:

Now when it comes to my predictions for this series, I feel this may be one of the easier series to try and pick as I don't feel it's as close as series like Sen’s-Canes or Knights-Mammoth, now both of the Pennsylvanian teams most people didn’t even have making the playoffs so just to be there is a shock but just looking at the advantages and the teams top to bottom I think the obvious answer is Pittsburgh here, they have a lot of veteran experience, some good depth pieces with some younger guys sprinkled in and a stellar one-two punch in net who I could see both being the starter for this series, so when it comes down to it I am happy Philly made the playoffs and they should have some valuable experience from this trip, but Pen’s take it in 5 and sort of like Ovi last year, Crosby makes it to round 2.