Playoffs set — Flyers return
The NHL’s 16 playoff teams have been decided, with the final regular‑season games now functioning mostly to set seeding and division placement. (espn.com) For the East, the Philadelphia Flyers qualified for the postseason for the first time in nearly a decade and will meet the Pittsburgh Penguins in a confirmed first‑round rivalry series. (delawareonline.com) (sports.yahoo.com)
The National Hockey League playoff field is set, and Philadelphia is back in after clinching on April 13 with a first-round series against Pittsburgh. (nhl.com) The Flyers beat the Carolina Hurricanes 3-2 in a shootout on Monday, April 13, to lock up third place in the Metropolitan Division. Pittsburgh had already secured second place in the division on April 9, which gives the Penguins home-ice advantage in the best-of-seven series. (espn.com) (nhl.com) Philadelphia finished 43-27-12 for 98 points, the same total as Pittsburgh’s 41-25-16, but the Penguins held the higher divisional seed. The National Hockey League’s 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs are scheduled to begin on Saturday, April 18, with the Flyers-Penguins game dates still to be announced as of April 16. (nhl.com 1) (nhl.com 2) (nhl.com 3) For Philadelphia, the berth ends a postseason absence that lasted from 2021 through 2025. ESPN and the National Hockey League both described it as the Flyers’ first playoff appearance since 2020. (espn.com) (nhl.com) The matchup also revives one of the league’s oldest in-state rivalries. The Penguins and Flyers have met seven times in the playoffs before, and this will be their first postseason meeting since Pittsburgh won the 2018 first round in six games. (nhl.com) The National Hockey League said the 2026 series will be the eighth “Battle of Pennsylvania,” tying Rangers-Islanders for the most playoff series between teams from the same state or province in league history. (nhl.com) The wider bracket is settled too: all 16 playoff teams are in, so the last regular-season games are mostly about final ordering rather than who gets a spot. The official league bracket lists the Eastern and Western Conference fields ahead of the April 18 start. (nhl.com) Pittsburgh is trying to win its first playoff series since eliminating Philadelphia in 2018. The Penguins’ playoff roster preview notes that the franchise last reached the postseason in 2022 and has not advanced since that Flyers series eight years ago. (nhl.com) Now the regular season is almost beside the point in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The standings settled the pairing; the next update that matters is Game 1. (nhl.com)
