The Flyers can win their first playoff series since 2020 on Saturday night, and they are doing it with Dan Vladař back in goal. Rick Tocchet said at the team’s morning skate that Vladař would start Game 4 against the Penguins after the goaltender got "a little banged up" in Game 3.
Vladař has been central to the Flyers’ 3-0 series lead. He has a.947 save percentage and one shutout in the series, and he finished Wednesday’s Game 3 win with 27 saves on 29 shots even after Bryan Rust ran into his arm in the third period. Vladař did not practice Thursday, the Flyers were off Friday, and Tocchet still put him back in net for a chance to finish the sweep.
If the Flyers close it out, they will open Round 2 on the road in Raleigh against the Carolina Hurricanes. Carolina completed its own four-game sweep of Ottawa with a 4-2 win on Saturday afternoon, setting up a second-round matchup that already looks unforgiving for Philadelphia.
The Flyers lost three of four games against the Hurricanes this season, and all four meetings went to overtime or a shootout. Their only win came on Tyson Foerster’s shootout goal, the play that officially clinched Philadelphia a playoff spot for the first time since 2000. That result mattered then because it ended a long absence from the postseason; it matters now because it is the same opponent waiting if the Flyers finish Pittsburgh.
There is also a wrinkle in how the teams got here. The Flyers’ lone win against Carolina came when the Hurricanes rested several regulars, which makes the matchup ahead look less like a reward for a sweep than the next hard test.
For Philadelphia, though, Saturday is about finishing what it started. The Penguins are down 3-0, the Flyers are home, and the team has made its message plain: "Our house. Our rules."
That is what gives Game 4 its edge. A sweep would not just end Pittsburgh’s season. It would send the Flyers into the second round with momentum, a rested starter and a series of results that say they belong in this bracket again.
