NHL playoffs, even to find out they would be playing the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Eastern Conference’s top seed closed a four-game sweep of Ottawa last Saturday, then spent four days waiting for the Flyers to finally put away the Pittsburgh Penguins to set up the next best-of-7 series that begins Saturday night in Raleigh.
That meant plenty of downtime for a team in its eighth straight postseason. Forward Andrei Svechnikov and goaltender Frederik Andersen talked this week about filling time watching other playoff games, while top-line center Sebastian Aho spent more time playing with his daughter, born during an extended between-rounds break during last year’s playoffs.
“You like having a couple of days to decompress but then you want to get right at it, and we didn’t have that,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said Friday. “We’ll see how we come out, it could help us, it might not, I don’t know. We’ll see. It’s an interesting debate, everybody has it when you have this much time off.”
The Flyers closed out the Penguins in overtime on Wednesday in their first postseason appearance since 2020, ending a series that had them take a 3-0 lead then lose twice to turn it into a longer grind.
“My mind went, ‘Aw man, I wish we had two more days to prepare,'” Flyers coach Rick Tocchet said Friday of the shorter turnaround. “But then I’m thinking, ‘No, I want us to stay with the same routine.'”
In net
Neither team could have asked for much more from their goaltenders in Round 1.
Andersen stopped 105 of 110 shots (.955) with a 1.10 goals-against average in the Ottawa series, including a Game 1 shutout. Philadelphia’s Dan Vladar wasn’t far behind, stopping 148 of 158 shots (.937) and posting a 1.61 GAA with shutouts in Games 2 and 6.
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Cam York’s Game 6 winner was a long time coming for the 2019 first-round draft pick who spent the early years of his Flyers career in former coach John Tortorella’s doghouse.
Once Tortorella moved on, the Flyers showed their faith that York could still be a centerpiece to the rebuild with a five-year, $25.75 million contract last July.
The defenseman scored four goals this year, but it was his first career playoff goal that sent the Flyers into the second round.
“We needed one good decent look and we were able to capitalize,” York said. “Last year didn’t go my way, obviously. I wanted to have a bounce back year. I feel like I’ve done a pretty good job at it.”
Healthier Hurricanes
The past week gave forward Nikolaj Ehlers and defenseman Alexander Nikishin time to recover from injuries for Carolina. Ehlers was a late scratch for Game 4 of the Ottawa series with a lower-body injury, while Nikishin was knocked from Game 4 on a jarring hit that left him with a concussion.
Nikishin returned to the ice Wednesday with a yellow non-contact jersey, then shed that for Friday’s practice. Ehlers sat out earlier in the week but was back on the ice Friday morning.
What about Michkov?
Matvei Michkov could be one of the deciding factors in the series for the Flyers. As long as he plays.
Once the prized prospect the Flyers pinned their rise to respectability on, the Russian has instead been one of the more perplexing members of the roster. He admittedly arrived at training camp out of shape and fell into Tocchet’s doghouse. After the Olympics, he arguably became their most indispensable player and was the Flyers’ leading scorer after the break.
After he was held without a point in the first four games against Pittsburgh, he was a healthy scratch in Game 5. Alex Bump took Michkov’s spot and scored. Michkov was back for Game 6 and had the primary assist on York’s overtime game winner.
“They’re called building blocks,” Tocchet said. “I’ve talked to you guys all year about it, I know he’s a lightning rod, and all that stuff. But he’s just a guy trying to build his game. We’re trying to help him like he’s trying to help himself. And I thought (Game 6) was a building block for him.”
Flyer ties
There’s plenty of Philadelphia ties in the Hurricanes’ locker room.
Carolina defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere played his first seven NHL seasons with the Flyers, while the Hurricanes acquired forward Nicolas Deslauriers as a trade-deadline depth piece in March amid his fourth season with the Flyers.
Then there’s Brind’Amour, who was in his ninth season with the Flyers when he was traded to the Hurricanes in January 2000.
“I’ve always thought it was one of the best fan bases,” Brind’Amour said. “They’re fair. If you put in a good effort, it’s there for you. And if you’re not, they let you know about it. That’s actually what kept me on my toes all the time I played there, you didn’t want to disappoint them, because you knew you’d hear about it.”
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AP Sports Writer Dan Gelston in Philadelphia contributed to this report.
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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl