The Push for an Orange Spring: The Flyers Playoff Hopes – Philadelphia Sports Nation

Going into the Flyers match up against the New York Rangers on Tuesday the 26th the orange and black would wrap up a stretch of seven games in a row against teams in a playoff position. Through the first six games of that stretch the Flyers are 2-3-1, recording 5 out of a possible 12 points. As of right now Philadelphia sits 3rd in the Metro standings with 81 points through 72 games. They are 16 points behind Carolina for second with only 10 games left in the season. While only being two points ahead of the Washington Capitals who have played two less games than the Flyers. It is safe to say that the playoff teams coming out of the East will be the Panthers, Bruins, Rangers, and Hurricanes as they are the top two teams in each division. With Toronto or Tampa being either the third team in the Atlantic or the top Wild Card team barring a late season collapse. While the Flyers, Capitals, Islanders, and Sabers are the only teams with a realistic chance of making the playoffs. While in the West the Jets, Stars, Avalanche, and Canucks have all but locked up a spot. And the only teams left with a realistic chance of sneaking into a playoff position are the Oilers, Kings, Predators, Golden Knights, Blues and Wild. For daily updates to the NHL playoff race visit MoneyPuck.com for more.

Torts Lighting a Fire Underneath the Team

Like the other Philadelphia sports teams the Flyers are extremely streaky this includes both winning and losing streaks as well as player performances. A few players the Flyers are hoping to get hot going into the last few weeks of the season are Cam Atkinson, Scott Laughton, and Sean Couturier. Three star players who have not been contributing in the score column like they have in the past. Atkinson has been a healthy scratch in the past six of the last seven games, while Capitan Sean Couturier was scratched twice last week. This move by Tortorella was lit up by the national media as health bombing a captain is a highly unusual move. But Torts is known to send a message by benching players mid-game and leaving big names out of the lineup when their performance is not up to par.

Of the remaining ten games in the Flyers season eight are against teams currently outside of a playoff position. The remaining two are against the New York Rangers, and four games against teams that currently have a chance to make the playoffs. Of the games left there is only one set of back to back games on April 5th and 6th. One of these matchups will most likely be the last time Felix Sandstrom will start for the season. As Tortorella was not impressed with the young goalie’s performance in a 4-1 lost to the Florida Panthers on Sunday night. It is expected that Sam Ersson will start in almost all of the remaining games. After the trade deadline teams are only allowed four call-ups from the minors, the Flyers have already used all four on Ginnings, Attard, Brink, and Lycksell. The Flyers could only use emergency call-ups for the rest of the season, which Felix Sandstrom was. This just about sets the Flyers lineup in stone for the rest of the season.

AP Photo/Matt Slocum