Potential Flyers, Penguins first-round series poised to be another entertaining bout

There’s still much to be determined about the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoff bracket, but the most likely scenario for the 2-3 matchup in the Metropolitan Division is an exciting one.

The Pittsburgh Penguins are locked in to the No. 2 spot, and the Philadelphia Flyers could clinch the No. 3 placement as soon as Monday night, setting up another installment of the rivalry between the Keystone State’s storied NHL franchises in the first round.

The two last squared off in a playoff series in 2018, when Pittsburgh won all three road games in Philadelphia on the way to a six-game series win. That followed up 2012, one of the most thrilling playoff series in recent memory, as the Flyers beat the Penguins in six games that featured plenty of theatrics and 56 total goals.

On Monday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by Daily Faceoff‘s Anthony Di Marco to discuss what the series would mean for a young Flyers group looking to move its way toward eventual Stanley Cup contention.

Carter Hutton: I’ve got one last one for you. What is the hype like right now for this team and getting in? They control their fate, and then the Sidney Crosby/Pens first-round matchup. Flyers-Pens matchup with Sidney Crosby still there just seems like gold, right? There’s got to be a lot of excitement in Philadelphia about that.

Anthony Di Marco: The last time the Flyers played a playoff game in the Wells Fargo Center, now the Xfinity Live Arena… it was against the Sidney Crosby Pittsburgh Penguins, because in 2020 it was in the bubble playoffs. That was a playoff series that probably should have been over in five games… This is a different Flyers team. There’s no Claude Giroux’s. There’s now Jake Voracek’s. There’s a Danny Briere, but not playing, he’s up in the press box right now. It would be somewhat poetic in a way. It’s somewhat of the last dance for the Crosby/Malkin Penguins, and it’s the first time around for the Trevor Zegras/Porter Martone/Matvei Michkov Flyers. So it would be really interesting, and look, I don’t mean to throw shade at teams, but I’ve said for a few years now that the most boring series every single year is the 2 vs. 3 in the Metro… I don’t think that’s going to be the case this year because of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh… After 2012, how could you ever go wrong there?

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode below…