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Flyers Game 1 updates: Predictions against the Penguins; series will air on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Flyers are in the playoffs for the first time since 2020 and look to defeat the Penguins in the latest round of 'The Battle of Pennsylvania.'

Dan Vladar and the Flyers will kick off their playoff run Saturday night against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Dan Vladar and the Flyers will kick off their playoff run Saturday night against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Read more
Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
What you should know

  1. The Flyers will kick off their playoff run Saturday in Pittsburgh against the Penguins at 8 p.m. Here's how to watch and stream.

  2. Here are the key matchups, X-factors, and staff predictions for the first-round playoff series. Nationally, experts appear split on the Flyers' chances.

  3. Ex-94.1 WIP host Keith Jones was a polarizing pick to lead the Flyers' rebuild. He shouldn't be underestimated, writes columnist and current WIP host Mike Sielski.

  4. Here are 10 highlights from the Flyers-Penguins rivalry and five things to know if you are just jumping aboard the Flyers’ playoff bandwagon.

Trevor Zegras trolls Penguins with Mac Miller video

Mac Miller was a Pittsburgh icon, and largely still is seven and a half years after his death. He also has some ties to Philly, including with the Flyers, who famously used his song, "Knock, Knock", as their victory anthem during a 47-win season in 2011-12 that was in part chronicled on HBO's 24/7: Road to the Winter Classic. That included after eliminating the Penguin, 4-2, in an Eastern Conference first round series.

The Flyers brought the song back in 2018 to honor Miller following the rapper's death, but have since moved on — you can read about their new victory anthem and how it came to be, here.

However, with the team taking on the Penguins in the first round, Trevor Zegras, who played a pivotal role in picking their current win song, took to social media to troll Pittsburgh fans by setting some highlights to Miller's classic track.

— Matt Mullin

Sielski: Couturier still remembers Voracek calling me out

PITTSBURGH — So I went to the Flyers Training Center on Thursday with one goal in mind: report and write a column about Sean Couturier. Yes, it’s the Flyers’ young core who has powered the team’s run to its first playoff appearance since the (COVID-extended) 2019-2020 season. But Couturier is the guy who has been there the longest and been through the most. I wanted to get his perspective on his career and this moment in it.

I hadn’t spoken to him in person in a while, though, and, well, let’s just say I have a little history with the Flyers.

Back in 2021, I was involved in a rather memorable postgame interaction with Jake Voracek, one of the Flyers’ stars at the time. No need to go into great detail about it. I wrote a column Jake didn't like. I still stand by what I ended up writing. He ripped me. That's life in the big city. That incident was five years ago, and all this time later, and as Nicolas Cage would say, kind of a lot’s happened since then.

14 years ago today, the 'Cowardly Penguin'

While the Daily News cover from this day in 2012 mocked Sidney Crosby ahead of Game 4 of the Flyers first-round matchup of the Penguins, the series ultimately lasted a few more games.

It ended in a 5-1 Flyers' win in Game 6, with Claude Giroux "knocking Crosby from his skates with a bone-crushing hit just five seconds in," as my colleague Gustav Elvin recently wrote.

Here's how Elvin summed up the series:

Flyers-Penguins Game 1: How to watch and stream

The Flyers will kick off their first playoff run since 2020 tonight against the Pittsburgh Penguins, and it won't be hard for Philadelphia fans to find the games on TV.

Every Flyers game in the first round of the playoffs will air live in and around Philly on NBC Sports Philadelphia, with longtime play-by-play voice Jim Jackson on the call. He'll be joined tonight by Brian Boucher, who will divide the first round between the Flyers and his role as an analyst on TNT.

Flyers Pregame Live will air at 7:30 p.m., featuring Ashlyn Sullivan, Scott Hartnell, and former 94.1 WIP host Al Morganti. The trio will also handle postgame coverage.

The Flyers need Sean Couturier at his best

The best and biggest moments of Sean Couturier’s career came six years apart, at the same time of year, against the same team. They were high times for him, full of promise.

In mid-April 2012, in the Flyers’ six-game first-round victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins, Couturier had a hat trick in Game 2, bounced up from a vicious blindside hit from James Neal in Game 3, and frustrated Sidney Crosby for much of the series. He was 19, a rookie who had made it clear he could be more than a player whose primary responsibility was to shadow another team’s superstar.

In mid-April 2018, in the Flyers’ six-game first-round loss to the Penguins, he scored the winning goal in Game 5 and had a five-point game — including another hat trick — in Game 6, all after colliding with a teammate in practice and tearing the medial collateral ligament in his right knee. He took a great leap forward that season, becoming a No. 1 center, scoring 31 goals, and finishing as a finalist for the Selke Trophy as the NHL’s best defensive forward. He was 25. He would soon win the Selke, sign an eight-year contract, and his performance in that playoff series would feel like a torch-passing, as if he had shown himself to be the franchise’s new centerpiece.

Who's picking the Flyers to win? Here's a roundup of national NHL experts.

Most outlets are backing the Penguins in this Eastern Conference first-round series, but there’s still some love for the Flyers …

  1. NHL.com: Nine of their 15 writers and editors are taking the Penguins.

  2. ESPN: Flyers fans might want to turn away, as their “bold predictions” include Philly getting swept out in the first round and the Penguins making the conference finals.

  3. USA Today: Kevin Skiver has the Flyers falling in six games.

  4. The Athletic: Their trio of writers give the Flyers just a 41% chance of advancing to the second round.

  5. The Hockey News: Adam Proteau has the Flyers beating the Penguins in six games.

  6. SportsNet: We’ll even go international here, as Canada’s SportsNet has the Flyers falling to Pittsburgh in six games.

  7. Moneypuck: The analytics site has it pretty tight, giving a slight 53.2% edge to the Penguins.

  8. PlayoffStatus: Another numbers-based site, this one thinks the Flyers move on, favoring them 54% of the time.

Philly media predictions

Here at The Inquirer, both our writers are picking the home team. But what about across the state in Pittsburgh?

  1. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: All five of their writers and editors are picking the Penguins to advance past the Flyers.

  2. Pensburgh: At the Penguins SB Nation site, they’re taking Pittsburgh in six.

» READ MORE: Flyers vs. Penguins predictions and odds roundup: Who wins the latest Battle of Pennsylvania?

— Matt Mullin

Can the Flyers beat the Penguins? Here's what our beat writer thinks.

The Flyers will lose Game 1, probably, because winning four straight — even if it’s crossing the regular season-playoff boundary — seems to be beyond this team.

But they thrive amid adversity, as evidenced by their eye-popping 18-7-1 record after a loss, including a 7-1 mark since hockey restarted in late February.

The Penguins? They limped into the playoffs — yes, they didn’t really play their regulars the last few games — but they went 12-10-4 in the same 26 games while averaging 3.81 goals and allowing 3.69.

Flyers-Penguins first-round playoff schedule

The playoffs are officially back for the Flyers.

Beginning on Saturday, they will take on their Keystone State rivals, the Pittsburgh Penguins, in the Eastern Conference first round. Game 1 will be played at 8 p.m. and broadcast on NBC Sports Philadelphia locally and ESPN nationally.

The series begins in Pittsburgh at PPG Paints Arena, with Game 2 on Monday, before shifting to Xfinity Mobile Arena for Games 3 and 4 on Wednesday and Saturday, respectively. It marks the first time the Flyers will host playoff games in front of fans since 2018, when they lost in six games to these same Penguins.