Philly is in peril of an unprecedented double sweep after the Flyers fall to the Hurricanes

No matter what series of unlikely events preceded this weekend of bonus winter sports, no matter how good the feel-good stories made you feel, nothing will ease the humiliation of having both the Flyers and Sixers swept out of the playoffs within a 21-hour span.

Remember that heavenly feeling that two first-round playoff series wins had delivered? Well, unless the 76ers deliver, it will forever be remembered in Philadelphia as the Sports Weekend from Hell.

The teams had never been swept in the same postseason, much less in the same round, and on the same weekend.

It’s astonishing how quickly euphoria can change to dread and, without some excellent basketball Sunday afternoon, months of misery.

» READ MORE: Flyers’ Cinderella playoff run ends with a heartbreaking 3-2 OT loss

It doesn’t matter that the Flyers played without injured forward Owen Tippett, their leading goal scorer this season, who missed the series.

If he’d played, “Is there a difference? Yeah,” coach Rick Tocchet said. “For us to win the series? ... I don’t know.”

I do.

No.

It doesn’t matter that the Carolina Hurricanes were far better than the Flyers, and far better rested, after sweeping the Ottawa Senators. They won, 3-2, on Jackson Blake’s second goal of the game, 5 minutes, 31 seconds into overtime.

Flyers fans showered their heroes with one last “Let’s Go Flyers!” as they celebrated, in particular, free-agent goalie Dan Vladař, the team’s most valuable player, who’d stopped 37 of 40 shots.

“Vladdy was awesome,” Tocchet said, in understatement.

It doesn’t matter that the New York Knicks are, predictably, bullying little Tyrese Maxey and his underperforming wingmen, rickety Joel Embiid, and geriatric Paul George.

It doesn’t matter that the sweeps are explicable, maybe even excusable. So what. There’s just something humiliating about getting swept. There’s something excruciating about getting swept twice in two days.

Embiid’s joints and Maxey’s jumper need to show up Sunday afternoon.

Forget the 3.8% chance the Flyers had to make the playoffs on March 18, according to Money Puck — a number the Flyers first turned into a rallying cry, and then into a T-shirt.

Forget the ensuing six-game, first-round win over the hated Pittsburgh Penguins.

Forget, too, the MVP-caliber season from Maxey in the continual absences of Embiid and George. Forget the ensuing seven-game, first-round win over Boston completed in Boston by way of a comeback from a 3-1 series deficit, as well as the latest comeback from a bizarre medical condition by Embiid, who added “appendectomy” to “Bell’s palsy” and two — two — separate orbital bone fractures, four years apart, one on either side of his face.

None of that would have mattered.

The Flyers led, 1-0, after a relatively even first period on Saturday night, but things were uneven after that. With 7:39 to play in the second, Vladař stopped Andrei Svechnikov’s redirection of Seth Jarvis’ pass, the Hurricanes’ 16th shot, squarely twice the Flyers’ sad total. At that point, you got the feeling it would all be up to Vladař.

They finally cracked him 14 seconds and two shots later when, screened, Vladař let a long one slip past him from Blake, which knotted things at 1.

Just over 4 minutes into the third, Logan Stankoven out-skated Alex Bump, received a cross-ice pass from Taylor Hall, and poked it past Vladař for a 2-1 lead.

» READ MORE: Tyrese Maxey has disappeared vs. the Knicks, thanks to Villanova’s Mikal Bridges and Jalen Brunson

Ninety-nine seconds later, Travis Konecny delivered redemption to Bump’s stick from a double-team along the end boards, and Bump snapped a bunny past Frederik Andersen for a 2-2 tie, and that’s where it stood after 60.

The ‘Canes outshot the Flyers in regulation, 36-15, but it felt worse.

The Flyers blocked 24 other possible shots. The ‘Canes had to block just seven. That felt about right.

That the Flyers made it a game at all is a testament to their depth and future, considering their white-flag lineup. With a comeback entirely implausible, the Flyers brass clearly saw this as a chance to get some prospects some playoff ice time.

Winger Jett Luchenko, 19, started his first playoff game ... and his ninth NHL game over two seasons. Defenseman Oliver Bonk, 21, started his first playoff game ... and his second NHL game.

“We wanted to get some speed in there,” Tocchet said of Jett. Bonk? “He’s a future guy. I thought he held his own.”

Winger Alex Bump, 22, center Denver Barkey, 21, and winger Porter Martone, 19, all helped the Flyers in their desperate homestretch run. By comparison, they were seasoned veterans.

The most obvious victim of these roster decisions was second-year winger Matvei Michkov, an incandescent, raw talent who gave Tocchet fits all season, and whose ice time had dwindled to just over 12 minutes per game this series. After an even worse start in the first four games of the Pittsburgh series, he’d responded to a benching in Game 5 with a strong Game 6, but that was pretty much it. His legs were gone.

Now, so are the Flyers.

A few hours hence, the Sixers might be gone, too.