Power failure: Flyers’ fatal flaw shortening out their season

PHILADELPHIA -- Everyone knew what their Achilles heel was coming into the playoffs, but all the excitement and euphoria about Flyers hockey being back in the postseason sort of masked over it. 

But it had been there all along. Waiting. Festering. Itching like a scab waiting to be scratched so it could bleed out all over the place and make a mess. 

And while it may have made some waves prior to Thursday, there wasn't anything stopping it from ruining the cute little sand castle that had been constructed in Philadelphia over the past couple months once the tide rolled in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

The 4-1 final score in favor of the Carolina Hurricanes, giving them a commanding 3-0 series lead over the Flyers in the best-of-7 series, doesn't adequately describe the elephant in the room, and that's this:

The Flyers special teams, most notably it's power play, has destroyed their season. 

In a must-win game, the Flyers couldn't score with a man advantage - heck, they couldn't score with a two-man advantage - and they couldn't stop Carolina from scoring shorthanded, or on their own power play. The Hurricanes had two power play goals and a shortie. While the Flyers got nothing out of their special teams.

It was only a matter of time before this wound that hasn't healed in more than five years re-opened, and boy, did it ever. 

"We had a great first period and then the game was all power play and penalty kill," Flyers coach Rick Tocchet said, obviously perturbed by how the game played out. "Five on five we were good. I thought we were the better team, and then there were the power plays and penalties. It's two games in a row where's it's just a penalty-fest and we're not equipped for that."

The Flyers went 1 for 7 on the power play in Game 2. They followed that up by going 0 for 5 in Game 3, and allowed a shorty after Jamie Drysdale tried to make a play to keep the puck in the offensive zone at the wrong time leading to a 2 on 1 for the Hurricanes and an eventual goal by Jalen Chatfield.

Jalen Chatfield with the go-ahead goal ON THE PENALTY KILL!

Jordan Staal and Chatfield teamed up on a rush down the ice, and Chatfield found the back of the net shorthanded
Staal and Jordan Martinook with the assists#SoundTheSiren #IgniteTheOrange #NHL #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/6LkY7zbXFb

— Queen of the Puck (@rbarkleyhockey) May 8, 2026

The Flyers are now 3 for 33 (9.1%) in the postseason on the power play. The best power play of any team still in the playoffs is the Anaheim Ducks at 8 for 25 (32.0%). 

Not saying the Flyers need to be the best in the league, but what if they score just a couple more times on the power play in this series? Do they have at least one win? Maybe two?

"We're trying," Tocchet said. "There are reasoned plays you have ot make to be on the power play, and in all fairness, we've got some guys playing the power play who probably wouldn't play a lot of minutes on the power play [elsewhere] and we're trying to get these guys to understand certain things. That's on us. It's up to me to try to figure out."

Coaching aside though, this is something that existed long before Rick Tocchet and his staff arrived in Philadelphia. 

The Flyers have had the worst power play in the league dating back to 2021. 

In fact, their best season was this season, when they finished with a 15.7% success rate  and still were dead last in the NHL, which is pretty unfathomable. 

It's an absolute mess. Tocchet has said as much. He's already indicated that as much as they try from game-to-game, it's likely something that can't be fixed until the offseason.

Even still, getting only one shot on goal in a 5-on-3 for 90 seconds is abysmal. The referees were not good again in Game 3, over-officiating everything and ruining the flow of the game. 

"It's awful, especially at this time of year," said captain Sean Couturier. "You wouldn't expect all of these penalties, but it is what it is."

And while he's right that the refs have been whistle-happy, it has been both ways. Heck, Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour was called for a penalty for flipping out at the refs in on Thursday, so it's obvious Carolina hasn't been happy with the way the games are being called either. 

And yet, as poorly as they have done their job, the Flyers have bene given opportunities to put goals on the board with an extra skater on the ice, and have gone just 1 for 16 in the three games this series, and the one was fortunate, but has also been negated by allowing a shorthanded goal. 

"I just made a bad play," Drysdale said. "Honestly, there's not much more to it. It was a puck that had come out and I felt like I could get to it. I saw they had guys coming. ... It was one of those 'what ifs.' If it got through, it was great, but time and place, I just got to put that puck in and live to fight another day."

Drysdale's play was indicative of something he said has been an issue with the power play all season. 

"It's just execution at the end of the day," he said. "It's trusting the gameplan. Not switching it up. Not going off the page. Not going off-script. We just got to be more unified and outwork the PK."

And freelancing like that and getting away from the game plan is a sign of both frustration and inexperience. And Tocchet said that's the hard lesson the Flyers are learning from this scenario. 

"You can just tell that guys are tight," Tocchet said. Before talking about the power play not even being able to enter the zone properly to even get set up, which has seemed like a daunting task all season as well. "[There's] not enough speed and confidence for me. And then when you don't have to play, sometimes you have to chip it to yourself in the good, old-fashioned way. But we're lacking is speed and confidence."

Tocchet went on to talk about how the Flyers are a 5 on 5 team and that's how they want to play the game more often than not.

It's amazing that a team would rather play 5 on 5 than have a power play, but that's the team the Flyers are at the moment. 

And likely for only one or two more games, at most. Because the special teams, more specifically the power play, is on the verge of extinguishing the season.