The Philadelphia Flyers had an opportunity to virtually nail down a place in the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs on Thursday night, but they instead came up painfully short. Fortunately, after receiving some help, they're still alive.
Before the game began, MoneyPuck assessed that the Flyers' playoff odds would soar to 66.6% with a regulation win over the Detroit Red Wings, and crash to 21.2% with a regulation loss.
Ultimately, the final result was a crushing 6-3 defeat, but the Flyers got a helping hand from the Buffalo Sabres.
Because Buffalo was able to dismantle the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-0 on Thursday night and stop them from gaining any ground on the Flyers, Philadelphia's playoff odds now sit at a more modest 45.6% in MoneyPuck's eyes.
For the sake of comparison, the New York Islanders, who defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs in regulation Thursday night, are close behind at 36.5%, while the Blue Jackets and Red Wings are at 14.6% and 5.8%, respectively.
This is all to say that the Flyers are still the favorites to make the playoffs via third place in the Metropolitan Division, but any room for error has been erased with the Islanders' win.
Because the Flyers have a one-point advantage over the Islanders (92 points to 91), they will need to match or do better than New York over the final three games of the season; the Flyers don't hold any tiebreakers.
Rookie forward Porter Martone collected his second-career two-point night, scoring a tap-in from point-blank range on the power play and adding an assist with Christian Dvorak redirecting his long-range slapper in the first period.
Thursday night's game was largely lost on special teams, where the Flyers were an abysmal 1/6 on the power play and an even worse 1/4 on the penalty kill.
The Red Wings pulled away in the second period, with power play goals from Moritz Seider and Dylan Larkin giving them 2-1 and 3-1 leads, respectively, before Larkin added a shorthanded goal minutes later.
All three goals to put the Red Wings up 4-1 in the second period were scored in a span of 4:24 and resulted in Dan Vladar being pulled from the game.
Suffice to say, the Flyers are staring at another must-win game Saturday, when they face the surging Winnipeg Jets in Winnipeg.
The Jets are winners of three straight and are 7-2-1 in their last 10, suddenly sitting three points out of a playoff spot with four games to play.