The Philadelphia Flyers made the Stanley Cup playoffs largely through hard work and discipline, and one veteran leader took the discipline part literally.
Going back to the Olympic break, the Flyers have been one of the least disciplined teams in the NHL with one of the least effective penalty kills, and special teams would have cost them a playoff spot if they didn't tread carefully.
According to Natural Stat Trick, the Flyers gave up 19 goals on the penalty kill over their last 26 games of the season, which is the fourth-most in the NHL dating back to Feb. 22.
Travis Sanheim, a penalty kill mainstay and the Flyers' No. 1 defenseman, went the entire final 26 games of the season without taking a single penalty.
That streak led to him playing 79:33 shorthanded, 16 minutes more than the next-closest player, Cam York, who played 63:25.
Over the course of the full season, Sanheim allowed 7.98 goals against per 60 minutes while shorthanded, while Rasmus Ristolainen (8.14), York (9.13), Emil Andrae (15.67), and Jamie Drysdale (15.98) were all more porous to varying degrees.
With that math in mind, we can only imagine how much worse the Flyers' penalty kill would have been without Sanheim.
In addition to keeping Andrae and Drysdale off the ice for special teams purposes, Sanheim's play had an impact on the overall lineup, too.
Much to the chagrin of Flyers fans, head coach Rick Tocchet had a penchant for substituting Andrae out with veteran Noah Juulsen specifically to utilize the latter on the penalty kill when needed.
But, from Feb. 22 to Game 82, Andrae led all Flyers defensemen in Corsi per 60 (53.6), Corsi percentage (52.08%), expected goals percentage (57.15%), scoring chance percentage (53.88%), and high-danger Corsi percentage (59.34%) at 5-on-5.
So, because Sanheim simply stayed out of the box and played hard for the final 26 games, a ripple effect occurred that benefitted the entire Flyers team.
Andrae, despite playing 69 minutes less at 5-on-5 than every other Flyers regular on defense, was one of their most effective, and he may not have gotten the opportunity if the disciplinary issues and lackluster penalty kill had gotten any worse.
In such an event, it would have been very easy to tempt Tocchet into turning to a trusted veteran when the stakes were highest.
Instead, Tocchet and the Flyers regularly iced their best lineup and reaped the rewards, culminating in their first playoff berth since 2020.
Sanheim, while not overly vocal, did his job as a respected leader on this team and led the defense by example.
The results followed, and now the Flyers get to compete for a Stanley Cup.