No time to rest for the Flyers.
(Photo: Kyle Ross, Imagn Images)The Philadelphia Flyers are going to have to prepare for a very quick turnaround for their upcoming series against the Metropolitan Division rival Carolina Hurricanes in Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
On Thursday night, it was announced that Game 1 between the Flyers and Hurricanes will be set for 8 p.m. on Saturday night, with the Flyers having to travel down to Raleigh, North Carolina, for the first two games.
Thursday was a scheduled, and well-deserved, day off for the team after a teeth-gritting 1-0 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 6 on Wednesday night.
Notably, both the Buffalo Sabres and Boston Bruins, and Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning, still have their Round 1 matchups ongoing.
Their respective Game 6s will take place on Sunday, though, at the time of this writing, a time has not been specified for either game.
As for the Flyers and Hurricanes, Carolina took the season series by a decisive 3-1 margin, and it could very well have been a 4-0 sweep if not for some late-season heroics from the Flyers.
Back on April 13, with the Hurricanes resting a number of key players, including Sebastian Aho, Jaccob Slavin, Seth Jarvis, captain Jordan Staal, and Andrei Svechnikov, the Flyers stole a 3-2 decision in a a lengthy shootout to book their trip to the playoffs.
A significantly weakened Hurricanes team still jumped out to a 2-0 lead, though Matvei Michkov, Trevor Zegras, and Porter Martone all delivered in the clutch to knot things up at 2-2.
Dan Vladar was his usual reliable self, making 24 saves on 26 shots and stopping all four Hurricanes attempts he faced in the shootout that night.
Vladar is coming off a monster 42-save shutout of the Penguins in Game 6, so the Czech netminder is white-hot heading into this bloodbath with Carolina.
The Flyers' offense has struggled so far in the playoffs, as Rasmus Ristolainen leads the team with five points, and Travis Sanheim and Martone are the only two Flyers with multiple goals (two apiece).
They'll need to ramp it up to have any chance of beating the vaunted Hurricanes, especially having to start fast on the road beginning Saturday night.