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Philadelphia Flyers 2020 Stanley Cup Playoff Preview

By Chris Stumpo
July 21, 2020
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When the Covid-19 pandemic hit the NHL on March 12th, the Philadelphia Flyers were one of the hottest teams in the league and according to Moneypuck.com, had a 13% chance to win the Stanley Cup. Higher chances then, Boston (8.8%), Vegas (11.5%), and Tampa (7.5%).

Led by new coach Alain Vigneault & leading scorer Travis Konecny, who was tied for his career-high in goals (24) only 66 games into this season. The Flyers look to regain the look of the team they were before the stoppage.

41-21-7 in his first year as Flyers head coach, Vigneault has the boys hungry for a run at the cup!

Hub Cities and Dates

The Flyers have been in Summer Camp gearing up for playoff hockey since July 13th. Alain Vigneault and company have a tough road ahead of them. Giving such a short time to get these players in hockey shape, plus getting the spark and chemistry that was oozing from this team in February and March is no easy task. But, Vigneault likes what he sees from the boys in these early practices.

  • Training Camps (July 13th – July 25th)
  • Flyers travel to Toronto Hub City (July 26th)
  • Exhibition game vs Pittsburgh (July 28th)
  • First Round Robin game vs Boston (August 2nd)
  • Second Round Robin game vs Washington (August 6th)
  • Third Round Robin Game vs Tampa (August 8th)

Round Robin

The Flyers are in the playoffs, simple as that. It’s just a matter of which seed we’ll have when August 11th rolls around. We’re currently the 4th seed in the East.

  • Boston Bruins #1
  • Tampa Bay Lightning #2
  • Washington Capitals #3
  • Philadelphia Flyers #4

We can’t finish lower then 4th seed but we can jump all the way up to the #1 seed if we win these Round Robin games. The Flyers lucked out and have a real chance of taking a higher seed.

Sean Couturier sees the opportunity in front of the team.

Flyers vs Boston August 2nd

Each game with Boston this year has been some really fun hockey. The Flyers went 2-1 in the season series. It’s really nice to see the Flyers being able to get up and play the league’s best teams again. Something that we haven’t been able to do in years.

Flyers took the first game of the season 3-2 in a shootout. Joel Farabee had a beautiful goal beating Rask high glove side.


Phil Myers also scored his third goal of the season with an absolute snipe of a shot from the low dot.


Personally, I’m really excited to see what Phil Myers (23) and Travis Sanhiem (24) can do in these upcoming playoff games. They’ll be playing top minutes against some of the other teams’ best players. Coach Mike Yeo revealed the team has a ton of confidence in the two of them to go out there come August and show what they can do.


Both are young, talented players who just need to be a little more consistent with their game. They went through some ups and downs earlier in the year which is to be expected with a new coach and an entirely new system. As the Flyers hit their stride around February, so did Myers & Sanhiem who were playing awesome hockey. Will be looking at both of them very closely during this upcoming tournament.

I’m sure everyone remembers the second game vs Boston. Down 5-2 with a little over six minutes remaining in the 3rd period. Sean Couturier got the comeback started with a greasy goal to get things rolling. Travis Sanhiem scored twice, the second one coming late in the 3rd.

This was a classic Bruins vs Flyers games that ended in the best possible way if you’re a Flyers fan.

All I have to say about that.

The last game we had vs Boston this year was one of the best pure hockey games of the year. Both teams were playing good hockey and it was a goaltender duel that Tukka Rask came out victorious in. We said it best after the game.

Prediction: 4-2 W

Flyers vs Washingon August 6th

Ah yes, we finally get to dive into these games. The Flyers were 3-0-1 against the Capitals this year. We’ve straight up dominated this team and quite frankly, I don’t see much changing come August.

We didn’t get off to the best start, losing the first game vs Washington on December 13th, 2-1 in a shootout. Holtby made 30 saves and Kuznetsov potted the game-winning goal.

The Flyers went on to beat the Capitals the next three games, starting with a 3-2 win with Kevin Hayes scoring the game-winning goal on a short-handed chance.

The next two games are two of my favorite games from this season. The first game on February 8th, we beat them 7-2 with Sean Couturier scoring twice. Couturier and Giroux both finished the night with 3 points. Just a dominating game from the Flyers.

In the last game, we saw newcomer Derek Grant show why Chuck Fletcher went out and got him. An incredible play to redirect the puck with his skate for the slam dunk goal for Hayes.


It’s the Flyer’s time to show why they should be feared.

Prediction: 5-3 W

Flyers vs Tampa August 8th

Not only is this the final game before the real stuff starts, but this also is actually my co-host and best friends birthday, so it would be crazy for me to pick against the Flyers on this kind of day, right? Let’s take a look.

The Flyers saw Tampa twice this year and lost both games. The first game was a brutal 1-0 shutout from Vaslevskiy. Carter Hart was the only Flyer who came to play night stopping 27-28 shots.

The second game was a 5-3 loss in Tampa. We outshot Tampa 33-24 but didn’t get the points where it matters. We haven’t faired well with Tampa over the past three seasons, seeming to lose every game we see them. We have a combined record of 1-4-3 since the 2017-2018 season.

2020 has been a really crazy year so anything can happen but Tampa is the one team that gives me pause, they’re so talented. They have multiple players on their team that would completely change this Flyers team if they were here. Hedman, Stamkos, Point, Kucherov, and Sergachev. Talent can only take you so far and we’ve seen them get swept by a Columbus Blue Jackets team just last year. Interested to see how they come into these playoffs with that definitely still looming in the back of their heads somewhere.

With that being said, we need some more of this vs Tampa.

Lets Go Get A Cup

I’m excited. After months of no hockey were about to get 50+ games in 10 Days and your Philadelphia Flyers are right in the thick of things. Let us let go of all the terrible memories this team has given us.

  • Andrew MacDonald playing in the Top 4
  • Dale Weise in the Top 6
  • Jori Lehtera playing in place of Oskar Lindblom
  • Using every goalie in Pennsylvania
  • Dave Hakstol

Ivan Provorov is your #1 defenseman who is coming to his own alongside Matt Niskanen. Who has been everything and more this year for not only the team but the development of Ivan Provorov. Kevin Hayes has been incredible this year completely shifting our PK back into relevancy. A captain who finally has a team behind him and a goalie who can win him a game if he has too. Buckle up Philadelphia, the Flyers are coming.

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