The Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers will meet in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, setting up a Pennsylvania rivalry that has not played out on this stage since 2018. Pittsburgh finished second in the Metropolitan Division and will have home-ice advantage in the best-of-seven series, while Philadelphia locked in third place with a shootout win over the Carolina Hurricanes on April 13, 2026.
The matchup brings two teams in sharply different form into the postseason. Since hockey resumed after the Olympic break on Feb. 25, the Flyers have gone 17-6-1, while the Penguins are 12-13 over that stretch. The regular season also showed how tight this series could be: the clubs split their four matchups, and both closed the schedule on Tuesday, with Pittsburgh finishing 41-24-16 and Philadelphia ending at 42-17-12.
The playoffs start Saturday, but the NHL had not yet released the full schedule as of April 13, leaving the exact Penguins schedule for Games 1 and 2 still to be finalized publicly. Even so, the first date is already carrying weight in both cities. Individual tickets for Games 1 and 2 in Pittsburgh went on sale April 10, and single-game tickets for Philadelphia’s home games are set to go on sale April 14.
The history between these teams adds another layer. The Penguins and Flyers have met seven times in the playoffs, with Philadelphia holding a 4-3 series edge by winning four of those seven series. Pittsburgh’s most recent playoff win over Philadelphia came in 2018, when the Penguins took the series 4-2. Since Sidney Crosby entered the league in the 2005-06 season, Pittsburgh is 3-1 against the Flyers in postseason play.
For Pittsburgh, the return is notable in its own right: the Penguins are back in the playoffs for the first time since 2022. For Philadelphia, Monday’s win ended a five-season postseason drought and delivered the division finish the Flyers needed before this matchup was set. What comes next is the series itself, with two teams that have already shown they can beat each other and a rivalry that has rarely needed much to turn loud.
