Mike Sielski: The Flyers won Game 3 the way they used to, and it all felt fresh and new and promising

PHILADELPHIA - His gloves dropped, his helmet off, his stringy hair falling into his face, Travis Konecny barked and shouted and cursed at Bryan Rust, the two of them seemingly oblivious now to the chaos they had inspired. Konecny had come close to sweeping a wrist shot into the Penguins' net, and Rust had responded by shoving him down and plopping on top of him, rubbing Konecny's face into the ice and kickstarting the kind of full-on, every-man-for-his-teammate brouhaha that used to bring hockey fans here such primal pleasure on a nightly basis.

There already have been dozens of photos and videos and memes born of that second-period brawl between the Flyers and Penguins in Wednesday's 5-2 Flyers victory. There will be more. But the timeless image out of that melee, the sight that captured the crux of Game 3 and this first-round series so far, will be of Konecny, the first of a coffee klatch of Flyers to squeeze into the penalty box, tilting his head over the glass to inform Rust that he was, in Konecny's considered opinion, a "f-ing clown" and a "f-g p-y."

That image will last not just because of what Konecny, Rust, and the teams did and said but because of what followed. The Flyers were losing, down a goal. Then they got into a big fight. Then they came back and took the lead and won the game. That was the sequence of events in roughly two-thirds of the games they played from 1973 through 1987. And in the first playoff game in the XFinity Mobile Arena in eight years, against the opponent who has been the Flyers' most despised rival for close to two decades now, the sellout crowd of 19,937 was more than happy to travel back in time … and now, look ahead.

For in the span of five days, the Flyers have gone from interesting to impressive. They're a win away from sweeping this series, from advancing to the postseason's second round in a non-COVID bubble for the first time since 2012, and they're the most dangerous type of team in this tournament. Most of their players haven't been here before; four of the five players who scored Wednesday night entered Game 3 without a playoff goal. They are pressure-less. They have nothing to lose. They were not expected to make the postseason, and it took a furious charge over the regular season's final weeks for them just to qualify. There's a moment for them to seize here, but short of their squandering this three-games-to-none lead, this season is already a success, full stop.

"We want our young players, with the help of the veterans, to play in games that matter," team president Keith Jones said in an interview last week, "and they've been doing that for the better part of the last month. Any more we can do in that regard is only going to help us down the road. We're going to push and try to do everything we can to find a way to win games."

Game 3 was another step forward in that regard. That scene early in the second period was a sight, and anyone could see it coming. When Garnet Hathaway flicked Sidney Crosby in the face with his stick late in the first period, and when Crosby flopped as if a sniper had targeted him, there was no question that tensions were rising and that this place was a powder keg that would soon blow. It did, and damn if it didn't seem to tick the Flyers off. Gloves and sticks strewn on the ice, players piled into the penalty box, and then bang, bang, bang - goal by Trevor Zegras, goal by Rasmus Ristolainen, goal by Nick Seeler. The arena was so loud that it shook. It felt all new. It felt like the way it used to be.

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This story was originally published April 22, 2026 at 11:58 PM.