Everything Came Together for Flyers Against Devils in Another Huge Win
Tyson Foerster #71 of the Philadelphia Flyers celebrates his goal against the New Jersey Devils at 2:46 of the second period at Prudential Center on April 07, 2026 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
The Flyers are in the middle of a playoff push, and every game is a must-win until a berth is clinched. The excitement in Philadelphia is reaching a fever pitch. But while the city is locked in from the outside, it has been the team that has done the real work, delivering when the rest of the hockey world left them for dead.
Tuesday night at Prudential Center was the clearest statement yet. The Flyers dismantled the New Jersey Devils 5-1, improving to 15-5-1 since the Olympic break, and doing it by turning the very things that held them back in January into the reasons they won. This was not a game where they scraped by. They were in control from the jump, outshot the Devils while converting at a 27.8 percent clip, and won the faceoff battle 57 to 42 percent. It was a complete performance at the right time of year.
Start with the power play, which, coming into Tuesday night, was ranked dead last in the NHL at 15.2 percent. The unit was a problem for two seasons running, and it was one of the defining frustrations of a January stretch that had this team looking nowhere close to a playoff contender. Tuesday told a different story. With Trevor Zegras scoring his second goal of the game on the man advantage and rookie Porter Martone picking up the assist, the unit looked like an actual weapon rather than something to survive.
Zegras finished with two goals and three points on the night, and Martone, who has injected speed and shot volume into this lineup since his arrival, continues to make an immediate impact.
“It feels like for a month we’ve been playing must win games,” Zegras said postgame on the comfort in playing intense games. “We’re definitely getting more comfortable and we’re definitely settling in.”
Then there is the Tyson Foerster story, which keeps getting better. After missing 49 games to injury, his return has quietly changed the structure of this offense. He does the work in the corners and in front of the net that does not always show up on the scoresheet, but the results do. Foerster was on the top line with Zegras and Owen Tippett Tuesday night, and the energy that unit brought was a big part of why New Jersey never had an answer.
In a stretch run where every shift carries extra weight, having a player who is willing to absorb the punishment so others can produce is something this team was missing for a long time.
“The legs were sore after the back-to-back,” Foerster said, “but we got the day off, and I feel good now for sure.”
Holding it all together, as he has done all season, was Daniel Vladar. He was 2-0 against the Devils coming in with a .910 save percentage in those meetings, and he was steady again when it mattered. The Flyers’ defense made his life manageable, but Vladar set the tone early and kept New Jersey from ever finding a foothold in the game. He is the heartbeat of this team, and on a night when everything else clicked, he was the reason none of it unraveled.
This rebuild has not always been linear or comfortable, but this is the ending fans have been waiting for. The playoffs are coming back to Philadelphia for the first time in five seasons, and nights like Tuesday in New Jersey are exactly why.
Steve Hamilton
Steve may have been born in California, but don’t let that fool you. After dating a local woman and clashing with her and her family over sports for decades, he has an affinity for Philly sports. Balancing love for Philly and Bay Area sports teams may seem impossible, we can all agree that the Cowboys are the true evil.
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