Flyers Bent but Didn’t Break, Because Dan Vladar Didn’t Allow It: ‘He’s Obviously Such a Special Person’

Daniel Vladar was already the most valuable player on this Flyers team. In Game 6, his performance was nothing short of legendary.

In a 1-0 overtime win over the Pittsburgh Penguins, Vladar made 42 saves and closed out the series with his second shutout in six playoff games. The Flyers are going to the second round for the second time in 14 years. The winning goal didn’t come until the 17-minute mark of overtime, a Cam York wrist shot from the point. The fact that it took that long is a testament to how good Arturs Silovs was for the Penguins. The Flyers still standing when it happened is all Vladar.

Both teams came out conservative. Neither was willing to give an inch, not in an elimination game and especially against each other. But around the midpoint of the third period, Pittsburgh stopped being careful. The Penguins turned their forecheck loose, pinned the Flyers deep, hunted pucks in the corners, and forced exactly the kind of panic decisions in the defensive zone that burned Philadelphia in Game 5. They outshot the Flyers 13-5. They spent 60% of those final six minutes in the Flyers’ zone, getting closer and closer to the look they needed. They never got the one that beat Vladar.

They carried it into overtime, too. More than 70% of the first 13 minutes were in the Flyers’ end. On one of Pittsburgh’s last real chances, they stormed the net. Vladar stonewalled three straight shots, won the scrum in the crease, and pushed the puck away when a whistle was getting close. The Penguins looked deflated. The Flyers counter-attacked. Two pushes later, after a Porter Martone chance nearly ended it early, York was ripping one through from the point.

“You bend, you just don’t break,” Travis Konecny said postgame. “Vladdy stood on his head again for us tonight.” He paused. “I was sitting on the bus with [Garnet Hathaway], and he said, ‘I think Vladdy’s going to steal one for us at home.’ And I mean, that’s exactly what he did.”

It’s not hard to understand why a teammate called it before the puck dropped. Vladar has that effect on this locker room. His confidence isn’t something he keeps to himself. It spreads. Most goalies play it even, play it quiet, try not to give the room too much either way. Vladar is different. He’s loud and certain, and his teammates feel every bit of it.

“Just leadership, timing, everything with him,” Noah Cates said. “He’s obviously such a special person. Two shutouts in this series. Can’t say enough good things about his game, how he motivates us, how he gets us going. How he talks to us at intermission to just believe and play for each other.”

York, who scored the winner, kept it simple: “It just felt like nothing was gonna get past Vladdy. He was unbelievable for us tonight. So many great chances that they had, he just did it all for us. I can’t say enough about him.”

Vladar himself wasn’t interested in the individual narrative. He never is.

“It’s playoffs,” he said, “so everybody’s just going to remember the winner. It doesn’t matter if it’s 1-0 or 7-6. For me it’s just the winning mentality. My goal is just to let one go less than the other guy on the other side of the rink.”

With his second shutout in the series, he becomes just the fifth Flyers goalie to close out a series with one. That will be a footnote, but what it doesn’t capture is what it actually looked like from inside that building. A team bending and bending and bending but never breaking, because the man in the net simply would not allow it.

The refrain all season has been the same. As goes Vladar, so go the Flyers. In a season where he has been the soul of this Flyers team, no game proves that more than the biggest win of the season, so far.

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