QUICK HITS: APRIL 8, 2018
1) As everyone knows by now, the Flyers will oppose the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. We will go in-depth on the pre-series analysis side in days to come. Later today on Flyers.NHL.com, there will be an article look at four checkpoints for the Flyers to hit if they are to pull off a first-round upset. The article also spells out four pitfalls that need to be avoided.
2) For a look at just how clutch Flyers captain Claude Giroux was for the team not only in Saturday's playoff-clinching rout of the Rangers but throughout the stretch drive and the entire season,
click here.
3) The NHL has released two different schedules for every first round series, pending the outcome of Sunday's lone game on the docket. In either scenario, Game One in Pittsburgh will be on Wednesday.
4) The Atlantic Division championship will be decided tonight after the Boston Bruins host the Florida Panthers. A Boston win by any means would clinch the Atlantic. A Boston loss by any means would clinch the division for the Tampa Bay Lightning. The first-place team in the Atlantic will play the lower wildcard seeded New Jersey Devils. The second-place team will play the Toronto Maple Leafs.
5) There is a minor Flyers-related storyline attached to the Boston-Florida game. If the Panthers earn at least one point from the game, they will bypass the St. Louis Blues in the final overall NHL standings. That would slightly bump up the default spot of the conditional 2018 first-round pick the Blues owe the Flyers from the Brayden Schenn trade from 15th overall to 14th overall.
The conditional pick is top-10 protected in the lottery. In other words, if the lottery results in the Blues pick vaulting from its default spot -- as the Flyers' own pick did last year from its default 13th spot to 2nd overall -- the Blues will have the option of deferring the owed pick to an unprotected 1st round pick in 2019 plus a third-round pick in 2020.
The odds strongly favor Philly ending up with the 14th or 15th pick of the first round plus their own selection. The latter pick spot will be determined by how far the Flyers advance in the playoffs and then weighted against their regular season record.
6) The Devils opted to rest Taylor Hall in their season finale in Washington. Whether or not it was being done to lessen the possibility of playing Pittsburgh in round one, New Jersey ended up with an on-paper even tougher matchup against the Atlantic winner.
7) Columbus pretty much sat out all of their impact players in Saturday's game in Nashville, including Seth Jones, Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky. The news broke prior to the Flyers' game. An NHL scout at the Wells Fargo Center made a tongue-in-cheek quip that perhaps John Tortorella's team should be renamed the Columbus Yellow Jackets (since they seemed to be almost deliberately trying to minimize the chance of playing Pittsburgh, although the players who were dressed for the game certainly went out and gave a professionally competitive effort). The scout then added that it wasn't necessarily a bad idea to rest key players in the final game if a playoff spot wasn't at stake -- the Flyers, of course, had no such luxury -- because every playoff matchup is a tough one regardless of opponent. The Blue Jackets ended up drawing Washington in round one.
8) Just as Morgan Frost responded to a subpar Game One performance in the Sault Ste. Marie vs. Owen Sound second-round OHL series with a strong night in Game Two, Carter Hart bounced right back from a rough Game One in the WHL series between Everett and Portland. Hart recorded a 26-save shutout (his second shutout of the playoffs) as his team knotted the series at one game apiece.
Performances such as these are important in evaluating how young players handle adversity. Pretty much everything went Frost's way (and the Greyhounds' way) during the regular season. Ditto Hart and Everett after his return from mono. That's not how it works once a player gets to the pro level, where the competition is much tougher. There will some minus-three nights where Frost gets outplayed head-to-head. There will be nights where Hart gives up five goals. Such games happen to every player. The response to such games is telling.
For more about Frost and the end-of-season outlooks for two other Flyers prospects -- OHL forwards Isaac Ratcliffe and Connor Bunnaman --
click here.
9) AHL: If the Lehigh Valley Phantoms win on Sunday against the Providence Bruins, the Phantoms will clinch the Atlantic Division. The Phantoms reduced their magic number to two on Saturday night with a regulation point from a 3-2 overtime loss to the Hartford Wolf Pack. Lehigh Valley, which is a bit banged up again injury wise and also a bit depleted from NHL callups, is 0-2-1 over this past week.
10) Alex Lyon is day-to-day for the Phantoms with an unspecified but reportedly minor injury. He did not play on Saturday.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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