The echoes of "Gloria" still resonate through the corridors of NHL history, a six-year-old anthem that captured one of the most improbable championship runs ever witnessed. In 2019, the St. Louis Blues transformed from basement dwellers to Stanley Cup champions, writing a comeback script that defied logic, probability, and everything we thought we knew about professional sports. Six years later, in the spring of 2026, the Philadelphia Flyers embarked on a similarly miraculous journey, completing a turnaround so stunning it earned them a place alongside the Blues in the pantheon of NHL resurrection stories.
On January 3, 2019, the Blues sat in last place in the entire NHL, sporting a dismal 15-18-3 record.
What followed would become the stuff of legend. The Blues fired Mike Yeo in November and replaced him with interim coach Craig Berube and began their climb out of the NHL basement in January. Starting in January, the Blues reeled off 11 consecutive victories after the All-Star break, a period that coincided with what players would later pinpoint as the turning point: their rookie party in Miami. As Brayden Schenn recounted, the team-building event seemed to galvanize them, launching a heater that saw them beat Florida, Tampa Bay, and Nashville in succession and sparked an unprecedented run of success.
The hockey world watched in disbelief as this collection of players—none of whom had ever won the Stanley Cup, and lacking a single point-per-game scorer in either the regular season or postseason—morphed into an unstoppable force. Perhaps most remarkably, they did it behind a 25-year-old rookie goaltender named Jordan Binnington, who in December had been their fourth-string goalie, buried so deep on the depth chart that he was an afterthought in the organization's "win now" mentality.
Six years later, the Flyers found themselves in a similar position of despair, though their circumstances carried their own unique challenges. Philadelphia entered the 2025-26 season with a five-year playoff drought hanging over their heads, the longest in franchise history. The struggles mounted through mid-winter, and following a 3-8-3 stretch in their 14 games before the Olympic break, the Flyers were drifting toward irrelevance. When they lost their first game after returning from Olympic action in Washington, they sat in 14th place in the 16-team Eastern Conference, seemingly cooked, with the playoffs fading rapidly in the rearview mirror.
We often talk about whatever teams are in the playoffs, come American Thanksgiving are usually the teams that are in the playoffs at the end of the year. That is simply impossible to make up a lot of ground at that point because there are so many teams ahead of you and so many three-point games, etc.. Teams by US Thanksgiving is usually played around 20 to 25 games.
So what happens when you play 60 games and you're nine points out of a playoff spot?
On March 10, 2026, the Flyers found themselves nine points out of a playoff spot—a monumental deficit that had historically spelled the end for any team's postseason aspirations. Yet somehow, some way, they authored the one of the greatest team comebacks in NHL history, becoming the first team ever to overcome a nine-point deficit that late in the season, after 60 games, and still qualify for the playoffs. Their transformation was nothing short of breathtaking. Since March 10, the Flyers compiled a 14-4-1 record, the best in the entire NHL during that stretch, one point better even than the Montreal Canadiens' impressive 14-5-0 run over the same period.
General Manager Daniel Briere, after mostly subtracting from the roster during his first two seasons in charge, pivoted in the summer of 2025 with three key acquisitions that would prove transformative: goalie Dan Vladar, forward Trevor Zegras, and center Christian Dvorak. All three enjoyed the best seasons of their respective careers, with Vladar, like Binnington, emerging out of relative obscurity, to become the team's clear-cut MVP and number-one goaltender….Zegras set ew career highs with 26 goals and 67 points, and Dvorak providing crucial two-way play while adding a career-high 51 points to give the Flyers desperately needed depth down the middle.
The Blues did their turnaround with a new coach, Craig Berube, who is actually eighth on the all-time penalty minutes list for the Philadelphia Flyers, so why wouldn't the Flyers do it with the number one guy on there penalty list…..Rick Tocchet. Following the Olympic break, Tocchet implemented system changes that helped the Flyers recapture the defensive identity they had showcased earlier in the season, while simultaneously improving the offense just enough to get on a roll. The results were immediate and dramatic. Monday's April 13 victory over Carolina was their 17th win in 24 games since the Olympic break, a 17-6-1 run that had the hockey world hockey buzzing…
The timeline similarity between these two miraculous turnarounds borders on eerie. Both teams were languishing in late-January/early-March—dead last in the NHL for the Blues, nine points out for the Flyers—when hockey observers and even some within their own organizations had effectively written them off. Both required midseason coaching/philosophical adjustments to unlock their potential. Both relied heavily on goaltending that vastly exceeded expectations, with Binnington's rookie brilliance in the Blues' run mirroring Vladar's MVP-caliber play for the Flyers. Both teams also benefited from players finding new levels at critical moments—the Blues with veterans like O'Reilly and Pietrangelo stepping up, the Flyers with youth like Michkov and Tippett coming into their own.
Yet there are also important distinctions that make each story unique. The Blues' turnaround carried the extra weight of franchise history—they ended a 52-year championship drought that made them the oldest continuously-operating NHL franchise never to have won the Stanley Cup (Sportsnet, 2019). Their journey culminated in ultimate glory, hoisting the most prestigious trophy in sports, whereas the Flyers' story is still being written as they prepare to face their archrivals, the Pittsburgh Penguins, in the first round of the 2026 playoffs. Additionally, while both teams relied on internal improvement and belief in their existing roster, the Blues' run came without a single point-per-game scorer, relying instead on balanced scoring and dominant team play, while the Flyers have seen individual career seasons from key contributors like Zegras and Dvorak.
What both stories ultimately demonstrate is the fragile balance between hope and despair and how confidence tilts the balance..maybve more in hockey than any other sport. and the incredible power of belief—belief from management, belief from coaches, and most importantly, belief from players in themselves and each other. GM Briere has created more than a team in Philadelphia, but has brought back the concept of family that felt like it left with Ed Snider’s passing several years ago. Perhaps that can't be better exemplified then we air drafting Portor Martone in the first round of the draft, based on the fact that two of his players, Travis Konecny and Travis Sanheim spoke so highly of the experience playing with Martone in the world championships that the Flyers went for it and so far Martone has played an enormous role in getting the flyers into the playoffs with 10 points in just nine games.
As the Flyers prepare for their first-round series against the Penguins, they carry with them the legacy of what the Blues accomplished six years ago—not as a pressure to replicate their championship, but as proof that the impossible is merely improbable. The journey from last place to legend has been traveled before, and now the Flyers have their own chapter to write in that remarkable narrative. Whether they ultimately hoist the Stanley Cup like the Blues did or fall short in the postseason, they have already accomplished something extraordinary: they've given new life to the dream that hope springs eternal in hockey, even from the darkest depths of despair, and that sometimes, just sometimes, the greatest stories are the ones that seemed impossible until they became reality.