Keagan Smith provides a series preview, prediction and pick for Hurricanes vs. Flyers in the second round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
With the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs rolling on, the first matchup of the second round begins on Saturday.
In one of the Eastern Conference Semifinal series, the Carolina Hurricanes are well-rested and coming off a sweep in the first round. After getting a week off, they now begin battle against a Philadelphia Flyers group that arguably punched far above its weight in the opening round. This looks like it should be a lopsided series at first glance, but anything can happen in this environment.
Here’s a detailed look at this Hurricanes vs. Flyers series, including a preview, betting odds, and a top pick on DraftKings Sportsbook.
The Hurricanes are no stranger to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, which is why they looked the part of a true contender in the opening round. A sweep of the Ottawa Senators didn’t see the Canes pour on the scoring by any means, but the dominance of their defense truly stood out after shutting down a Sens group that was one of the most underrated teams in hockey from January 1 onward. Carolina allowed just five goals across the four-game set as the skaters limited shot opportunities and Frederik Andersen caught fire despite a very poor regular season, amassing a .955 SV% and 1.10 GAA with a shutout as well.
While Andersen’s performance in the first round came as something of a shock given career-worst marks of an .874 SV% and 3.05 GAA in the regular season, the play of the team around him did not surprise. The Hurricanes finished the regular season at sixth in goals allowed per game (2.88) while giving up the fewest shots on goal of any team (23.9 per outing). They also led the league in takeaways while deploying a signature forecheck that makes life difficult on opponents while leading to plenty of scoring chances. In the first round, they stifled Ottawa at even strength, but especially on the penalty kill with an astounding 95.2% PK%.
It was a little bit interesting that Carolina scored just 11 goals across the four matchups, an average of only 2.75 per game. The Hurricanes averaged 3.55 per contest during the regular season, second most of any team, so they did underperform in terms of offense compared to the full year’s sample. Also of note is that their power play — which hit at the fourth-best rate in the regular season (24.9%) and an incredible 31.7% since January — was held to just 13.3% in round one. The play of the Senators’ defense and an excellent run from Linus Ullmark certainly played a factor in that, but an uptick can be expected in both overall scoring and success on the man advantage.
On the opposite side of this best-of-seven are the Flyers, who just barely squeaked into the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2018. Few people seemed to expect this team to do much in the postseason, especially with a major lack of offensive stars — no player on the roster scored even 70 points during the regular season. However, Philly stunned the NHL world by going up 3-0 on Sidney Crosby’s Pittsburgh Penguins, and while the series eventually ended 4-2, there’s no denying that this was something of an arrival on the scene for this group.
Here’s the thing. The Flyers don’t quite have a stifling defense, but they’re pretty close to falling under that classification. During the regular season, they allowed the ninth fewest goals per game (2.93) and fourth fewest shots on goal (25.5). Moreover, they finished fourth in hits and eighth in blocks. The results of that defense-first approach definitely carried over to the playoffs as it’s the kind of style that translates to old-school postseason hockey. The Flyers gave up just 1.83 goals per game (11 in total over six games) to the Penguins, quite the feat against one of the league’s highest-scoring attacks. They also ended the first round at 84.2% on the penalty kill, another great result against what was a really good power play.
Philadelphia’s offense, however, raises some serious questions. The Flyers posted 2.67 goals per game during their first-round series, which isn’t too far off from their regular-season average of 2.93. They were also fifth lowest in shots on goal per contest at 25.5, which continued into the postseason with a near-identical mark of 25.8. As for special teams, an 11.8% PP% in round one was just a little bit worse than their regular-season average of 15.7%… which ranked worst among all teams. There are serious questions about whether this team can match its opponents’ ceiling.
Predictably, the Hurricanes are favored to win this second-round series at -330 odds on DraftKings Sportsbook. On the other side, the Flyers are +260 underdogs to emerge from this best-of-seven.
Crazier things have happened, but this series has blowout written all over it. The Canes dispatched the Senators with relative ease, weathering a strong defense and stifling their opponent in turn. Despite the fact that a couple of games went to overtime, it was generally a dominant performance from Carolina against a team that was a good deal better than Philadelphia. Past results aren’t always indicative of future success, but in this case, there’s a real chance this series plays out in similar fashion.
The Hurricanes are a significantly better team than the Flyers on offense. Frankly, that might even be an understatement since it’s tough to put them in the same stratosphere, but still. We’re talking about a roster with a ton of depth and some playoff-proven performers in Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov, Seth Jarvis and Nikolaj Ehlers all in the top-six forwards. Logan Stankoven has also emerged as a key finisher with a team-best four goals in the postseason so far. That’s not even taking the remainder of the notable names into consideration. Yes, Philadelphia brings guys like Trevor Zegras, Rasmus Risolainen and Travis Konecny, but there’s a significant disparity between both the quality of the top-end talent and the offensive capabilities of the depth options.
Perhaps the Flyers’ strategy of limiting opposing chances will work out, especially with Dan Vladar excelling against the shots he’s faced this postseason with a .937 SV% and 1.61 GAA. He’s second in goals saved above expected thus far and drastically outperforming a 2.70 xGAA, but this Carolina attack will give both he and his blue line a run for their money. The Hurricanes finished the regular season at second in shots on goal per game (32.2) but didn’t sacrifice quality with that high volume, also posting an NHL-best 328 high-danger shots in the process. For what it’s worth, they were second in medium-danger shots (767) as well. Stopping some of those riskier looks is one thing, but defending a high volume of such attempts is another proposition.
The Hurricanes have an offense both at even strength and on the power play that’s worlds better than that of the Flyers, and they have an advantage on the defensive side of things as well based on the regular-season sample. If Andersen plays half as well as he did in round one, Philadelphia’s low shot volume will only prove more problematic for the underdogs in this series. In short, Carolina is the far superior team and should have no issue getting to the Eastern Conference Final.
Puck drop for game one of this series is Saturday, May 2 at 8 p.m. ET.
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