The Flyers are very much in the final stretch of the playoff race, but certainly haven't made life any easier for themselves. 

Despite Morgan Frost's dramatic game-tying goal in the dying seconds of regulation, they still lost to the Islanders in overtime Monday night at the Wells Fargo Center to extend an ill-timed five-game winless streak. 

They'll have six games left beginning Friday night in Buffalo, but will pick back up in a neck-and-neck hunt with the aforementioned Isles, Capitals, and Red Wings, with maybe even a sudden last gasp from an underwhelming Penguins team, for one of the two remaining playoff spots in the Eastern Conference.

It's going to be a tense couple of weeks, with little room remaining for error, and scoreboard-watching inevitable. But above all, the Flyers need to course-correct fast and find a way to some wins with the few remaining games they have left to complete a final, and wholly unexpected, bid into the Stanley Cup Playoffs. 

Here's a look at how they'll have to get there, their overall chances at it, and what could be awaiting them on the other side...

What's at stake?

There are two spots the Flyers can grab to make their way into the playoffs:

1. The third seed in the Metropolitan division, which they were holding on to ahead of Wednesday night's slate of games. 
2. The second wild card, which is still within range of a handful of teams and could be somewhat of a failsafe for the Flyers, but only so long as those other teams crumble around them too – that's a big and unreliable if though. 

Here's a look at the current Metro division/Eastern wild card picture as of early Wednesday:

M – Metro Division; WC – Wild Card

In the larger scope of the entire season, the Flyers would probably be more than happy with just getting into the dance after many expected them to be nowhere near it while under the rebuilding label.

If there were any ideal postseason matchup, however, that would probably be through the third Metro seed to lock in a series with the Carolina Hurricanes. Now, the Flyers did go 1-2-1 against them in the season series, but for the most part, they played the Hurricanes tough, snagged a 3-1 win off them back on Nov. 15 and pushed them into OT late last month. This isn't to say they'd upset Carolina in a seven-game series, though much crazier things have happened in the playoffs, but theoretically, the Flyers would at least give them a good fight. 

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Clinching the second wild card, meanwhile, would put the Flyers up against the top team in the conference, which is looking to be either the New York Rangers at the top of the Metro (104 points) or the Atlantic-leading Boston Bruins (103 points). The Florida Panthers (99 points) could still sneak up and claim the No. 1 overall seed in the East as well. 

The Flyers are 0-2-1 against the Rangers on the year with one more contest on deck for April 11, and though they've skated well against one of the conference's juggernauts the last two times they faced off, New York remains a rival these Flyers have yet to crack. 

Boston falls into a similar boat. The Flyers, behind two goals from Travis Konecny and a clutch game-winner from Tyson Foerster, pulled off a statement 3-2 victory over the Bruins just shy of a couple of weeks ago at the Wells Fargo Center, but prior to that, the matchup has never been great for them. The Flyers lost a 6-5 track meet in Boston on March 16 and got cooked 6-2 on Jan. 27 back in Philly to go into the All-Star break with David Pastrnak continuing as a notorious Flyers killer. 

The Panthers, as the defending Eastern Conference champs, present an interesting case. The Flyers grinded out to major 2-1 victories over them on Feb. 6 and then March 7, but Florida's gained a whole lot of steam in the time since and topped a banged-up Philly team the third time around on March 24. For the Flyers to beat the Panthers, they have to play a near-perfect checking game, and that's a hard thing to sustain over a seven-game series, especially with the state the team seems to be in right now. 

What they need to get in

But before you even get to potential matchups, the Flyers need to get to the playoffs first. 

They'll have six games left when they return to the ice Friday night in Buffalo, and while there's more than likely going to be some scoreboard-watching while they're at it – there already is – getting up to at least 90 points over this final stretch should be their most direct, and controllable, path forward. They're at 83 right now, so basically, the Flyers need to find a way to four more wins here. 

Here's what the remaining schedule looks like:

A week ago, this setup would've been seen as highly favorable for the Flyers ahead of three straight divisional games to close out. The Sabres have been middling, the Blue Jackets are just abysmal, and the Canadiens are stuck in a holding pattern while building themselves back up. 

Those would've been relatively easy points on the table, but after going winless in the last five games, which included outright losses to the Canadiens and the underwhelming Blackhawks (save for Connor Bedard), they are hardly any sure bets for the Flyers now.

Every game is going to feel like a must-win now – and with an eye on what the Red Wings, Capitals, Islanders, and even the Penguins are doing – and any one of these upcoming opponents can catch the Flyers sleeping. 

As for the final three divisional games, each of them will likely carry huge playoff implications once there. The struggle to crack the Rangers was already mentioned above, but if there's a time to finally do it, it's absolutely going to be next Thursday. The Flyers split a set of overtime bouts with the Devils in the first half of the season, but got caught one too many times in a 6-3 loss the last time these two faced one another at Stadium Series back on Feb. 17. 

The Flyers are in a 1-1 split with the Capitals, too. They beat Washington in a 4-3 shootout on Dec. 14 but then fell to them 5-2 on March 1 in D.C. as the Caps were starting to pick up steam. They've only made up more ground since to now sit just a point behind the Flyers as of Wednesday, doing so with two games in hand though in a mini rut of their own at 0-2-1 in their last three games. 

If things stay as tight as they are, however, Game 82 could end up for all the marbles.

What are the odds?

As the Flyers kept hanging around in the playoff picture, we've been keeping tabs on this for the better part of the season through MoneyPuck's and hockey-reference's models and projections, and while Philly's chances are still fairly decent, this is probably the diciest the odds have been now that they're approaching the finish line and with the competition neck and neck. 

The remaining race likely won't make it any easier to breathe either. 

Here's what the playoffs odds are looking like as of early Wednesday:

And fluctuation is almost a certainty as things come down to the wire.

So what happens if they do make it?

If the Flyers finish strong and make it into the playoffs, great. They're not a Stanley Cup contender yet, and never pretended to be, but becoming a consistent one for the future is what general manager Danny Brière has consistently stated they're trying to build toward long-term, and playoff exposure now for younger and still developing pieces like Tyson Foerster, Owen Tippett, Joel Farabee, Cam York, and Sam Ersson could prove huge going forward. 

Just getting there and getting a taste of what it's like, plus building an understanding of how much it takes to play postseason hockey in the NHL, can be invaluable. 

And what happens if they don't?

But just as much is the process it takes to get there. The Flyers are in it and so close to nabbing a spot after defying expectations the entire year. But with the finish line in view, the current five-game winless streak has them stumbling toward it and in very real danger of falling short. 

Fatigue has been a factor, for sure. A lot of players have skated more than they've ever have to this point in their careers, Cam York and Travis Sanheim were logging extremely heavy minutes on the blue line until Nick Seeler and Jamie Drysdale recently made it back with head coach John Tortorella hyper-aware that he was gassing them, and so late into the game after nearly two years away, Sean Couturier had signs of running on fumes too before his injury suffered Monday night raised even greater concern. 

But the bigger problem is that the Flyers have fallen into a rut at the worst possible time. Their play hasn't been good enough for a final push into the playoffs, and after being patient with it following the losses to Montreal and Chicago last week, Tortorella hit his breaking point after Monday night's OT loss to the Islanders team that's breathing right down the Flyers' neck.

"Not the whole game and not the whole group," Tortorella said postgame Monday night, particularly of a disastrous second period. "There are certain people where they don't have a clue how to play, or just don't have it in them to play in these types of situations, and this why I'm glad we're playing them because we have to figure things out as far as what we're going to become as a team here.

"That was embarrassing the second period for the Philadelphia Flyer uniform the way we played, embarrassing. High marks as far as how we came back in the third – some guys."

But the thought of exhaustion, that wasn't a shield, not anymore.

"We can talk about that too, rest, this, that, the other thing," Tortorella continued. "If you don't have enough balls to play in these types of games, rest doesn't do us any good."

And it takes a lot to play for something at this point in the season and to finish the job, much more than this version of the Flyers has had to leave out there so far. 

Maybe they find a way in the end, but if they don't, then maybe that will end up OK too. 

Remember, there were no expectations for this team entering the season. Show some signs of life, some promise and concrete development in younger guys, and collect a draft pick or two at the deadline. The Flyers have already gone much further than that, but still have a ways to go, and are learning now, on the fly, what's required to take that next step. 

And look, if they end up proving not ready, that experience of an 82-game season plus the extra grind of being in a playoff chase at the end will carry over into next season. They'll come back sharper, hopefully younger, faster, healthier, and with some valuable lessons to carry forward as pros. 

It'd be amazing if they make the playoffs now, but not the end of the world if they don't either. 

It's still a rebuild after all, as much as it doesn't look it anymore, and there's still so much for this team to learn. It'll be alright. 

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