An unlucky day in Newark got even worse when the New Jersey Devils were officially eliminated from the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs by the Philadelphia Flyers following the firing of general manager Tom Fitzgerald.
Philly had a ton on the line coming into the Prudential Center on Tuesday as a win would raise their hopes for the Stanley Cup Playoffs to 70.3%, while a loss would cut their hopes in half to 36.6%.
Well, the Devils have officially been eliminated from the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
New Jersey got off to a bad start Tuesday night, allowing the Flyers to take control of the pace of the game early.
As a result, the Devils' defensive zone coverage was caught sleeping, and Travis Sanheim found Trevor Zegras on an open backdoor pass to Jacob Markstrom to give Philly an early 1–0 lead.
About 30 seconds later, Jack Hughes was whistled for tripping Owen Power, giving the Flyers their first power play of the game.
One minute into the Flyers man advantage, Porter Martone fed a streaking Zegras at the top of Markstrom's crease while handling the puck along the far wall, redirecting the puck to Markstrom to give the Flyers an instant 2–0 lead.
The Devils began to swing the ice back their way in the latter half of the opening frame. Hughes and company finally pressured Flyers goaltender Dan Vlader with several chances.
Cody Glass eventually cut the Flyers' lead in half to 2–1 when Jonas Seigenthaler found open ice, fired a shot on net that went past the Devils and past Vladar.
The Devils scored on a power play early in the second period after the Flyers were caught with too many men on the ice.
As the penalty ended, Tyson Foerster gained control of the puck at the Philly blueline, headed a 2-on-1 opportunity toward the Devils' zone, and opted to shoot past Markstrom to extend the Flyers' lead to 3–1.
Jesper Bratt had a chance to make a comeback against the Flyers when he found himself alone on a breakaway against Vladar. Still, his backhand chance went over the net, starting the Flyers odd-man rush to the other side.
In a tic-tac-toe game, Foerster scored his second goal of the night on a feed from Zegras, increasing the Flyers' lead to 4–1.
An uneventful third period made no difference for the Devils.
Nick Seiler scored an empty net goal, a dagger on the game and the 2025–26 season, sealing a 5–1 defeat, the Devils' 35th defeat of the season.
Markstrom made 13 saves on 17 shots, leading to his 19th loss of the season.
