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NHL Notebook: Penguins face sweep, Senators superstition sends fan to Asia, and more
Pittsburgh Penguins Stuart Skinner
Photo credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images
Alicia LaBine
Apr 23, 2026, 19:00 EDTUpdated: Apr 23, 2026, 19:32 EDT
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The Pittsburgh Penguins have lost again, and now the Philadelphia Flyers have a 3-0 series lead in the Battle of Pennsylvania.
It is going to be a tough hill for the Penguins to climb if they have any hopes of playing in the second round of the NHL playoffs. In Game 3 Wednesday night, it was Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin who opened up the scoring early, hoping to rally a win for the team that was desperate to stay competitive in this series.
Unfortunately for Malkin and his team, the Flyers would score the next three goals, as Trevor Zegras, Rasmus Ristolainen, and Nick Seeler would find the back of the net in the second period. Erik Karlsson would bring th Pens back into the game early in the third, but after Noah Cates’ power-play goal and Owen Tippett’s empty-net sealer, the Flyers would win this game 5-2.
This matchup has certainly not been without contest between the two Pennsylvanian-based clubs. In Wednesday’s matchup there was a point where 11 players were in the box – five for the Flyers and two for the Penguins. Among this chaos was a powerplay goal from Trevor Zegras, who skated back to the penalty box to celebrate with his teammates who had been in there after a massive scrum in the second period.
Despite the intense battle from both teams, the Flyers have pushed the Penguins to the brink of elimination. On Thursday’s Daily Faceoff LIVE episode, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton explain how this loss is likely one step away from the end of the Penguins’ season.
Tyler Yaremchuk:  It’s discipline. It’s a bad penalty kill. It’s not getting a timely save. It’s never gonna be one issue or one reason why you fall down 3-0 in a series. It’s gonna be a handful. For Pittsburgh, they just haven’t been able to stop the bleeding. Now, they face a pretty insurmountable 3-0 deficit.
The mindset is cliché as it gets, you gotta go one game at a time right? You gotta just say, ‘Hey let’s win. Get this series back to Pittsburgh. Get back on home ice down 3-1.’ You go try and win that one and put Philly on their heels. If you view it as uh we’re down 3-0 and need to try to win all four games at once, you’re just gonna get way out in front of your skis.
Also, no shot [Stuart] Skinner starts Game 4, right?
Carter Hutton: I think you have to go with Arturs Silovs. I think he brings in that X factor, like he’s been put in tough spots before. He could steal it. After those two goals – the Rasmus Ristolainen and Nick Seeler, one from the point – you just need saves there. Skinner is who he is. At this point, Dan Vladar has been a huge difference maker in this series. There’s a few moments during this game where he is so dialed in and he’s making big save after big save. Even at times if it looks a little awkward.
There will be something to keep an eye on, because [Bryan Rust] drove the net at one point and caught him with a knee in the elbow. It looked like it almost hyperextended [Vladar’s] elbow, and he reacted pretty painful to it. So, interesting to see if they can get to him in that sense, because right now they are just winning this series on every facet.
Former Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner has been the man to lead the Penguins onto the ice in the first three losses of the series, and it is unlikely that he will be the one to do so in Game 4 for the Penguins. Skinner has posted a rough .873 save percentage with a goals-against average of 3.08, numbers that are not nearly good enough for a starting goaltender in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
In the next game it’s possible Penguins fans will see Arturs Silovs, who was the backbone of the 2024 Vancouver Canucks’ battle to Game 7 against the Oilers in the second round. In Silovs’ ten postseason appearances, he has split his wins and losses at 5-5 and holds a .898 save percentage and a 2.91 goals-against average. While these numbers are not staggering, it is important to note that Silovs was up against Connor McDavid and the Oilers for seven of those games, and came up with many incredible saves throughout the series.
The Penguins will have to wait until Saturday at 6:00 p.m. MT to play Game 4, which could be their last game of the season. We will see then who the Penguins elect to start in net with their season on the line.

Senators send fan to Asia in attempt to break their playoff curse

After the Ottawa Senators fall to a 2-0 series deficit after Game 2, the organization has taken an unconventional approach by sending a fan to Taiwan.
Kyle Ivan is a passionate Senators fan who has become notorious for “cursing the team” with highly criticized music videos that he has made for the last two Senators postseasons. In a video released by the team on Thursday, Ivan was seen in a foreign country, apologizing to other fans of the club for the curse he has supposedly put on the team.
“Hello Sens fans, Kyle Ivan here. As you can see, I am in Asia. This is not AI, I am actually here,” Ivan began. “I have been sent here by the Ottawa Senators organization because they want me as far away from the Canadian Tire Centre as possible before Game 3 tonight.”
On Monday night, the Senators lost in double overtime to the Carolina Hurricanes, despite many unlucky bounces and missed opportunities by the Sens. In the first 15 seconds, Tim Stutzle nearly scored the game’s first goal, but he hit the post, and after another frenzy of bad luck for the Senators, they left the first period down 1-0 despite deserving a better outcome.
“As most of you know by now,” Ivan added, “I have become a bit of an internet celebrity in the past week and not in a good way. The video that was intended to share my joy and passion for our team has instead backfired and unleashed a firestorm of negativity, turning me into the biggest Sens villain since Chris Kunitz.”
On May 25, 2017, Chris Kunitz ended the Senators’ playoff run in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final upon scoring the game-winning goal in double overtime for the Pittsburgh Penguins. This was the beginning of an eight-year playoff drought for the Sens and is why Kunitz has cemented himself in the Ottawa Senators’ lore.
The Senators have been outscored 5-2 throughout the first two contests of the series against the Eastern Conference champions. The two goals scored by the Canadian team have come from Drake Batherson and Dylan Cozens who were the second and third highest point scorers for the team during the regular season. Their lead goal scorer, Stutzle, is yet to tally a point in this series and the Hurricanes should expect a noticeable showing from the German superstar in Game 3.
While it is possible that this stunt is just a green screen effect, it’s still an amusing gesture by the organization and one that they hope will generate a win for the team in Thursday night’s contest at 5:30 p.m. MT.

Yzerman says the Red Wings need better players

Despite being one of the best teams in the NHL heading into the Olympic break, the Detroit Red Wings have managed to find themselves outside of the playoffs for the tenth straight season.
In a press conference on Thursday, Steve Yzerman spoke about the frustrations that the team faced this year, and the organizational plan to ensure that they get back on track next season.
“Truthfully, throughout the course of the season…we had concerns. Todd [McLellan] and I talked about it…we, as a staff. We’re winning games. We see the deficiencies, the areas that we need to improve upon – that probably goes for every team,” Yzerman explained. “You’re never totally comfortable, regardless of where you’re at. … We were third overall or something, and we’re like, ‘Let’s be realistic. I don’t think we’re as good as our record at the time, but we are winning games.’”
On Jan. 24, the Red Wings were 34 points ahead of the Ottawa Senators, and now on Apr. 23, the Senators are in the playoffs while Detroit fell an entire seven points short of postseason contention.
Yzerman spent his entire 22-year career in Detroit, playing 1,514 games and contributing 692 goals and 1,755 points during his tenure with the team. He is a well-beloved legend around the city, but people are questioning whether or not he should remain as the general manager of the team after his seven consecutive playoff misses.
When asked about the status of his job Yzerman said he doesn’t see himself out anytime soon. He wants to be the person to guide the team out of the decade of disappointment and bring success back for Detroit hockey just as he did in the team’s 1997, 1998, and 2002 cup-winning years.
As for the rest of management, it seems as though there are no intentions for any major shakeups heading into the 2026 offseason. His focus is on-ice personnel, and he made that very clear with his comments during his media availability.
“Most obviously, we need better players…It’s incumbent on me and my staff to improve this team.”
The Red Wings are currently without a generational talent to lead this team into a true playoff contender as their leading goal scorer was Alex DeBrincat with 41 goals and 85 points, a career high for him. Even then he is a right winger, which does not address what Yzerman believes their weakest position currently is.
He explained that the team needs to get deeper down the middle. Dylan Larkin and the emerging Marco Kasper are good, but beyond them, the centre depth for the Red Wings is lacklustre and appears to be the point of focus for the off season.
Among this, he also noted that his team lacks the grit and fight that playoff teams need. As we have seen throughout the beginning of the 2026 postseason, teams are feisty, they want to win and are willing to put everything on the line to make that happen. Yzerman wants to find this within his group, but will not shy away from making moves to accelerate this mindset.
“We need to be a harder team to play against. We hear our players talk about that. My message to them would be, ‘Guys, we need our team to be harder to play against. In order to do that, you guys got to be harder to play against. So, either that, or I got to get ready and bring in other guys.’”
The former NHL superstar remarked he knows how difficult it can be to navigate through the ups and downs of a long season. In his comments he displayed recognition of the positives that can be taken from the early part of the Red Wings’ 2025-26 group, but he also knows this is a business centred around winning and some changes need to be made.
“Some players in particular just reinforce what we believe in. As we watch and see how it unfolds, we think there’s some growth that needs to be done. … You learn a lot in winning. You learn a lot in failure. So, we need to change some things, but it’s not just going to go and get rid of everyone. But there needs to be some very blunt conversations with some of our players, and to challenge them to do more and be better and to get there. Ultimately, we need to surround them with more talent,” he stated.

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