Rick Tocchet praises Flyers' youth movement's big regular season finale

The Philadelphia Flyers didn't have much time to celebrate their first playoff berth since 2020. Hours after defeating the Carolina Hurricanes in a shootout, the Flyers faced off against the Montreal Canadiens in their final game of the regular season. But there was plenty of reason to celebrate on Tuesday night.

The Flyers defeated the Canadiens 4-2 to carry some momentum into their playoff matchup against the Pittsburgh Penguins. But this was the Flyers showing off their youth movement in full effect. The Flyers' four goals came from Porter Martone, Matvei Michkov, Alex Bump, and the debuting Oliver Bonk. To make things even more incredible, everyone who recorded a point was under the age of 23.

After the game, Rick Tocchet was asked about the young players on the team stepping up in the regular season finale. The bench boss had nothing but positive things to say.

"It's a positive situation," said Tocchet. "You look at a [Alex Bump] that had a hell of a goal. I thought [Denver Barkey] at center was really good tonight. Like really good. Obviously [Michkov] had a terrific game. All those kids are really developing, and they're playing in some tough situations, right? Obviously, it's a good future."

Rick Tocchet praises Flyers' young stars for productive regular season finale

Flyers fans have to feel promise after seeing all of the young stars step up in the final game of the season.

There were two debuts for the Flyers in Bonk and Hunter McDonald. Bonk extended Philadelphia's lead to 2-0 late in the first period, with McDonald recording a secondary assist on the goal. Earlier, Bonk assisted on Porter Martone's goal to give the Flyers a 1-0 lead. Martone would later assist on Bump's goal to extend their lead to 4-2 in the third period. Michkov scored an unassisted goal in the second period to put Philadelphia up 3-1.

McDonald discussed making his debut alongside Bonk and helping him score his first NHL goal. McDonald talked about how it felt to be playing alongside a lot of his teammates from his time with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

"It was just awesome, I don't have the words, honestly," said McDonald. "Pretty cool. I was like, maybe, doesn't feel like the spotlight's just on me in this situation when there's a lot of guys that I know. But it was great that we played with them down there. Big family, even like Lehigh to here, everyone, this organization is classy. It was awesome when Bonker scored, I was ecstatic."

Overall, you couldn't have asked for a better performance from the young stars the team is trying to develop into every day starters. What makes it even better is that their showing pushed the Canadiens into third place in the Atlantic Division, thus eliminating home ice advantage for them in their first round matchup against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Flyers' have said since the start of the season that they wanted to see some progression throughout from their younger players. While they maybe haven't stepped up to superstar status, they did show promise, especially on Tuesday night.

Now, their focus will be on the Penguins and looking to win their first playoff series since 2020.

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