If there are two things we know about the Pittsburgh Steelers, it’s that the organization is all about playing defense and running the football.
We know this because every time a national broadcast comes to Acrisure Stadium, the announcers say so four or five times a game.
Even at times when it hasn’t been true.
There were years like 2014, when the Steelers won the AFC North with the second-best passing offense in football under Ben Roethlisberger, the 16th-rated rush attack and the 27th passing defense.
But, hey, it’s Pittsburgh. Just speak it into existence because you’re so used to saying it, I guess. It’s often been a truism more than it is the truth.
I wonder if a little of that phenomenon exists with how Pittsburgh views the Philadelphia Flyers as the teams prepare for Game 1 of their NHL Eastern Conference playoff series Saturday night. For instance, is this 2026 Flyers team really the Broad Street Bullies? I mean, Xfinity Mobile Arena’s address is still on Broad Street. But are they really bullies?
I’m not as worried about the 2026 Flyers being big and bad. I’m more worried about them being … good.
They certainly have been of late, winning six of their last seven to qualify for the postseason. From Feb. 25 until the end of the season, the club went 18-6-1.
“They are playing really good hockey. They have been for a while,” Penguins coach Dan Muse. “The defensive game, they make things very difficult. For that stretch, and that push, for them to get to where they finished the year, a big credit to their group.”
The question remains, though, if you took the Philadelphia logo and colors off of the jerseys of these Flyers and told them to go out there and play their typical game wearing neutral uniforms, would you recognize them as the mean, dirty, rough-and-tumble Flyers many of us at this end of the state make them out to be?
Rick Tocchet coaches now; he doesn’t play. There aren’t as many guys like Dave Schultz, Dave Brown, Craig Berube and Donald Brashear like there used to be. Garnet Hathaway has 45 regular-season fights over the span of his career. The Penguins remember Rasmus Ristolainen concussing Jake Guentzel (and getting suspended for it) when he was with Buffalo, and Trevor Zegras is certainly capable of irritating the heck out of anyone he plays in Scott Hartnell/Scottie Upshall fashion.
“They are a historic and proud organization,” winger Bryan Rust said. “As time goes on, those values and those organizational attributes get passed on from player to player, generation to generation. There’s always a little bit of that.”
Underscoring Rust’s point, the 2025-26 Flyers were fourth in fights this year, with 25 according to HockeyFights.com. Tampa Bay led with 44; the Penguins had 14. Philly was ninth in penalty minutes with 785. (The Penguins were 21st with 666.) Matvei Michkov led the way with 71 (43rd in hockey). Zegras was second with 62, 64th in the NHL.
If there is anyone who could genuinely tell if that old Flyer DNA is still coursing through Philadelphia’s orange-and-black veins, it’s Penguins captain Sidney Crosby. Their players have been targeting him for two decades, starting with his rookie year when Derian Hatcher chipped Crosby’s teeth in Philadlephia.
“Every team changes over 20 years,” Crosby said. “But to make the playoffs, you have to have grit. As long as the season is, you are going to deal with adversity. They have been playing some really good hockey lately. For both teams, our playoffs started two months ago, just trying to get in. … Both teams will be familiar with the intensity.”
Of course, that night Hatcher sent Crosby to the dentist’s chair, the Penguins’ future Hall of Famer did what he has so frequently done to the Flyers over the years. He retaliated by scoring and helping the Penguins win the game. He’s also been a part of three playoff victories over Philly in four tries.
The one occasion Philadelphia advanced was when the likes of Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang let Philadelphia win the agitation element of competition and the firewagon race in that gong show of a series in 2012.
As a rookie, Sean Couturier was one of the players on Philadelphia’s roster who drove the Penguins nuts that spring, especially Malkin. He is still there, and plenty capable of doing the same thing.
If he, Zegras and Hathaway are successful again in that manner this series, the Penguins’ postseason return will be a short one.
I’ve got the Penguins winning in seven games, but if Pittsburgh gets sucked into how the Flyers can play by way of trying to fight cross-state ghosts of series past, you can flip that prediction.
Listen: Tim Benz and Penguins beat writer Seth Rorabaugh preview the Penguins-Flyers series