Flyers

Travis Konecny “Kicking Myself” for Losing Wall Battle Ahead of Penguins’ Game-Winning Goal

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Apr 26th, 2026 · 10:24 AM EDT

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Travis Konecny lost a wall battle in a 4v4 situation on Saturday night, which lead to the ancient Kris Letang cruising into the slot for the game-winning goal:

Sid is incredible. Mucks it up and wins puck battle. Soccer style kick of Letang. Screens goalie. And jumps to avoid puck like a figure skater. He can do it all. pic.twitter.com/j2pRx50cY1

— Andrew Fillipponi (@ThePoniExpress) April 26, 2026

It’s one thing to lose the battle, but TK seemed slow to react and get off the wall, so Letang’s old ass had a lot of time to waltz right in and unload a thunderbolt. Shockingly, Sidney Crosby remembered who he used to be, and drove to the net while screening Dan Vladar and sealing off Jamie Drysdale at the same time. Penguins goal.

Said Konecny afterward:

“I’m kicking myself on Letang’s goal. The four on four. I just lost a wall battle, and then it was two back. So it kind of feels like we could have tied the game up if I didn’t make that mistake, but we’ll move on from it.”

…

“I think we were just, maybe weren’t as clean on the wall battles a little bit. Not executing. I have to look at it but I just feel like we were a little bit on our heels to start the game. But that was the first opportunity for us to close out the series, not sure if it was a little bit mental that we came out that way, but we’ll regroup. We’ve played one now that guys can feed off of and we know what it’s like now to play in that game to try to close it. Just fix our mistakes and head into the next game.”

To Konecny’s credit, it was his snipe a short time later that cut the deficit to 3-2, so he more or less atoned for the mistake, but he hasn’t had the greatest series ever. Sure, he was the catalyst for the big Game 3 scrum, which resulted in a Flyers power play and goal, but Saturday night’s goal was his first since the April 2nd game against the Red Wings. He’s had a quiet April, and his March was just okay. But TK was second on the team with 27 goals this season, and probably would have been first if he played more than 77 games. He’s also one of just a handful of guys with playoff experience, so you’d expect a little bit more from him offensively.

No matter. Flyers in 5.