Hextall says Flyers feel pressure, too

Since they finished with 24 fewer points than best-in-the-NHL Washington in the regular season, conventional wisdom says the Flyers have no pressure in the opening-round playoff series.

The Flyers, who needed a late-season surge just to reach the playoffs, are playing with house money. All the pressure should be on the Capitals.

"It's easy from the outside to say that, but when you go into the playoffs, there is pressure because we want to win," said Ron Hextall, the Flyers' second-year general manager. "We're not satisfied. A lot of people were pretty excited when we made the playoffs . . . but we haven't won anything, so I think our team, going in, feels like we want to win the first round of the playoffs.

"There is pressure," Hextall added. "Not as much as the No. 1 seed, or Chicago, which won last year. Not that type, but we'll feel pressure. It's going to be a great experience - and we need to play the game the right way probably more than ever against a team like Washington."

Rookie coach Dave Hakstol was asked if he had the same feeling getting ready for the Stanley Cup playoffs as he did when he directed North Dakota and was about the play in the NCAA tournament.

"This is the National Hockey League playoffs, and I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't excited about it - just like everybody in our room," he said. "Like I said yesterday, once you get through the excitement of being in, it's pretty easy to get to the focus of what you need to do to be successful. Our group worked really hard to qualify as one of the 16 teams in the playoffs. Now we start over again. And we didn't get here just to get here.

"We have other goals in mind."

The Flyers were 2-2 against the Capitals in the regular season, but 2-1 with rookie defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere in the lineup. . . . Someone asked Hakstol what he thought about Jake Voracek's wild hair on his head and chin. "Can I go now?" Hakstol replied, smiling, before adding, "Classic playoff hair." . . . During the season, the Caps had six players with at least 20 goals and the Flyers had three. . . . Andrew MacDonald led the Flyers with a plus-10 rating in the regular season, while Evgeny Kuznetsov paced the Caps at plus-27. . . . The Capitals were 29-8-4 at home and 27-10-4 on the road. The Flyers were 23-10-8 at home, 18-17-6 on the road, including a 1-1 mark at the Verizon Center.