As much as I hate to say it, because he is annoying AF with the refs and all his whining and complaining every game in the face of absurd BD, Torts is a decent coach.
I agree with you on smoke and mirrors, but I thought it was enough smoke and mirrors to screw things up for the other teams fighting for a wild card (especially after Jones and Atkinson and Carolina's goalies went down). That said, they lost the goalie who gotten them into that position due to the car accident. He might be back before the end of the season. Then they lost Kreider while playing us for an indefinite amount of time. When you're smoke and mirrors, you lose 2 of the three mirrors the smoke dissipates I guess.
The goalies are the key players on Carolina to which I was referring
The Pens Caps series have been brutal on both teams in the past. If they can beat each other up for two weeks, I'm very happy with that. This is why I believe the Flyers are so zoned in on winning Home Ice. Not that they fear either team, because I don't think they do, but because they know it's simply to their advantage to not have to play both.