A Plot: In order to support the Philadelphia Flyers after they make it to the 1987 Stanley Cup Finals, Barry forces the rest of his family to enact some good-luck rituals.
B Plot: Geoff wants his parents, Lou and Linda, to spend more time with baby Muriel.
- Chekhov's Skill: When Geoff first visits his parents and asks how they've been doing, Lou mentions taking a photography course. Later, after exhausting themselves trying to be good grandparents to Muriel, Lou decides to use these photography skills to engage in a case of Photos Lie.
- Damned by Faint Praise: As part of Barry's inversion of his sports rituals when trying to prevent the family store from going bankrupt, he tells Oilers fan Vic that he's a decent human being, with Vic himself somewhat insulted by the implication that Barry would usually think the opposite.
- Did You Think I Can't Feel?: Barry eventually sees the commercial that Vic deeply regrets making, and Beverly assumes he's going to be upset about having to choose between his favorite team or the family business. Instead, Barry's upset that Beverly considered him too immature to admit the store's financial state to him earlier, and soon after proves that he would always put his family first.
- Friend-or-Idol Decision: After learning that the family's furniture business will go bankrupt and they might even lose their house if his favorite sports team is victorious, Barry tries to invert all of his superstitious rituals in order to get the Oilers to beat the Flyers in the final round. It seems to work, and while Barry is pained by the experience, the furniture store made so much money that Beverly rewards him with season tickets.
- I Have Your Wife: When Adam states that him following Barry's superstitions (by not drinking any water or changing his underwear for the two whole weeks the Stanley Cup is being aired) is implausible, Barry pulls out a stack of Polaroid photos of him holding a knife against Adam's various Transformers memorabilia to make him comply. In The Tag, Barry returns most of Adam's toys, but wrangles another favor out of Adam in exchange for giving back his Bumblebee.
- Implausible Deniability: When the Flyers lose the first game of the Stanley Cup finals, and Pop-Pop appears in the house a few minutes afterwards because he's tired of staying in Ginsey Kremp's house, Barry blames Pop-Pop for the loss instead of admitting that his superstitions aren't actually affecting anything. Later, when Beverly attempts to sabotage his routines, he claims they're working in spite of not being done correctly.
- It's All About Me: Barry is certain that he's solely responsible for the Flyers getting to the Stanley Cup, not even counting the contributions of the Flyers themselves.
- My God, What Have I Done?: At the furniture store, it turns out that Vic made a commercial promising 100% cash-back if the Flyers win the Stanley Cup in order to drive up business, not having expected them to even reach the event (being an Oilers fan himself). While Vic has a panic attack over what he's done and is desperately trying to kick out shoppers, Beverly tries to sabotage Barry's superstitions and send fattening food to the Flyers' general manager to get the Flyers to lose.
- Obsessive Sports Fan: Following in his father's footsteps, Barry thinks he's the reason the Flyers made it to the finals and forces the rest of the family to follow his ridiculous superstitions, such as serving only black and orange food (the team's colors), forcing Adam to not change his underwear or drink water, and having Pop-Pop taken out of the house.
- Photos Lie: Too tired to take Muriel outside again after their first exhausting day together, Lou decides to take photos of her to make it look like they went places with her. Erica and Geoff are able to see through the deception, as the photo of Muriel at the "pool" shows a bottle of Head & Shoulders shampoo, and the photo of her at the park is clearly just her in front of the living room Ficus.
- Prematurely Grey-Haired: Vic claims that the stress over potentially going broke due to the commercial he filmed is causing his hair to prematurely grey.
- Stating the Obvious: Vic's commercial includes Linda appearing to state the line "100% back? That's ALL the percent!"
- Superstition Episode: The A Plot has Barry acting superstitious in order to support his favorite sports team.
- Title Drop: "Family Dos and Don'ts: A Flyer's Path to Victory" is the title of the presentation Barry gives to his family at the start of the episode, written at the top of a blackboard.
- Verbal Backspace: Adam demands to know how Barry knows what underwear he's wearing as part of the lucky rituals, then realizes what he said and immediately states that actually he never wants to know.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: The B Plot is primarily driven by Lou and Linda Schwartz comparing themselves to the always-active Beverly, and are ashamed to admit that they don't have the energy to take Muriel on big adventures. In the end, Pop-Pop decides to intervene and tell Erica that different people can provide different perspectives, causing Erica to recall her own childhood of visiting his apartment and fostering her musical talents by listening to his record collection, and she then goes to tell the Schwartz family that they're better guardians than they thought they were.
