Maybe all the Flyers really needed was a break.
The 4 Nations Face-Off afforded them a chance to get healthy, to rest up, and even mentally, to resest.
And since coming back, they piled it on Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers in a 6-3 win on Saturday, then came back on Tuesday night to lap Sidney Crosby and the rival Pittsburgh Penguins 6-1 – with both games at home.
Matvei Michkov, who seemed to have hit a rookie wall before the break, has energy again, and so do his linemates Sean Couturier and Owen Tippett. They were all over Edmonton on Saturday, having a hand in five of the six Flyers goals, then kept the pressure on Pittsburgh Tuesday night in the sequence that led straight to Ramsus Ristoalinen's opening 1-0 tally, and later the takeaway and tic-tac-toe break by Tippett that put the game away in the third period.
The line of Noah Cates, Bobby Brink, and Tyson Foerster have been skating downhill since coming back, too, especially on Tuesday night. They gave the Penguins barely a second to breathe in checking, jumped on them in transition, and each scored by the end of the night, with Cates notching two, and him and Brink rushing down the ice and lighting up the lamp within seconds of one another late into the second period.
Tippett, Ristolainen, Ryan Poehling, and Egor Zamula all returned from injury and immediately looked like they could make an impact in the lineup again. Trade acquisitions Andrei Kuzmenko and Jakob Pelletier, following visa issues and then the two-week break right after, finally got into the mix and made their marks – Kuzmenko with his first Flyers goal on Saturday against the Oilers, and then Pelletier against the Penguins when he made a quick heads-up pass in the neutral zone that sprung Cates' first goal.
Jamie Drysdale has looked smoother with the puck on the blue line, Travis Sanheim hopped right back on the top defensive pairing with Cam York from 4 Nations and didn't seem to miss a beat, and goaltender Sam Ersson – hopefully after he turned some heads from earning a win for Sweden over the U.S. last week – has two for the Flyers and 38 of 42 shots stopped since returning himself.
The Flyers got two straight wins by a combined 12 goals and having outshot their opponents by a margin of 70-42. At the start of February, they had limped into the month banged up, on a run of three straight shutout losses, and losses in seven of their last eight until they salvaged a 3-2 win over the Penguins and finally got a rest.
Yeah, they needed the break. The team openly acknowledged as much postgame Tuesday night.
Michkov, through interpreter Slava Kuznetsov, said he has felt a lot better coming back, Cates said a step away from the daily grind brought excitement back into coming to the rink again, and head coach John Tortorella, he just knew his group needed time.
"A lot of guys came out, and then we make a trade," he said, noting Joel Farabee's and Morgan Frost's moves to Calgary. "As much as you think the guys are, they're strong, that affects some people, too.
"It was a crazy couple of weeks for us there, with all the injuries, trading Frosty and Beezer, and all the stuff going on…Certainly, some guys needed a break. We talked about [Michkov], he's more on top of the ice skating right now. He needed a break, and I'm sure a number of other guys, but I just think they have found a little groove here early for a couple of games."
But now where does that go?
As of Wednesday morning, the Flyers are 26-26-7 for 59 points and with 23 games left. They're not quite in the clear of the Eastern Conference's basement (one bad stretch puts them down there), but at the same time, they're a tough but not entirely insurmountable five-point climb away from Columbus for that second Wild Card spot (one good stretch puts them up there).
They're rested, they're healthy, and if they can sustain this level of play for the last month and a half, they actually could patch together a late push.
But the Flyers do have their already known disadvantages.
The March 7 trade deadline is drawing close, and general manager Danny Brière is keeping the team on the rebuilding path. Reinforcements aren't coming. If anything, this roster could be working with less just over a week from now if the asking prices for names on the rumor mill like Ristolainen and Scott Laughton get met.
And then, of course, there's goaltending, which can never seem to be a worry-free topic in Philadelphia. Since coming back from injury midway through January, Ersson has been solid for the Flyers with a 9-4-1 record and a .911 save percentage.
Behind him, however, has been the problem. Neither Aleksei Kolosov nor Ivan Fedotov have found stable footing as the backup goalie, going a combined 0-4-1 with 17 goals allowed since Ersson returned. That leaves the 25-year-old netminder as the only dependable option to play from night to night, which is the same spot the Flyers were in last year that ultimately burned both of them out by the end.
The Flyers stand at a middle ground now and a tough one to be in. It's not impossible to work out of, yet simultaneously, it's frustrating from the outside because, for the future, higher draft positioning and a chance to stockpile prospects sooner bode much, much better for later.
But on the inside, the players see where they're at and do see a shot to make it for however narrow it might be, especially the Flyers' prized rookie.
"It would be strange if I didn't want to make the playoffs," Michkov said through Kuznetsov. "Every player dreams to play in the playoffs and win the Stanley Cup. Our team is trying for it and hopefully we will make it.
"Otherwise there would be no point to train if we don't want to win."
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