By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 
They still have a pulse.
The Flyers survived a full 20 minutes having to protect and cling to a one-goal lead, but did to secure a win to close out a three-game road trip in Vancouver.
There were plenty of reasons the Flyers turned things around to get two crucial points, but it's only the beginning for a team that still needs a big push for a playoff berth.
Here are 10 Postgame Points from Flyers-Canucks.
- Good to see Shayne Gostisbehere have a night on the offensive side. His goalless drought is still ongoing, approaching three months now, but assists on all three Flyers goals was a first in his career.
- This is the second straight game the Flyers scored three goals. It isn't the kind of scoring touch they had earlier in the season, but six goals in two games after eight in the previous seven is a start.
- Thursday's game wasn't the best for Michal Neuvirth, but I like the move of going back to him for this game. Making his fourth straight start, Neuvirth played well and was sharp in earning his 10th win of the season.
- Ivan Provorov and Gostisbehere appear to be a good pair for the Flyers top power play unit. Both had assists on Wayne Simmonds goal to open the scoring and Provorov set up Gostisbehere for a shot chance that put a rebound right on the stick of Simmonds.
- Brayden Schenn continues to produce on the power play. He's not much for scoring at even strength, but put him on the power play and the goals just keep coming. That's now 14 power play goals for Schenn this season. And for his third assist of the night, a nice pass from Gostisbehere to Schenn with room to skate into the slot set up the goal.
- The thing that is becoming so impressive about Ivan Provorov is that he can have a game like this where not everything looks perfect or goes completely right but he'll make a key play down the line that stands out the most. In this game, that was carrying the puck up the ice, pinning it in the Vancouver zone while the Flyers worked on a change and still getting back to disrupt a play moments later. You can't teach that. And for a 20-year-old to have that kind of wherewithal is just so impressive.
- At one time last season, given the emergence of Provorov and Philippe Myers as well as the ongoing talk of Travis Sanheim, Sam Morin and Robert Hagg, I thought the sixth piece of the Flyers blue line of the future could have been Michael Del Zotto, who had proven to be a key defensive player last season and was still fairly young at 25 (he turned 26 last June). This season, he's been terrible in his own zone and with it being a contract year, will likely be on his way out at season's end.
- A really good number for the Flyers defense. They blocked 24 shots in the game, four more blocked shots than Vancouver shots on goal, 20.
- Markus Granlund's goal to open the scoring for Vancouver was simply ridiculous. Provorov is positioned well defensively and even takes Granlund down on the play as the shot from Daniel Sedin comes through. Granlund still gets a stick on it in the slot and it radically changed direction as a result. Nothing Neuvirth could do on that one.
- Another good stat for the Flyers defensively, a perfect 4-for-4 on the penalty kill. Over the course of the last few games, the Flyers PK has been improving, even if teams were still able to strike at even strength. Still, special teams very much decided the outcome of this game and the Flyers were winners in all aspects on special teams.
Bottom Line
A win of any kind is a start for the Flyers. Wednesday's loss in Calgary just looked lifeless, even for a game that held a 2-1 score for almost half of the contest. Thursday's game felt like it was over before it started. Leads of 2-0 and 4-1 to Edmonton's potent offense were going to be too much to overcome.
But this game is a starting point. The Flyers opened up a 3-0 lead, and even though they had to cling to that lead at the end, they got the two points necessary to remain even remotely alive in the playoff race.
The Flyers would have been alive in the playoff race regardless — the margin between the worst record in the conference and the final playoff spot is a span of nine points. The Flyers are two points back of the playoff spot and seven ahead of the Hurricanes for the worst total in the East. But if the playoffs were to be a real possibility, a win was required to end this road trip. That's where it had to start.
So for now, the Flyers press on with a little bit of life still in them. Two even bigger games await this week while the rest of the conference jostles for position in the standings.
