By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 
Facing the NHL's best team, especially one that easily defeated you on the scoreboard despite a fairly even effort just 10 days earlier, is always a tough task. The Flyers handled themselves well in Washington on Saturday night.
While the result was not the desired one, the Flyers did demonstrate that they still have a fighting chance in the playoff race is the effort displayed on Saturday is reciprocated for the rest of the road trip and beyond.
Here are 10 Postgame Points from Flyers-Capitals.
- Any overtime loss hurts, but for the Flyers to get the game to overtime is a victory in this case. No one is catching the Washington Capitals in the standings. So to get one point, on the road, against the NHL's best team is huge. Sure, it would be nicer if the Flyers were just two points out of a playoff spot instead of three, but the effort to force overtime is what it's going to take night in and night out from the Flyers. It may not have been enough to beat a team that has Stanley Cup hopes and has a playoff spot essentially locked up. But it should beat teams like the Sabres, Maple Leafs and Bruins, who are all on the schedule next week and all fighting for playoff position.
- T.J. Oshie keyed the game-winning goal for Nicklas Backstrom. His was just barely onside as the puck entered the zone — something that was reviewed after the goal — and he supplied a tremendous screen on Steve Mason. Mason had no shot to see Backstrom's shot with Oshie completely in his face.
- Mason was stellar in this game. He finished with just 22 saves, a testament to the number of shots the Flyers held Washington to, but made many highlight reel saves. You won't find a better one than his save on Oshie in overtime, sliding across, in the splits, and taking one off the mask. If you would have told me that his right-to-left sprawling blocker save on Backstrom midway through the third wouldn't be his best of the night, I would have said you were crazy. He definitely outdid himself on that one.
- While Mason was making his highlight-reel save in overtime, the Flyers were preparing to go to the penalty kill for the fourth time in the game. Personally, I don't think Michael Del Zotto had to take a penalty there. It was obvious he was wrapping up a Capitals player, presumably to prevent an odd-man rush. But the rush was slow-developing and there was no reason everyone couldn't make it back into the play. It was an unnecessary penalty, and you don't want to give the Capitals any extra man power in overtime.
- The Flyers can look back at the second point they didn't get and point right to the power play. The Flyers were 0-for-6 on the power play and had two chances on the man advantage in the third period. You need to put something together there. Washington's got a good penalty kill, but given that many chances, you have to make them pay for one of them.
- Despite the 0-for by the power play, you have to like the look of the Flyers second power play unit now. Ivan Provorov continues to man the point, Valtteri Filppula, Jordan Weal and Travis Konecny are up front and Sean Couturier is also out there in the Jake Voracek role on the second unit. The three up front are all hungry players and do a lot of dirty work to create chances. If the Flyers top unit struggles, at least the second unit has more of chance to finish the job now.
- It's crunch time in the season, so to see the Flyers selling out and blocking 20 shots in the game is the right mindset. The Flyers responded well to a playoff atmosphere, which is going to happen at this juncture of the season.
- Couturier had the Flyers only goal of the game, and again, it was all about driving the net. Just like Filppula's goal on Thursday, the Flyers need to get to the dirty areas to score goals anymore it seems, so when Couturier crashed the net, he earned the payoff.
- In getting the lead 1:19 into the third period, the Flyers gave it right back. It wasn't a particularly good shift from anybody on the ice, but Mason does need to make the save, which he admitted after the game, especially if the puck doesn't change direction. All of the Flyers looked startled by Dmitry Orlov's shot, Mason included, who had a late reaction and it cost him.
- Scoreboard watching is going to happen this time of year. The Flyers got some mild help on Saturday with Florida's regulation loss to Dallas and Tampa's shootout win. The Flyers are tied with the Lightning at 68 points, two points ahead of Buffalo. Florida remains a point ahead of the Flyers and Toronto is two points ahead. The Islanders, who hold the final playoff spot at the moment, are three points ahead with one game in hand on the entire group of four below them. They play Calgary on Sunday afternoon.
Bottom Line
Two points would have been great for the Flyers in a game like this, and it was a shootout win over Washington in March last season that proved to be a marker that showed the Flyers belonged in the group of eight to make the playoffs.
It may not have finished like that on Saturday, but that was a winning effort from the Flyers. That kind of effort next week in Buffalo or Toronto or Boston could shuffle the standings in their favor. But we've seen that act before too, where the Flyers can play so well against a team like Washington and turn in a forgettable performance just a few nights later against a team like Buffalo.
They're all must-win games at this point, but the games against Washington, Pittsburgh or Columbus are on another level. Getting even a point against teams like that is a moral victory that can help keep the line moving, especially when you get to face the teams you are chasing in the standings again before season's end.
So wrong result, right effort by the Orange and Black. Repeating that effort next week will prove just how alive the Flyers playoff chances are.
