(Kate Frese/Sports Talk Philly)
By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 
Three weeks ago, the Flyers lost to the Stars to snap a 10-game winning streak. At the time, the loss stung a bit, but wasn't going to truly hurt the team unless they failed to respond.
Things didn't start off too bad with a shootout loss and a shootout win in the next two games, but snowballed from there with five straight losses.
So on Saturday, the Flyers got some relief, a victory, and a comfortable one at that. Here are 10 Postgame Points from Flyers-Lightning.
- Sometimes when you’re in a losing streak like the Flyers were, you need to pull out all the stops. I have a feeling that’s why we heard "God Bless America" before the game. The Flyers, in return, turned in their best game since the holiday break.
- After Wednesday’s loss to the Rangers, I said that something had to be done with the line combinations. Dave Hakstol shuffled the lines for Friday’s practice. They may not be perfect, but all three new-look lines produced a goal in the game.
- One line that picked right up where they left off was the line of Travis Konecny, Sean Couturier and Jake Voracek. From the first shift, the Flyers second line had tons of energy and channeled that into two goals. The 2-on-1 from Voracek to Konecny was perfectly executed. And Couturier’s goal was the result of consistently working hard, winning puck battles and playing gritty hockey as a line.
- A great note from the Flyers: Sean Couturier’s goal at 8:42 of the second period was the first time the Flyers had a lead in 227:49, going back to David Perron’s game-tying goal for St. Louis on Dec. 28.
- Michal Neuvirth’s return didn’t start out with a warm welcome. The Flyers had a defensive breakdown in the neutral zone, leading to a 2-on-1 the other way. Neuvirth was helpless on Nikita Kucherov’s goal. That was Tampa Bay’s second shot of the game. But he did play well the rest of the way, making 24 saves overall in picking up his first win since Nov. 3.
- It seemed like every Flyer that deserved a goal actually scored a goal. Radko Gudas played a smart, inspired game on Saturday. He was rewarded for it with a good-luck goal off of Anton Stralman to put the Flyers ahead by two. Michael Raffl was another player with a lot of energy to his game. He scored the game-winning goal.
- Raffl’s goal was the result of a play I’m not sure anyone ever thought they would see. A pass slid through the neutral zone and onto the stick of a wide-open…Nick Schultz? Yes, Nick Schultz had a breakaway chance in this game. He was stopped, but followed up the play, got the puck to Claude Giroux and before you even had time to process the breakaway chance actually happening, Raffl one-timed Giroux’s pass to the back of the net.
- One thing that was noticeable during the Flyers winning streak last month and noticeably gone during the losing streak was puck luck. Every now and then, the puck has to bounce the right way. Andrei Vasilevskiy gave up a lot of rebounds and the Flyers ultimately scored goals off of three in different ways.
- Puck possession and shots are another aspect of the game the Flyers lost an edge in during the losing streak. On Saturday, they outshot the Lightning in each of the three periods and 44-26 for the game and controlled the play for most of the afternoon. That was the blueprint for many of the wins on the 10-game winning streak and certainly a step in the right direction to get back to winning ways.
- Ivan Provorov was particularly impressive on the penalty kill. On one shift, he was the trailer on a 3-on-2 for the Flyers, followed up the chance by controlling the puck behind the net for roughly five seconds and then poke-checked the puck away from a Lightning player as he skated to the bench for a line change. The kid is playing with a high confidence level right now.
Bottom Line
While no one actually said it, this was a must-win weekend for the Flyers. That’s probably why wholesale changes were made to the top three lines going into Saturday’s game. So far, so good, because the Flyers started to play with an energy that had been lacking for so long.
This is the team that carved out a path to the playoffs by separating themselves from the pack with a win streak in December. The Flyers came into Saturday just one point up in the wildcard standings. Tampa Bay was three points back.
This is a huge win then as a result of that. At this point, reality is the Flyers led the ground gained slip away and need to build it back up. Perhaps the good news is that the Flyers schedule has been fairly light recently, which means other teams are catching up in the games played column. That helps when looking in the rear-view mirror.
That said, the weekend has started off on a good note, but needs to finish that way against a Columbus Blue Jackets team that is looking to start a new winning streak on Saturday night.
