(Kate Frese/Sports Talk Philly)
By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 
The Flyers are on a historic win streak at the moment, their longest in over 20 years. If they can find a way to win on Wednesday night, they will have their longest win streak in over 30 years since 1985.
The current nine-game win streak has the just two points out of the top spot in the Metropolitan Division, an impressive run considering their 3-5-1 start to the season. But as the Flyers have gone streaking, so has the rest of the division and that shows just what a fine line there is between the Flyers ranking among the playoff teams in the East and being completely out of the picture.
The Penguins have won six straight. The Capitals have won five straight. The Rangers had a six-game winning streak before a loss to Chicago on Tuesday. The Blue Jackets have won seven straight. And while all of the streaks fall short of the Flyers recent run, they are creating a logjam at the top of the Metropolitan Division standings.
At the close of Tuesday night's games, the top five teams in the Metropolitan Division were separated by two points with the Flyers bringing up the rear among the five.
But that brings into question where the Flyers would be if not for their determined play on this streak and the wins that have come with it. A nine-game winning streak means 18 additional points in the standings. Before the streak started with a 5-3 win over Calgary on Nov. 27, the Flyers had 21 points in the standings.
Of the nine victories, five are one-goal wins. Three of those wins came in overtime. One came in a shootout. With so many points that could have gone the other way, it's quite possible that over the nine-game stretch, the Flyers could have come away with half the points, just nine instead of 18. Nine on top of their 21 at the start of the streak would have them at 30 points, tied with a host of other teams for the first spot out of the playoffs, but 10 points back of a playoff spot. With Christmas rapidly approaching, that's not a position a team wants to be in as the season nears the halfway point.
"The difference between winning and losing is so close," head coach Dave Hakstol said. "Every night it's been maybe somebody different or a different part of our team that's stepped up and ultimately helped us win that individual game."
"It's nice that we've won nine in a row and keep ourselves in the hunt," Jake Voracek said. "When you look at the Metro, everybody's winning. If we didn't have this success, I don't think we would be in a playoff spot right now."
The streak and improved play by the Flyers also presents another observation. In the first 13 games of the season, the Flyers played the Montreal Canadiens twice and Penguins once. They lost all three of those games, two by one goal. It would certainly be interesting to see how the Flyers stack up against those teams now. Unfortunately, we won't be able to find out until February, the next time the Flyers take on both the Canadiens and Penguins.
As good as it is for the Flyers to get this streak early in the season, to prove that they can compete and run with the rest of the top teams in the East, one goal the other way had the chance to completely disrupt the whole thing and who knows where the Flyers would be if that was the case.
The Flyers look to make it 10 on Wednesday night in Colorado. And given the continuing success of their division foes, they may need to keep the winning ways going as long as possible. But to Hakstol, it's still early and for right now, earning points to stay in the race is more important than worrying about where they stack up with the rest of the East.
"It's pretty early to start looking at the standings," Hakstol said. "We're trying to gain points every night. I don't make too much about how ever many in a row. You're just trying to gain points every night. The first goal on the list is to be a playoff team. Points every night are critical."
