The road has become the place of success for the Flyers. A victory over the St. Louis Blues, one of the NHL's better teams, is certainly a big one for the Orange and Black.
But the current road winning streak, now at four games, is also a big step for a team that has struggled to produce those kind of results away from home.
The Flyers secured the 4-2 win on Thursday in St. Louis with three goals in the second period. Here are 10 thoughts, breaking down the game.
- There's no question Michal Neuvirth is the Flyers better goalie right now, making 35 saves in his seventh win of the season, and that has Dave Hakstol considering using him in a back-to-back situation. "We'll talk about it tonight," Hakstol said. "We'll make the decision in the morning. Neuvy did a great job for his teammates tonight. That's all we ask." Neuvirth said the decision for Friday's starter will be up to Hakstol.
- Claude Giroux has been the Flyers most-consistent forward all season and on Thursday night, he added another highlight-reel goal to his resume. Speed, skill and killer hands."That was a nice goal," Giroux said. "To be honest, I don't really remember what happened. We were up 2-1 there and wanted that third goal. I was pretty happy." There's no need to say more when you can just see it for yourself.
- Radko Gudas had yet another strong game. He was a plus-4 with seven hits and three blocked shots. Often noted as the additional piece to the Braydon Coburn trade last season, Gudas has proven valuable to the Flyers this season. The Flyers certainly missed him during his three-game suspension and it showed. "I thought he played solid," Hakstol said. "He had seven good hard hits. He was competitive, as he always was, and was in the middle of a few things. He played a good hockey game coming back for us."
- This was not the best game for Shayne Gostisbehere, who didn't play particularly well on Tuesday either. In the last two games, you see the risk that Gostisbehere to playing the defensive zone from his lack of experience. It is often outweighed by his great skating ability and leadership on the power play.
- Speaking of Gostisbehere, there was a brief period in the final minute of the first period where both Gostisbehere and Nick Schultz left the game with injuries. Gostisbehere took a stick to the face on the follow-through from a shot. Schultz had blocked a hard point shot. Both returned for the start of the second period.
- Giroux's goal will get all the discussion, but you can't take away the significance of Michael Raffl's game-tying goal. With a great play off the face-off, a strong pass to the front of the net by Brayden Schenn found Raffl's stick. Raffl had to do some hard work against a covering defenseman to make the deflection possible and getting the equalizer just 1:40 after was a crucial turning point. St. Louis came out with a bang in the second and it could have significantly changed the momentum. Instead, the Flyers grabbed the momentum back and turned in one of their better periods of the season. "We've been able to answer," Hakstol said. "Whether it's a bad bounce of the puck, a goal against, something negative happens out on the ice, our bench has been able to push back. Maybe that manifests itself in being able to come back in games when we're a goal or two down."
- Matt Read got the payoff on the Flyers go-ahead goal in the second, but the entire body of players on the ice had a hand in the goal. It started with Sean Couturier's little shot toward Brian Elliott. Though an easy save, it helped get the puck deep and to Wayne Simmonds on the far boards. Simmonds got the puck back to Michael Del Zotto, who fired the shot toward Elliott before Read's hard work to corral the rebound and eventually score. "You look at Matt Read's goal, staying with it, second effort," Hakstol said. "We got a couple from on top of the blue paint tonight."
- This marked the Flyers first win in St. Louis since December 17, 2005, when current Blues coach Ken Hitchcock was behind the Flyers bench. Previously, the Flyers had struggled scoring in Scottrade Center. Raffl's goal in the second was their first in 172:47. "We had good goaltending. We had a good four-line effort. All six defensemen did a good job," Hakstol said. "This is a tough place to win. It's a good team win for us."
- This was also the Flyers fourth straight win on the road and brought their road record this season to 7-6-2. The Flyers had just 10 road wins all of last season. "I think we do a good job on the road keeping our composure and waiting for our opportunity," Giroux said. "Neuvy did a really good job for us. When they were pressing on us in the first and third, he did a good job keeping us in the game."
- Perhaps the biggest negative, team-wide, was the struggles in the face-off circle. Face-off wins set up Raffl's goal and Ryan White's empty-net goal in the closing seconds, but overall, the Flyers were just 33 percent on face-offs, losing 39 of 58.
The Flyers are back in action on Friday night, as they face the Dallas Stars from American Airlines Center, who currently have the NHL's leading scorer, Jamie Benn, and the NHL's best record at 21-5-2. The Flyers almost pulled off a win against the Stars in October, but even now, this is a very different from when they last met.
The Stars are rolling, and for the Flyers, who have points in 10 of their last 13 games — a record of 7-3-3 and total of 17 points — it is another test in a week where they have proven they are starting to have the making of a competitive team with some spirit to their game.
Kevin Durso is managing editor for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.
