When the Flyers dropped an afternoon game to the Bruins in pretty lifeless fashion, the strong start to a crucial homestand seemed null and void. A loss like that showed the Flyers were not on the level of the teams they had to pass in the standings to recover for the playoffs.
On Monday, the Flyers delivered a performance that will at least temporarily silence the critics.
Behind five second-period goals, the Flyers delivered a dominant 7-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning at Wells Fargo Center.
"We're obviously not happy with the position we're in, but it was a good game," Mark Streit said. "There were still some parts I didn't like. We were a little casual at the end. We can't do that especially with the upcoming games. We're a good team if we play the right way."
"Power play was really good in the second period. That's the key," head coach Craig Berube said. "I think that we worked hard, drew some penalties and capitalized on them."
The Flyers scored three of the five second-period goals on the power play. Jake Voracek, Streit and Brayden Schenn had the power-play tallies while Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Michael Raffl scored at 5-on-5 in the second.
In the first, Chris VandeVelde and R.J. Umberger scored for the Flyers. It had been over three years since the Flyers had seven different goal scorers each with one goal – a 7-2 win in Ottawa on Oct. 18, 2011.
"Two goals are guys hitting the net with shots and tips and traffic like we talk about and some nice plays on the power play," Berube said.
But the Flyers created their chances from a solid defensive game. Tampa Bay finished the game with 24 shots.
"It started with our forecheck," Streit said. "The gameplan was to put pressure on their D and their forwards, not give them a lot of time and space. They're awful quick up front and so skilled so we did a pretty good job playing defensively."
"That's where it all starts for me," Berube said. "We defended really well and you have to defend against that team. They come with a lot of speed but I thought our defense did a good job, good gaps. Forward backchecked hard. We forced turnovers and actually caught them a few times."
The Lightning did control most of the third period, taking 13 of the 24 shots in the final 20 minutes. By that point, the Flyers had a 7-2 lead.
"I think that it's human nature to sit back a little bit," Berube said. "You sit back against that team and they come with speed. They're aggressive and they have a lot of skill out there. They had some chances."
Rob Zepp got the start for the Flyers, the second of his career, and didn't see a lot of action in the first two periods. He stopped 12 straight shots in the third after allowing three goals on the first 12 shots he faced.
"It was great. You get the first one out of your way," Zepp said. "When I got the call, it was a different feeling, a different level of preparedness.
"We stuck with it. They have a lot of offensive power and we hung with it until the end and I thought we did a really good job tonight."
"He moves well in net," Berube said. "He's got good structure."
This is only the beginning for the Flyers, who started a stretch of six games without Steve Mason, mainly against difficult opponents. The Flyers travel to face Washington on Wednesday, Buffalo on Saturday and in New York to face the Islanders on Monday. At home, they face Vancouver on Thursday and Pittsburgh next Tuesday.
The Flyers have talked about consistency. Defensively, the Flyers shut down the NHL's top-scoring team that entered the game with wins in seven of their last eight. The power play delivered three goals as well, a strong performance that the Flyers need to repeat.
Despite that, the penalty kill continued to struggle. Take away Tampa's lucky goal off a Flyers stick and both goals by the Lightning came on the power play.
"Some games you get a goal and get hot. I thought overall, the PP has been good," Streit said. "We want to stay consistent as a group especially on the stretch coming up."
Berube said on Saturday that the way the Flyers played would be good enough to win a lot of games. Monday was certainly the start.
When this team shows up, they can be very good. It just doesn't happen often enough. But on Monday, the Flyers were indeed the better team. It makes you wonder, if only they could have been more consistent.
Kevin Durso is managing editor for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.
