When the Flyers last met the New York Rangers on Oct. 24, they turned in their best effort of the season and managed to best the Rangers in a shootout by a 3-2 final.
That pulled their record to 4-2-1 through seven games of the season. Things turned south in a hurry from there.
But after their latest win, a 3-0 shutout win at Madison Square Garden in an effort that quite possibly bests the one in October's shootout win, perhaps the Flyers are gaining the momentum back.
In four games this week, the Flyers have taken a 6-9-5 record and improved to 9-10-5, earning six out of a possible eight points. Not a bad way to close out a November to forget.
What made this game so good for the Flyers was the ability to overcome adversity and string together one solid shift after another defensively.
It was an adventurous first period. The Rangers fired 10 shots on net. They helped limit the Flyers to three defensemen at one time.
Nick Schultz left with an injury. Luke Schenn was given 17 penalty minutes defending the hit on Schultz — five for fighting, two for instigation and a 10-minute misconduct. Radko Gudas took an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty late in the first.
After 20 minutes, the Flyers were still locked in a scoreless tie with the Rangers.
So much of that first period was similar to the rest of the Flyers month. They were badly outshot, 10-4. They couldn't generate offense. They were on their heels on defense. Turnovers weren't helping the cause.
The final 40 minutes don't get much better. They outshot the Rangers, 30-14. They did not take any penalties. They generated chances, and capitalized twice. They defended as well as any team in the league, bottling up the neutral zone and taking away the front of the net.
The line of Sean Couturier, Wayne Simmonds and Matt Read was easily the best in the game, delivering one of the best performances of a single Flyers line this season. Simmonds had two goals, Couturier had the other goal and the line combined for 11 shots.
Shorthanded on the defensive end, the Flyers got workhorse performances from several defensemen. Michael Del Zotto not only had an assist in the game, but also finished plus-2 with 29:20 of ice time. Gudas had 25:23 of ice time. Evgeny Medvedev, in just his second game back from being a healthy scratch, played 25:52 while being a plus-1.
And Steve Mason finally got on the winning end of one of those shutouts. Mason, who had already posted one 60-minute scoreless effort that ended in a 1-0 overtime loss, and had two shutouts end in losses last season, made 24 saves to secure his first shutout of the season.
That is a playoff team.
The problem for the Flyers is that they have yet to sustain that type of play. If we're looking one month between games of that caliber for the Flyers, then they are too inconsistent to enter the playoff picture.
That said, consider this. The Flyers had just two wins in November entering this week. They doubled their win total and then some with strong play this week.
Now, the calendar will flip to December, where the Flyers will look to carry the momentum over to the remainder of the current road trip as they look to climb the standings as well.
It is going to take the effort the Flyers used on Saturday to do it, and it will require consistency. But in those moments, you see a team that is not only capable of defeating a team on the level of the Rangers — not once, but twice — but also capable of shutting down an offense with strong neutral-zone play and aggressive defense.
Playing that way consistently is not going to be easy, but if nothing else, the Flyers have proved they can do it. That is the real victory of this weekend. And that should build some momentum moving forward.
Kevin Durso is managing editor for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.
