It was April 17, the day after the Philadelphia Flyers’ concluded their 2023-24 late-season collapse. Travis Konecny sat at a podium in the media room at the team’s training facility, his locker stall one floor below recently cleared of personal effects in preparation for the summer break ahead.
Hard lessons were learned during the final few weeks in which the Flyers fumbled away what seemed to be a sure playoff spot, according to their leading scorer.
One stood out.
“Going into next year,” Konecny said, “maybe it makes you realize that a nothing game on a Tuesday, random city — that game matters. It’s a good mindset for a team to have.”
Whether Konecny considers Columbus, Ohio “random” enough isn’t clear, but regardless, the first Flyers-Blue Jackets meeting of the 2024-25 season at Nationwide Arena was, in fact, on a Tuesday. And it was Konecny leading the way in the Flyers’ 5-3 win in which they controlled play for the duration, potting a power-play goal in the second period and another more important marker late in the middle frame that essentially quashed any chances that the Blue Jackets would rally.
Joel Farabee with the pass, Travis Konecny with the finish. 😍
The @NHLFlyers came to play tonight. pic.twitter.com/sAQY3rwn1G
— NHL (@NHL) December 11, 2024
It was arguably the Flyers’ most important win of the season. In danger of squandering the good things they’ve done since turning around their season about a month ago, with losses in three straight coming in — including two in which they blew third-period leads — Tuesday’s game against what should still be considered a lesser opponent was one of those that teams that consider themselves playoff caliber find a way to get.
It’s becoming evident lately, too, that the Flyers could quite easily remain in the playoff race again. Their win, coupled with regulation losses by the Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Islanders on Tuesday along with the recent failings of the New York Rangers has them back in a playoff spot for the time being. Obviously there will be plenty of jockeying for position as the season moves along, but it already seems as if, like last season, there’s a whole bunch of mediocrity in the Eastern Conference after the top-tier teams.
“I think it’s still a little early to look at standings and movement and stuff, but obviously you know when the big games are, when you play in your conference and division,” Owen Tippett, who scored again on Tuesday and has five goals in his last five games, said last week. “Those are the points that matter coming down to the end.”
As Tippett can probably recall the Flyers failed in their most important games against rival clubs last season, as they managed just a 10-11-5 mark against fellow Metropolitan Division teams and a 19-24-7 record against the Eastern Conference as a whole.
To be fair to the Blue Jackets, they were playing their first home game just two days after a lengthy five-game road trip that included three games in western Canada, and John Tortorella even mentioned after the game that the Flyers probably “caught them at the wrong time.” Still, the Flyers had to take advantage of that, and they did courtesy of Tyson Foerster, who made a power move before getting a shot on net that Noah Cates cleaned up in front 4:37 into the first period. Tippett added to it with his goal midway through the opening frame before Konecny’s first score upped the lead to 3-0 about six minutes into the second period.
And while the quality of competition against the jet-lagged Blue Jackets has to be considered, there were still a ton of positives for the Flyers.
• Jamie Drysdale, for the second straight game since returning from an upper-body injury, was all over the ice. He ended up with the Flyers’ best shot-attempt share (69.7 percent) and was a +3. He had the primary assist on Tippett’s goal.
• Matvei Michkov upped his point streak to five games with a pair of assists, and now has 27 points (11 goals, 16 assists) in his first 27 career games. His star keeps getting brighter.
• Line combinations have remained steady. Michkov’s chemistry with Tippett seems to be growing every game, and his pass to Morgan Frost on the Flyers’ fifth goal in which he floated the puck through traffic to Frost’s stick just in front of the blue paint was a highlight. But every line contributed.
• And then there was Nick Seeler, outweighed by 29 pounds to Mathieu Olivier but challenging him to a second-period fight anyway after Olivier ran a hit on rookie defenseman Emil Andrae a few minutes earlier. It was another prime example of the Flyers’ culture coming to the surface when the game was still far from decided.
There are further tests on the horizon with other teams that, like the Flyers, are trying to find their footing and show they belong. The Flyers are in a vital stretch now before the Christmas break, seeing the Blue Jackets again on Dec. 21, as well as a pair of games against the Detroit Red Wings sandwiched in between, including Thursday at Wells Fargo Center.
Perhaps if they keep in mind that the points on the line now are as important as those in April, they’ll match Tuesday’s effort on a more consistent basis and be in a more comfortable position than they were late last season.
“If we can stay consistent and continue to build our game,” Tippett said, “we’ll be in a good spot at the end of the year.”
(Photo: Russell LaBounty / Imagn Images)
