Although the Flyers missed out on a golden chance to jump into a playoff spot, they still had an extremely productive March. They posted a 10-4-1 record, sweeping their California road trip and winning two sets of back-to-backs.
At the start of March, the Flyers were 10 points out of the playoff picture in the division. They were mildly closer in the wild card race, sitting six points out. Fast forward to April and now the Flyers are three points out of the Metro and two points from the wild card. They have one to two games in hand on most of the teams currently in the playoffs. Yes, a win against Washington could've seen them in a playoff spot since multiple teams ahead of them lost on Tuesday.
That doesn't take away from the ground they've made up in the meantime, though. Their 10 wins were tied for the second most in March. Their 21 points were tied for fourth due to other teams earning more overtime points. All of this comes with the Flyers only having four regulation wins during the month. They had a league-leading four shootout victories.
The job isn't done yet, though, as they have eight games to go. And their schedule doesn't do them any favors.
Flyers can't let their foot off the gas in this final push for the playoffs
The biggest area that has vastly improved for the Flyers recently has been their goaltending. Dan Vladar has remained steady for most of the season, but Sam Ersson has stepped up his game at the most important time of year. Will it be enough to save his job? Time will tell. The Flyers are allowing slightly fewer shots toward their net, though not enough to matter truly. It's their goals against per game that have taken a dramatic drop.
Going month by month, their 2.53 GA/GP in March was by far their best stretch. That doesn't include February since they only played five games due to the Olympic break. That was tied with the Colorado Avalanche for second in the league. Only the St. Louis Blues (1.71) had a better month. And they did that with the ninth-worst goals scored per game (2.80).
They will need their offense to come alive even more, as three of their final five opponents were in the top five in scoring during March. The Flyers scored three or more goals in eight of their 15 games, not including their two shootout victories. They scored four goals in four of those games, winning three of those. So the offense has been there for the most part.
The Flyers had four players with double-digit points and only four who didn't register a point. Nick Seeler was the only regular during that time, though. The others were Garrett Wilson, Nic Deslauriers, and Porter Martone. They were led by Noah Cates in points (13) and Owen Tippett in goals (8). They will need more players to consistently get involved in scoring goals.
The one area the Flyers absolutely need to improve upon is something that has plagued them all season. Their league-worst power play did them no favors in March. While they weren't at the bottom, they still posted a 13.3 percent mark, good for 29th in the league. For those who like the actual numbers, that's six goals in 45 opportunities. That alone could be what keeps them out of the playoffs.
The Flyers have come this far after a dreadful January could've done them in. Now they just need to kick it even more into high gear, and they can break their five-year playoff drought. March was great for them. Now they need to have an even better April.