Rather quietly, the Flyers have put together a nice stretch of games. They're going for a sweep of their West Coast road trip and have had to dig deep during a three-games in four-night stretch. They've won seven of their last 10 games and are not out of the playoff picture just yet.
Now, it's not going to be easy. Even with a 7-2-1 record in their last 10, they sit five points out of the division and six from a wild-card spot. And the teams in front of them are also playing well. But the Flyers know that they have to keep the pressure up despite what the other teams are doing.
"I think we just know where we're at. You know, we see the teams ahead of us winning. We know that there's, I mean...just play desperate. Know that if anything, those teams ahead of us, we just got to keep applying pressure. It's up to them. You know, if they keep winning games, good for them. But we're going to keep applying pressure and let them know that if they slip, we'll be right there." Travis Konecny said the team's momentum recently.
One of the teams ahead of them in the standings is the Columbus Blue Jackets. They've been the most impressive team in the last two months. They were in last place when they fired Dean Evason on Jan. 12. Since then, they have the best points percentage (.833) and are second for the most points (38) in the NHL, only trailing the Sabres.
One of the biggest changes they've made is the number of goals they've allowed per game. Columbus was 28th in the league, allowing 3.38 goals per game in January. Sitting at 3.19 currently isn't the most impressive, even though it's now 13th in the league. In that stretch of games since Bowness took over, their 2.57 goals against per game is third in the league, to only the Dallas Stars and Sabres.
Using the same sample size as the Blue Jackets, the Flyers are much further down the list. They've gone 11-10-4, a winning percentage of .520. The only team worse in the division was the New York Rangers. More importantly, almost every team ahead of them has posted a much better record.
They've allowed the ninth most goals per game and have scored the fourth fewest goals per game. Their power play and penalty kill continue to be amongst the worst in the league. They are dead last on the power play and eighth from the bottom on the penalty kill.
That's what makes this most recent set of games even more frustrating. The Flyers have gutted out some impressive wins when it has mattered most. But it goes to show that it takes more than a few weeks' worth of strong play to make a dent in the standings.
The Flyers will have to hope that some of the teams ahead of them start to feel the heat in the last few weeks of the season. And Philadelphia will need to keep up its strong play. Eight of their last 14 games are against teams ahead of them in the standings, including two matchups with the red-hot Blue Jackets. That's 16 points up for grabs that can play an important part in the Flyers' playoff hopes.
But the pressure isn't only on the team's ahead of them, it's squarely on the Flyers.