They gained a point against the runner-up in the Stanley Cup Final.
Days later, they shut out the Cup champs.
In between, they were routed once, then came right back against the same club with a shutout at home.
Four games into the season, this looks like a very different Flyers club, after all.
A club that will compete evenly with the same energy on a nightly basis without dramatic mood swings.
It almost appears safe to say that the 7-1 loss in Florida was an aberration stacked up against available evidence before and after.
The personal family issue facing goalie Steve Mason likely played a major role in his unpreparedness during the opening minutes last Saturday in Florida, where he gave up four goals within the blink of an eye to start the game.
Now the challenge is surviving a five-day schedule break as the NHL, once again, stacks the front half of October, creating odd gaps in the second half.
The Flyers have won consecutive games on home ice. Last season, they began with three consecutive home losses, coming off a season-opening loss in Boston.
The Flyers' five points have them second in the Metropolitan Division and sixth overall in the Eastern Conference. This is their best start (2-1-1) after four games since 2011-12 (3-0-1).
The past three seasons, they were no higher than 12th overall in the East after four games.
“It’s huge, especially because we’re going on a five-day break," Jakub Voracek said following Wednesday’s 3-0 win over the Chicago Blackhawks.
“You don’t want to end up with a loss. I think again, we played a solid checking game when they had some scoring chances and we were good in the back of the net.
“One thing that we could do better is just a little bit of a better job in the third period. They came out flying, we knew it, we just have to do a little bit better of a job of keeping the puck on our sticks and we’ll be fine, but it’s a big win for us.”
History proves long breaks have not been kind to the Flyers. They lose whatever momentum they’ve built.
They won three straight last November at home, then had a five-day break. When the Flyers returned to the ice, they lost four in a row.
Long breaks create havoc with momentum and adrenaline flow.
“Control what we can control,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “We have known we have a couple of days off coming up here. I think the rest will be good for us.
“I think the practice time will be good for us. It’s nice to be able to go into that with some small success and feel good about the way that we are working and the things we are doing.”
What they are doing, players said, is trying to establish what their identity will be: tough, physical checking, strong goaltending and improved special teams play.
“We want to be a tough team to beat at home and I thought we did that,” said Sam Gagner, who scored his first goal as a Flyer on the power play against Chicago. “We’ve just got to keep that going.”
The Flyers simply dominated on their power plays in the preseason but have not impressed four games into the regular season with just three goals in 16 chances (18.8 percent). Joey Mullen’s units are consistently top-five in the NHL. They’re currently 19th.
“I think we have to do a better job of creating chances,” Claude Giroux said. “We’ve been together for a long time, so we’ll be looking at videos and trying to create more chances.”
Ian Laperriere’s penalty-kill units have rebounded nicely from a poor start in which they gave up four goals in their opening two games (see story). Those units file in at 15th (81 percent), a sizable improvement over last weekend’s 29th ranking.
Twelve straight kills led to that advancement in the rankings.
Goalie Michal Neuvirth has two shutouts, tied with San Jose’s Martin Jones for the league lead. Incredibly, Neuvirth’s 1.04 goals-against average is not among the top 10 while his .964 save percentage comes in at ninth overall.
Neuvirth has a shutout streak of 173.14, about six minutes less than Jones, who leads the NHL.
“I just feel the more I play, the better I feel and the more confident I get,” Neuvirth said. “Coming to the game I come to relax and tell myself it’s just for fun. Trust myself. I feel good.”
Goalies sometimes feel when they are in a zone, everything in front of them slows down, regardless of how it actually is on the ice. In other words, the puck looks like it’s as big as a beach ball.
Neuvirth says some of that credit goes to goalie coach Kim Dillabaugh.
“I feel like I’m reading the plays well,” Neuvirth said. “Kim and I worked on it in training camp and I feel like it’s paying off right now.”
A lot is paying off well for the Flyers right now.