VOORHEES, N.J. — Monday’s all-important, measuring stick of a win over the Lightning was the one year anniversary from a game that ruined the Flyers’ 2014-15 campaign.
In the heat of a playoff race, the Flyers allowed the Boston Bruins to tie their March 7, 2015, matchup at TD Garden with 15 seconds left on the third-period clock before eventually beating the Flyers in overtime.
What followed was a poor stretch of play — a 1-4-3 record in the eight games that followed — to knock the Flyers out of playoff contention.
That loss, in a way, mirrored last Thursday’s 4-0 defeat on home ice at the hands of the lowly Edmonton Oilers. It wasn’t quite as similar given time and score and how close the Flyers were to earning two points, but it came during a crucial time of the year in the march toward the playoffs.
That the Flyers were able to follow it up with two of their best outings in wins over Columbus and the Lightning shows how far they’ve come in learning how to handle adversity.
“That stung last year, really deep,” Wayne Simmonds said. “I think we let it eat away at us after that. This year we’re just trying to be a little bit more composed, keep ourselves even-keeled. We’re trying not to get too high or get too low, just ride our wave right now. It’s working well for us.”
The Flyers — 7-2-1 in their last 10 games — got some help in their playoff quest Tuesday night, with both Pittsburgh and Detroit losing in regulation (see story). The Flyers entered Wednesday just two points back of the Red Wings for the last playoff spot and three back of the Penguins. The Flyers have a game in hand on each.
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If the six-game homestand that wrapped up Monday was crucial, so, too, will the next six games, all coming against teams slated to play past the regular season if the season ended Wednesday. It all starts this weekend with a back-to-back set with the Lightning and the Florida Panthers on Friday and Saturday.
“Throughout the year we’ve shown a lot of resiliency,” goalie Steve Mason said. “This is obviously going to be a great test for us going down for two really tough games. Last year we kind of let one game dictate the rest of the season for us. And we can’t let that happen.”
“We’re going to lose another game this year,” captain Claude Giroux said. “It’s how we’re going to respond to that.”
Last year, they responded to losing a big game by draining themselves mentally, never recovering in time to right the ship.
Credit to the turnaround — albeit not a complete one quite yet — can go to a number of different places, from the leadership group to the coaching from rookie coach Dave Hakstol.
Or, quite simply just learning from the past.
“I’ll be honest, I think our group has grown this year in terms of finding ways to win, fighting adversity and keeping our composure,” general manager Ron Hextall said. “There’s a lot of good signs other than the win-loss record that you kind of feel and you talk to the coaches and talk to the players.
“The old saying, ‘You’ve got to lose before you win,’ there’s something to it. It doesn’t mean it happens every time, but it is experience to draw from. It gives you something to talk about next time and don’t let it happen again. It’s no different than life … you go through certain experiences, you learn and get better.”