There's still a pulse. However faint it may be, it's still there.
Through all their ups and downs and all their flaws, the Flyers are still alive in the hunt for the last wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
Entering Tuesday night's game against the visiting Ottawa Senators, the Flyers are six points behind the Boston Bruins for the final wild-card slot. The Bruins host the Nashville Predators on Tuesday. So if the Flyers win and the Bruins fall in regulation to the Preds, the Flyers would somehow, some way be just four points back.
The caveat is the Flyers still have three teams -- Carolina, the New York Islanders and Tampa Bay -- to jump to get right behind the Bruins.
"We're in a position where we know what we have to do," Steve Mason said following Tuesday's morning skate at the Wells Fargo Center. "We can't focus on what other teams are doing. We just have to go out there and play hockey and have fun and put forth a good effort. I feel like if we do that, we'll have a good chance at winning."
Points are obviously at a premium right now. And with the handful of teams to hurdle, the Flyers know they basically need every game left.
They feel the best way to get that tall task done is to focus game by game and not on the teams ahead of them in the standings, as difficult as that may be. They can't jump every team in one fell swoop.
NHL
But the Flyers do have some momentum coming into Tuesday's game after steamrolling the rival Penguins, 6-2, on Sunday night in Pittsburgh.
"We need to find a way," Claude Giroux said. "When we play Pittsburgh, we always have a little bit more motivation to win the game. We just need to find that same motivation.
"I think we need to look at the small picture and that picture is Ottawa tonight. We'll play Ottawa tonight and we'll worry about the other teams after.
"For us, it's about winning games. We've been playing some good hockey, but a couple times there, we just couldn't find ways to win. We go to Columbus and play a great game and a great 60 minutes and we can't find a way to get points."
One thing that would greatly help the Flyers' point-earning cause would be getting the power play out of the rut it's been in all month. The Flyers' man advantage has been mired in a miserable 3-for-44 slump and has just looked downright awful for stretches. There have been instances where opponents have had better shorthanded chances than the Flyers' power-play chances.
While the Ottawa team the Flyers host on Tuesday is fighting for the Atlantic Division crown, the Sens feature a middle-of-the-pack penalty kill (17th in the league at 80.6 percent) that could present the Flyers opportunities to take advantage of.
That's been easier said than done lately for the Flyers, although they did fire 10 power-play shots on net in three chances in Saturday's 1-0 loss in Columbus.
"We know we've had games where we've gone 1 for 7 or 1 for 8 and that happens sometimes," Jake Voracek said. "We've all played together for a long time. We just have to find a way to get the shots through."
"Our power play needs to get us some big goals," Giroux said. "We've had the same power play for a lot of years here and we've been successful. We've got to keep working on it.
"There's no confusion and there's no doubt in the way we want to be on the power play. When our power play is going, we get the chances that we want and we have all the tools that we want to have."
Lineup
Nick Cousins, who hasn't played in the last six games thanks to a suspected concussion suffered March 15 against the Penguins, took part in the morning skate but was not involved in line rushes. He'll sit again against the Sens. Dave Hakstol had no official update on Cousins' status, but did say it was good to see the 23-year-old forward back on the ice.
Sticking with his modus operandi after victories, Hakstol will not be making any lineup changes for the Flyers after Sunday's win in Pittsburgh.
Mason will start in net. He'll be opposed by Ottawa's Craig Anderson.
F: Matt Read-Claude Giroux-Jake Voracek
Jordan Weal-Valterri Filppula-Wayne Simmonds
Dale Weise-Sean Couturier-Brayden Schenn
Chris VandeVelde-Pierre-Edouard Bellemare-Travis Konecny
D: Ivan Provorov-Andrew MacDonald
Shayne Gostisbehere-Michael Del Zotto
Radko Gudas-Brandon Manning
G: Steve Mason
Michal Neuvirth