Michael Raffl accepted a pass at center ice in the first period of Tuesday’s game against Detroit, made a few quick strides up the left wing and saw daylight.
The 27-year-old shielded the puck from Red Wings defenseman Kyle Quincey and used his body to leave Quincey in the dust, as the Austrian went in on goal and …
“I just, I don’t know, blacked out,” Raffl said of the first of his two goals Tuesday. “I saw (Detroit goalie Petr Mrazek) go down and I knew he’s not going to be able to reach over there, so I just put it on my backhand.”
The goal gave the Flyers a much-needed first tally in a pivotal game against Detroit. And the blacking out is right in line with how Raffl’s teammate, Wayne Simmonds, describes Raffl’s play of late.
“He’s unconscious right now,” Simmonds said. “He’s unbelievable. He’s just skating down the wing and everything that’s hitting him is bouncing off of him. He’s doing a heck of a job, as is everyone else.”
Raffl would go on to score another goal in the second period. He corralled his own rebound out in front and put a backhand past Mrazek to put the Flyers ahead, 3-1, on their way to a 4-3 win.
Raffl, playing in his third NHL season, is up to four goals and seven points in the Flyers’ last five games, pushing his goal total to 12 on the year. The recent play is what Raffl showed for much of last season, when he scored 21 goals, while playing mostly on the top line.
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Earlier in the season, however, Raffl struggled to score goals. He had three different scoring droughts of at least 12 games.
Playing in a contract season started to get to him, Raffl admitted a few weeks back. His name — for whatever reason — was also the subject of trade rumors. So when general manager Ron Hextall agreed to a three-year extension with Raffl — one that carries a salary cap hit of $2.35 million through 2018-19 — he could finally relax and just play.
“You can never be comfortable in this league, but it helped,” Raffl said. “I was a little rattled about getting traded and stuff. I think it’s just normal and the monkey is off the back now. I feel pretty good.”
It’s showing.
While the Flyers have surged into the playoff picture, they’ve done so without having Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek — their two best offensive players — play in the same game since Feb. 19 in Montreal.
Still, they’ve gone 8-2-1 in the 11 games since, including 6-1-1 in the last eight, all without Voracek, who isn’t likely to return until Saturday against Pittsburgh. The Flyers have needed contributions from up and down the lineup.
The second line of Raffl, Sean Couturier and Sam Gagner — two players Raffl said have helped him feel confident — has flourished in recent games, accounting for six goals in the last five contests.
Tuesday night, all four lines and six defensemen contributed to the victory.
“I’ve been saying for a while, I think we have balance from everybody,” Giroux said. “Every night, somebody is stepping up.”
Tuesday night, when the Flyers needed it most, nobody stepped up more than Raffl.
“Raf’s played pretty good hockey here over the last couple of weeks,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “He’s just playing relaxed, playing hard. The play that he made on the first goal was just kind of classic power hockey…
“Classic Michael Raffl.”