Five-year-old Hunter Weise stood right by his father Dale Weise's side during Friday afternoon's postgame interview.
Having a child hang around the team may not inspire a team to a complete 60-minute effort, but little Hunter had the look of a Flyers fan that had just seen a videotape of the Broad Street Bullies.
Weise's son had his face completely bandaged and taped up following reconstructive surgery on a broken nose and orbital bone when a heavy table fell on his face at the family's residence.
Until Wednesday's game in Buffalo, no Flyer had endured that much pain until Scott Laughton dropped the gloves with Buffalo's Johan Larsson at the end of one of the most uninspiring periods of hockey we've seen in a long, long time.
Four periods and less than 48 hours later, Travis Konecny engaged in the Flyers' second fight of the season when he took his fists to Ryan Strome, punishing the Rangers for a late hit against Sean Couturier. The Flyers appeared determined to leave the Rangers with a black eye on Black Friday. It was a side to the Flyers we haven't seen throughout the first 20 games of the season, but it wasn't just fighting.
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Every Flyers player was skating and competing from the moment the puck was dropped.
"Our guys went out and played their asses off," head coach Dave Hakstol said after the Flyers' 4-0 win Friday (see observations). "Not much different than the last three games we've played in this building. They (Rangers) have such good team speed that you've got to find a way to keep pressure on them."
It was the Flyers' commitment to playing a solid defensive structure, where all five players commit to winning puck battles and playing disruptive defensively. Offensively, the Flyers made life uncomfortable for Henrik Lundqvist, getting in his face and creating more traffic than you might see at a shopping mall on this day.
The Rangers' future Hall-of-Fame goaltender was forced to make a season-high 42 saves, some spectacular ones, just to keep his team within striking distance.
"He was unbelievable," Dale Weise said. "We peppered him with a lot of shots, a lot of traffic, rebounds, second and third chances. He was awesome and finally, I think he just ran out of steam with those last couple of goals."
If you've been questioning the Flyers' identity, asking yourself, "What exactly does a Dave Hakstol team look and play like?" Friday's game at the Wells Fargo Center should be the template.
A player like Scott Hartnell embodied what the Flyers once stood for - an irritating, in-your-face agitator who could also punish the opposition with his skill of scoring goals.
Now, the Flyers have someone similar in Hartnell's mode with Konecny, who completed his first Gordie Howe hat trick with two goals, an assist and a fight. Even though Konecny admitted afterward that "it was his first and probably last" Gordie Howe, more importantly, it signified what the Flyers are capable of when passion meets determination.
It's hard to say whether Friday's game was a band-aid approach as they stopped the bleeding of a four-game losing streak, or if it was three periods of enlightenment.
Saturday's game in Toronto may help answer that question more definitely.
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