Three weeks ago, this would not have happened. In fact, we have hard evidence to back this up. The Flyers were gut-punched by the Islanders on Oct. 27 at the Wells Fargo Center and laid down. The end result was a barbarous 6-1 defeat that created social media angst among fans.
On Saturday afternoon, the Flyers' will was tested again. But this time, the outcome showed us just how far they've come since that depressing October Saturday three weeks ago. If there's such a thing as a character loss, the Flyers' 6-5 overtime defeat to the Lightning is the face of it (see observations).
This had the making of a story we've written before, one in which the Flyers face adversity on home ice and crumble. The Flyers were behind 5-1 in the third period after Tampa capitalized on a 5-on-3 power play for two goals in 51 seconds. Three weeks ago, that's game, set, match.
Instead, the Flyers rung off four goals in 6:04 to force OT. It's the ninth time in league history that a team erased a four-goal deficit in a game's final 10 minutes.
"We showed some good character," James van Riemsdyk said. "Any time you can get a point when you're down four goals in the third period, I'd say that's a pretty good thing. …
"You want to have good responses. We had some pretty good process-related stuff as far as carrying the play, but we're paid here and we're here to get results, so it's not good enough."
van Riemsdyk, in his second game back from a knee injury, was a major part of the Flyers' comeback. He snapped the team's 0-for-15 power-play drought in the second period with his first goal of the season and had assists on the goal that began the comeback and completed it.
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There is a lot to unpack after Saturday. The loss capped off a five-game homestand that began promising but ended leaving much more to be desired - 2-2-1. The Flyers have now lost three straight, tying their season-high losing streak that came after the Islanders loss on Oct. 27. The penalty kill had another merciless effort, allowing three more power-play goals. The Flyers have now allowed an NHL-worst 22 power-play goals and the PK ranks 30th at 68.6 percent.
Claude Giroux became just the fourth player in franchise history to reach 700 points with a two-assist game, which put his total up to 701 (see story). He also moved into a tie with Brian Propp for second all-time in team history with 480 helpers. The Flyers dominated just about every play-driving metric and outshot the Lightning, 45-26. Their power play awoke with three goals.
"It's hard. We want to take a lot of positives out of that," said Travis Konecny, who had his fourth career two-goal game. "It shows what we have in the locker room. It's just tough to look at it that way. (Head coach Dave Hakstol) comes in between the second and third and says we're actually playing a good game, it's just we got to get our bounces and stick together."
Stuck together they did, and if we want to take anything away from Saturday's OTL, it's that. That didn't happen three weeks ago.
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