It’s been exactly seven weeks since the Flyers decided to start playing like one of the best teams in hockey.

Frankly, it’s a shame it didn’t start clicking a little bit sooner.

The Flyers followed up their dramatic come-from-behind win in the rain over Pittsburgh in the Stadium Series game at the Linc last Saturday with a pretty thorough 5-2 beating of the Buffalo Sabres Tuesday.

The win allowed the Flyers to leapfrog the stumbling Sabres in the standings into 10th place in the Eastern Conference. It’s been a methodical climb for the Flyers from the basement of the league into pseudo-contention, but the problem is, no matter how well they are playing, they need help from around the conference, and they certainly didn’t get any Tuesday, as despite the win and teams jockeying for position, the Flyers woke up Wednesday still seven points out of a playoff spot with 19 games to go.

There are a good number of positives to talk about from the game, and we’ll get to them after the jump, but the first thing to look at is this playoff push and if the Flyers can, in fact, become only the second team in NHL history to overcome a 16-point deficit in the playoff race to actually earn a spot in the postseason.

I know I’ve outlined the difficulty in this space before, but I want to take it a step further today, because if it does happen, it truly will be amazing considering the circumstances, the schedule and the perfect alignment of planets that would be necessary to make it happen.

1. One of the Best Teams in Hockey

First, I would be remiss if I didn’t point this out:

MOST POINTS IN THE NHL SINCE JANUARY 9TH:

  1. St. Louis Blues 17-3-2, 36 points
  2. Tampa Bay Lightning 15-3-2, 32 points
  3. Philadelphia Flyers 15-4-1, 31 points

That makes only three teams in the league who have posted at least 30 points in the past seven weeks.

Tampa has been doing it all season, so we can take them out of the equation for a second. They haven’t just been a hot team for seven weeks. Their record prior to this 15-3-2 stretch was 33-8-2. So, yeah, they’re good.

But the Blues and Flyers were both wallowing at the bottom of the league standings on Jan. 9. It looked like a lost season for both clubs.

Amazingly, they both became relevant in an effort to save their seasons after coaching changes.

Our old friend (maybe I don’t speak for the fans, as they were never fond of him as a coach) Craig Berube has been the interim guy behind the bench for the Blues and overseen their turnaround.

The difference between the Blues and the Flyers though, aside from the four more points the Blues have accumulated in the targeted time frame, is that they were only seven points out of a playoff spot on Jan. 9 in a far more balanced, and maybe even weaker, Western Conference. As such, they were more able to flip the script over the past seven weeks to not only make up the seven-point deficit, but to also climb into third place in their division and now sit a comfortable eight points ahead of the first team that would miss the playoffs out West (currently Colorado, although that’s an ever-rotating position with five teams within six points of each other).

As for the Flyers, the East is more top heavy than the West, with Tampa, Boston, Toronto, the surprise New York Islanders and Washington separating themselves from everyone else.

In the middle you have the aging Penguins, who are a bit of a shell of their former selves, the upstart Carolina Hurricanes and Montreal Canadiens, the enigma that is the Columbus Blue Jackets, and now the Flyers.

Buffalo was once in that group, but they’re in free fall, going 6-12-2 in the same seven week span we’ve been talking about, while the bottom of the conference (Florida, Detroit, Ottawa, New Jersey and the New York Rangers) were never really in the conversation.

That’s what’s made it harder for the Flyers – who have been Tampa-level good for a quarter of the season, but only able to trim their deficit from 15 points to seven – half of what St. Louis has been able to do in the same span.

Because the East has such a disparity between the haves and the have-nots, it’s harder to overcome a points gap, never mind the chasm the Flyers created for themselves earlier in the season.

But, they still believe they can pull this off, however it would be a mighty feat with very little margin for error, not to mention it would have to come in part by beating a lot of really good teams.

The Flyers have 19 games remaining, and although 11 of those 19 are on the road, that’s not even the biggest challenge. No, of the Flyers final 19 games, 15 come against teams either ahead of them in the East or currently holding playoff spots in the West.

That’s brutal. There aren’t many layups.

Conversely, in this 15-4-1 run they’re on, Nine of their 20 opponents are behind them in the standings, which is far more balanced.

Instead, the Flyers have three more games each with the Islanders and Capitals, who are tied atop the Metropolitan Division, two more with a nearly as hot Carolina team (14-6-1 since Jan. 9), two with Toronto and single games with Columbus, Pittsburgh, Montreal, Dallas and St. Louis and of those five, only the Canadiens come to Wells Fargo Center.

It’s an absolute gauntlet for the Flyers.

Yes, they can only take one at a time, and reassess after each game after seeing what happens elsewhere in the conference, but the odds at this point seem longer than they have since this streak began.

Sorry to sound negative, especially in light of such a good win over the Sabres, but I’m trying to save you from investing too much emotionally in what still remains a very long shot.

But, about that good win…

2. The Piano Man

Oskar Lindblom refused to explain why Nolan Patrick called him the Piano Man on the ice while mic’d up during the outdoor game, playing dumb about why the nickname exists.

It’s likely some embarrassing story, or at the very least something that’s not meant for public discussion, and that’s fine. There are so many hockey nicknames and stories that don’t ever make it out in public – and for good reason.

But there is one thing for sure, Lindblom has been playing hockey like a virtuoso pianist lately.

Everyone is starting to take notice because he has seven goals in the last 14 games, including one against Buffalo:

Lindblom is going to be looked to by the team to do some of the things Wayne Simmonds used to do offensively, and playing with Sean Couturier and Jake Voracek is certainly going to create more opportunities for him to get points, so there’s that too.

But what’s really impressive about Lindblom is everything else. It’s his puck possession. It’s his willingness to win battles on the wall, even against guys bigger and stronger than him. It’s his attention to detail when checking – either forechecking and creating turnovers or backchecking and breaking up plays – that is really impressive.

Here’s coach Scott Gordon:

“He has a great ability, when he gets possession of the puck, especially in the offensive zone along the boards, to keep it in tight and to come off of a hit or a check… with the puck and move his feet. And, when there’s secondary pressure, he feels it and gets away from it, and protects [the puck] and is able to make plays in tight places probably as good as anybody on our team. When the puck gets in your feet, some guys need to get a full extension of their arms to make a play, and he doesn’t. If you watch him closely, the plays that he’s making, the puck is never more than a few inches away from his feet.”

While it’s easy to get excited about Lindblom because of his recent play, I would caution not to suddenly expect him to be a top line caliber guy long-term. He fits the role he’s playing nicely right now. I always thought he would amount to a really good third line player, but he’s showing he might have a little more than that.

Ultimately, if he becomes a long-term second line winger, playing like he’s playing right now, that’s a boon for the Flyers, especially for a fifth round draft pick. But if he eventually settles back into a reliable third line role as, say, your eighth forward, that’s a good thing too.

Let’s just enjoy the way he’s playing and not elevate him to unnecessary expectations – at least not too soon.

3. Deuce

When the Nashville Predators traded for Ryan Hartman at last season’s deadline, they still had Scott Hartnell on the team.

Always known as Hartsy, Hartman couldn’t have that nickname for the Predators with Hartnell already there. So, Hartnell told him he would be known as “Deuce” since he was the second Hartsy. The nickname stuck, even into this season after Hartnell retired.

Traded to the Flyers, he didn’t think the nickname would have to be traded too. But it was. That’s because Carter Hart is the new “Hartsy” in Philadelphia. So Hartman is No. 2 again.

Nicknames aside, Hartman, who was acquired as part of the Wayne Simmonds trade, made a hell of a first impression on his first shift as a Flyer:

It wasn’t just that. He tangled with Jake McCabe later in the game and joked about it afterwards since the two work out together in the offseason. He blocked a shot, made a nice play on what would be James van Riemsdyk’s game-winning goal and created a couple other scoring chances both for himself and his teammates during his time on the ice.

I think Flyers fans will learn in time that this was a decent addition in exchange for Simmonds. He’s a player whose style will go over well in Philly because he plays hard-nosed, but has some skill to go along with it.

4. Phil Myers

No nicknames to talk about here, just a defensive prospect who is ready to prove he belongs at the NHL level as part of the regular six and not just in a scheme that will have seven defensemen in the lineup.

Myers has played really well so far, and picked up his first NHL point against Buffalo with a secondary assist on Jake Voracek’s goal. (He actually didn’t deserve it as Sean Couturier touched the puck before Voracek scored, but I’m sure Coots won’t say anything and pass up another point to give Myers his first point in the NHL).

He had a solid game against Buffalo, probably the best of the four he’s played.

With Andrew MacDonald getting just under nine minutes of ice time, and Myers getting a regular shift with the lead in the third period, I expect he passed the coaches’ test and will be a regular part of the lineup moving forward.

Right now, MacDonald looks to be No. 7 on the depth chart, and deservedly so.

Here’s Gordon again:

“I felt once Phil got into the lineup that he was going to show that he belonged. When Robert Hagg made the team out of training camp (last season), he was ready in November of the previous season. It never happened. They had eight D here. They always managed to stay healthy and there was no need for a call-up. Having the experience of coaching some of these guys down there, you can tell when all of a sudden, the game gets easy for them in the American League, and that’s kind of where Phil was. When you get into those situations where the players are starting to dominate the level of the game that they play, now it just becomes a matter of them being able to adjust to the speed and the strength of the players up here and you can only do that by being here. So, an important part of Phil’s development was him being here and practicing. It was ten days, and then just getting eight minutes in his first game. I think that’s part of the process. He’s stepped in and his last three games, he’s played really well.”

5. Moose

Brian Elliott was asked if he feels how he felt back before the surgery now that he’s played in four straight games for the Flyers.

“Nope,” he said. “I feel like I’m at where I am and that’s a philosophical answer for you.”

Don’t dwell on it too long. It’s not Confucianism. He basically means he’s well enough to play, even if he still doesn’t feel right.

Not bad for a guy who made 34 saves though, right?

A lot of people have been asking, why are the Flyers leaning on Elliott, even if he’s not 100 percent, when they traded Anthony Stolarz for Cam Talbot two weeks ago and Talbot still hasn’t seen any action.

It’s a fair question, but here’s the answer:

While the Flyers feel they are still in the playoff race and Hart is sidelined with an ankle injury, they feel Elliott gives them a better chance to make up the ground necessary than Talbot does.

I know, I know, the next question is, then why did they trade for him?

The answer:

Because long-term they value Talbot’s health more than Elliott’s and although Elliott may be a slightly better goalie right now, next year, Talbot provides more health confidence as a backup to Hart than Elliott would, which is why Talbot will likely be signed and Elliott will be let go as an unrestricted free agent.

However, I do expect Talbot to get his first start, and have the Flyers set a record for most goalies to play in a season, Friday in New Jersey. But look for Elliott to get the call once again Thursday in Columbus.