So, the Flyers won last night, defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs in a shootout 5-4.

It allowed them to officially stave off elimination for at least one more night. Good for them. They didn’t have to bow out of the season in front of the home crowd. They gave the faithful a nice effort against a pretty good team. Good for the Flyers.

However, at this point, they would have to win their last five games, Montreal would have to lose their last five, with at least four of them coming in regulation, and Columbus would have to lose five-of-six with their lone win coming against Montreal tonight and then four of those five losses would have to come in regulation.

Or, if one of those teams doesn’t comply, Carolina would need to lose their last six games, all in regulation.

I know, I know, you know they aren’t going to make the playoffs. I just wanted to throw that out there for the Lloyd Christmases among you who will scream, “So you’re saying there is a chance?

Additionally, it’s not worth even diving into the breakdown of the game. Here’s all you need to know on that front:

  • Carter Hart won his first NHL shootout by not allowing a goal.
  • It was the first shootout all season for Toronto, which seems impossible, but it’s true.
  • Sean Couturier scored the lone shootout goal. He was 2-for-20 in his career before last night.
  • Couturier also scored his 32nd goal of the season, a career high.
  • The other goals for the Flyers were scored by Travis Konecny, Radko Gudas and Ryan Hartman.

That about covers it.

But, there were a few interesting things that occurred in and around the game that I do want to talk about as they will most likely have a greater impact on the team moving forward.

1. Cam Talbot

This certainly wasn’t the most interesting or noteworthy nugget from last night, but it was definitely the first one I noticed. After riding Brian Elliott in lieu of Talbot when Hart was hurt and then also relying on Elliott as the backup for Hart while the team was still in playoff contention, the Flyers dressed Talbot in place of Elliott for the first time against Toronto.

Talbot never saw the ice after warm-ups and did his good backup goalie duty and opened and closed the bench door for players going on and coming off the ice, but I definitely found it subtly interesting that Talbot is backing up Hart now that the Flyers are switching from contending mode to evaluation mode.

With the Flyers in need of a backup goalie for Hart next season, Talbot is more likely to be re-signed than Elliott (both are unrestricted free agents). The Flyers seem to think Elliott is a slightly better goalie than Talbot – as evidenced by him being part of the push for the playoffs while Talbot was often a healthy scratch, but the Flyers value Talbot’s durability more in the future, which is why he’ll likely be re-signed to a new contract before July 1 to be the Flyers backup.

For his part, Elliott has done all he can, except stay healthy. He’s had a significant injury in each of the past two seasons after being pretty durable throughout his career before that. He has come back and played through pain in both seasons and done a fine job.

His perseverance earned him the nomination from the Philadelphia chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association for the NHL’s Bill Masterton Memorial Award given annually to the player in the NHL who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.

Each city nominates one player and then a final vote among those 31 players is taken to determine the winner.

Three Flyers have won in the past Bobby Clarke (1972), Tim Kerr (1989) and Ian Laperriere (2011).

Anyway, Elliott is as sure as gone and may have played his last game as a Flyer already as I’m betting it’s Hart and Talbot the rest of the way.

2. Sam Morin

The long-awaited season debut of Flyers defensive prospect/project Sam Morin occurred against Toronto. He dressed for the game – his first NHL action in a year after a crushing knee injury. And even though he only played a short period of time – roughly eight minutes – he didn’t look bad.

A lot of fans want to see Morin as a defensive regular for this team moving forward. After all, the Flyers invested a lot of time and energy – and a high first round pick – on him back in 2013.

Morin, who was selected 11th overall in that draft, was always viewed as a long-term project with high upside, but the Flyers were hoping it wouldn’t take this long. Last night was only his sixth game at the NHL level.

That’s the second-fewest games played in the NHL of any of the first round picks from 2013. In fact, 56 players drafted in rounds 2-through-7 from that year have played more in the NHL than Morin.

Morin will turn 24 this summer and is under contract at a very affordable cap hit ($700,000) for two more seasons, so the Flyers can still be patient, but at some point, there has to be a concern that he just might not be cut out for the NHL game.

I know it’s hard to judge a guy based on six career games in the NHL, and it’s why I think he’ll be given one more shot to make this team as a bottom pair or seventh defenseman next season, but I don’t think there’s a long leash here.

Frankly, knowing the Flyers plan to be very aggressive this summer in changing the roster (more on that later) it wouldn’t surprise me if a rebuilding team would take a shot on Morin and the Flyers move him in a trade.

The Flyers are certainly going to be looking for one defenseman, maybe two, and how GM Chuck Fletcher feels about Morin will certainly play into that offseason plan.

For my money, Morin will never be more than a 6/7 defenseman at the NHL level. If the Flyers want to give him one last chance to prove otherwise, that’s fine, but expectations, at this point, are pretty low.

3. Travis Sanheim and Shayne Gostisbehere

Sanheim actually won the game for the Flyers in overtime with a goal that was waved off when referee Brian Pochmara said he blew the whistle before the puck crossed the goal line.

Um. He didn’t:

This is the old, “intent to blow the whistle” rule which is fine if he puts the whistle to his mouth and blows right away, but as you can see, he had the whistle in place for a couple seconds before actually blowing it. Pochmara blew this one. This should have ended the game.

But, that’s all irrelevant.

The point is, Sanheim had a really good game. This coming on the heels of him telling erstwhile Flyers.com writer and HockeyBuzz Flyers analyst Bill Meltzer in an interview earlier this week that he hasn’t been at his best in the last couple weeks but that he’s a more confident player than he’s been in the past and feels he can recover from it better now than he used to do.

Last night was case in point.

The most interesting development from last night was Sanheim took all of Shayne Gostisbehere’s usual shifts in the overtime 3-on-3.

Ghost didn’t see the ice at all.

Now, Ghost had a terrible game. He had a double turnover scenario which led to a goal for the Maple Leafs and although the first Toronto goal wasn’t really his fault but rather a lack of help from weak-side winger Ryan Hartman, at first glance it looked like Ghost could have done more, but didn’t.

Needless to say, Sanheim being asked to play in a spot where Gostisbehere used to flourish, is something of note.

I asked coach Scott Gordon about it after the game:

“It just worked out with the whistles and delays that [assistant coach Rick Wilson] only went pretty much with two defenseman the whole overtime. So, Provy and Travis and he actually had Phil Myers up a couple times, but he just kept going back to those two guys they were playing well. Travis just has a great ability to get up and down the ice, obviously he’s a skilled defenseman and open ice is for those types of players it’s a great opportunity.”

The most interesting part of that quote to me is that Myers would have been the third defenseman in the rotation. Gostisbehere was nowhere to be found.

I know I took a lot of grief for suggesting right before the trade deadline that the Flyers are ready to move on from Ghost, and I felt that unless they were overwhelmed with a deal at the deadline that it would most likely take place in the offseason.

I now believe that more than ever.

The writing is on the wall. Ghost is definitely fourth in the pecking order here as far as future behind Ivan Provorov, Sanheim and Myers. And it’s no secret that the Flyers want to go get another defenseman in the offseason either by trade or free agency.

Whispers are already starting to leak out that the Flyers might go after Erik Karlsson in free agency. I’m not sure of that fit, although he is a dynamic player when fully healthy, but there are other options on defense.

The Flyers could throw an offer sheet at Winnipeg’s Jacob Trouba as the Jets have a slew of RFA’s and have to decide where they want to spend their money (Patrick Laine is also an RFA, so it could get interesting in the Great White North).

I’ve also heard that the Flyers could try and swing a deal with Minnesota for Jared Spurgeon, who has one year left on his deal. That makes sense because Fletcher knows and likes Spurgeon a ton. Would you swap Ghost for Spurgeon? I would.

Anyway you slice it, the Flyers are going to actively be looking for an upgrade on defense and no matter who that upgrade is, it would push Ghost to a third pair role. Is Ghost the kind of player you want on a third pair? Especially if guys like Sanheim and potentially Karlsson could do the same things as Ghost if not better?

The answer is no.

Sanheim’s emergence has relegated Gostisbehere to the category of expendable – yet still valuable.

It’s really a good position for the Flyers to be in, to be honest.

The Flyers will pursue help at forward too. Probably third line center and a scoring winger. And I’m told they will be aggressive in this area too.

Could Travis Konecny be on the move in a trade? I wouldn’t do it because despite his faults, he brings a certain chutzpah to the team that is lacking elsewhere. But, I’d be lying to you if I said I hadn’t heard his name come up as well.

All told, watching the Flyers over these final five games, while the results might not matter, what happens can certainly provide a few clues as to the direction this team is headed in certain spots for the offseason.