With 17:45 remaining in the third period, Josh Anderson took a wide shot that ricocheted off the board behind the Flyers’ net and deposited it past the outstretched glove of a sprawling Brian Elliott to put the Columbus Blue Jackets up 4-2 in the teams’ first matchup of the season. It looked like it would be more of the same for the Orange & Black, who came into Saturday night’s game having dropped all four matchup a year ago and an even more woeful 5-11-8 record against Columbus dating back to December 21, 2013.

It would’ve been understandable if Anderson’s goal shut down any hope of a Flyers comeback and to be quite honest, last year’s team may have very well turned off the effort when they fell behind 3-2. But this isn’t your 2018-19 Flyers. This isn’t your 2017-18 Flyers. Heck, this isn’t the past six years’ Flyers. This is a confident bunch that entered Saturday night’s game outshooting, out-chancing, and outworking the opposition game-in and game-out.

When I went back to rewatch the third period this morning, my wife looked at the score with just over nine minutes remaining and uttered, “I thought you said they blew out Columbus.” With both teams skating 4-on-4, captain Claude Giroux whipped the puck to Shayne Gostisbehere, who waited in the slot an absolutely buried a one-timer past Joonas Korpisalo for the team’s third goal of the game and Ghost’s first of the season:

 

With just under seven and a half minutes remaining, the offensive zone face-off worked its way to the blue line, where it was swung to Jake Voracek, then to defenseman Ivan Provorov, who got the puck into the left circle, unleashed the puck with all of his might, and pinged it off James van Riemsdyk, who was credited with his second tally of the evening to tie the game at 4:

Then it happened. The team’s biggest offseason signing Kevin Hayes -who has been nothing short of a fantastic all-situations player for this team thus far- forced a turnover inside his blue line, outskated Columbus down the ice, and capped of an excellent breakaway with what wound up being the game-winning goal:

Hayes has been everything the Flyers could’ve hoped for to this point. Major kudos to him for not only not buckling under the pressure, but excelling in the spotlight.

Michael Raffl netted the team’s sixth goal:

While lightning rod Travis Konec-ted to ice the game and put the Flyers up 7-4:

Despite signing late this offseason, Konecny has been an absolute stud for the Orange & Black. We talked about the need for TK and other young players like Oskar Lindblom to take the next step in their development to make the Flyers a contender. Konecny is already up to a team-leading twelve points (5G/7A), while Lindblom finds himself in a three-way-tie for second in scoring seven points (5G/2A). Both players’ five goals also lead the team. Add a scorching-hot James van Riemsdyk, who’s put up three goals and two assists overt the last two games, and it’s easy to see why fans have bought back into this squad.

The Flyers have a jam-packed week ahead on the road with a game tonight in New York against the Islanders, a Tuesday night tilt in Pittsburgh, and a back-to-back starting Friday night in New Jersey and before finally returning home for a Saturday night date with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

For more Flyers coverage, check out Snow The Goalie Radio Mondays from 5-6PM on 610 ESPN Philadelphia and subscribe to Snow The Goalie: A Flyers Podcast, available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, GooglePlay, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, and wherever else you get your podcasts. Also be sure to tune into The Press Row Show as Anthony and Russ live stream during pregame and the first and second intermission breaks of every Flyers home game live from press row of the Wells Fargo Center via the Crossing Broad Facebook page and Twitter.

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