The Flyers are good. Really good.

In fact, they’re the hottest team in the city and yet they’ve barely broken into the media sphere which boasts the “4 for 4” vernacular we’ve grown accustomed to hearing. Not only is the team playing great hockey, they’re getting along really well off the ice. I know some people cast aside anything that comes remotely close to the human side of professional sports, but doing so would be a mistake. In my first season covering the Flyers, I focused more of my time observing the off-ice interactions of the team more than I did on the on-ice product. For the latter, I’d often pick the brains of those who’d forgotten more about the team and the in-and-outs of the sport at the professional level than I could learn in a short period of time. But last season, there was something so clear it couldn’t be ignored: the 2018-19 Flyers were a fractured locker room. The word “scared” was thrown around a bunch, as was a constant need to address the team’s confidence – or often lack thereof – in the way they were playing. Fast forward to December 2019 and that’s all gone. It shows.

This is a confident group of players. After Tuesday night’s 6-1 demolition of the Toronto Maple Leafs, center John Tavares said of the Orange and Black, “They’re obviously feeling pretty good about themselves so they have a lot of confidence, in the way they’re playing and how they’re trying to win hockey games.” Star center Auston Matthews effectively credited the Flyers for breaking the Leafs’ spirit and will to compete, saying, “We just folded, kind of just quit.” Hot damn.

This isn’t the Dave Hakstol Flyers we came to detest. This isn’t the squad that consistently left fans and media wondering why we make the trek down to Wells Fargo Center, spending hours – and in the case of fans, dollars (many of them) – on a subpar product that ultimately couldn’t hold up to the pressure of competition in the National Hockey League. But, what’s been the key?

After last Monday’s surprising regulation win over the Vancouver Canucks, Jake Voracek said, “I got the swagger back and that ‘f*ck you’ attitude I need to be successful.”  On Tuesday night, I followed up with a guy many view as the personification of that attitude, Travis Konecny, and asked him if that’s become a pervasive mentality in the dressing room:

We’re all in this together. It doesn’t matter where guys are: if guys are in the lineup, out of the lineup, we’re all supporting everything the coaching staff’s been doing. We have that attitude. We don’t care who we’re playing. We were playing a really good team tonight, we came in, we reset. We don’t care about how many games we’ve been winning, it’s all about the next game and giving our best effort every night.

It goes beyond that attitude as well. There’s a real sense of cohesion being felt by at least one guy who’s taken on a leadership role as an alternate captain despite it being his first season with the team. Kevin Hayes said that this iteration of the Flyers is as close as it might appear from the outside:

Everyone has a lot of faith in each other. This is probably the tightest team I’ve ever played with.

Hayes also spoke about how easy it is to follow the lead of captain Claude Giroux, who leads from in front of the group.

There’s another huge reason the team is humming along: goaltending. Last season’s embarrassment of a goaltending situation led to game after game of weak goals against and players lacking the belief that their netminder could get a stop on a breakaway or when a star player had a solid opportunity on net. Now we routinely see this:

https://twitter.com/leafsfannik/status/1202022434536333313?s=20

Carter Hart’s been absolutely brilliant this year, posting nine wins with a 2.35 goals against average and .910 save percentage. In fact, only five other goalies with at least 17 starts have put up a lower GAA. By the way, it’s not just Hart who’s found success. Brian Elliott, who entered last season as the starting goaltender, has settled in nicely as the backup/split-starter with Hart. In fourteen games, including eleven starts, Elliott’s compiled a 7-2-2 record with a 2.70 GAA and .916 SV%. Those are much-improved numbers over a season ago when he posted a 2.96 GAA and .907 SV% in 23 starts.

It’s amazing what a difference a year makes. A new coach preaching accountability, a veteran group cultivating a positive culture in the locker room, and a young group of humble, hungry players working to prove they belong has paid dividends. If you haven’t been watching, it’s time to start.

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