The last time the Flyers won a playoff series, Kyle was actually still writing this blog from his parents’ basement. (I think.)

The last time the Flyers won a playoff series, boy bands were a thing again. (And just like people of my generation flocked to see the NKOTB reunion tour as 40-somethings, which is embarrassing, my kids will likely do the same for One Direction). 

The last time the Flyers won a playoff series, there were sugar rush fads that quickly faded like Linsanity in New York, Mommy Porn with the release of Fifty Shades of Gray, and everyone was learning how to do the Gangnam Style. (Not to mention us Star Wars geeks felt a great disturbance in the force, which eventually was Disney buying Lucasfilm and leading to the eventual ruination of the franchise. Am I bitter? Maybe.)

The last time the Flyers won a playoff series, I still worked for Delaware County Daily Times. (and although that was four jobs ago, people still tell me they read me there… gotta love Delco, baby).

The last time the Flyers won a playoff series, Carly Rae Jepsen gave us the song of the summer, and everyone was making You Tube videos to Call Me Maybe that were going viral. (But none more popular than the Harvard Baseball team:)


So yeah, it’s been awhile.

But Flyers fans can now put 2012 in in moth balls. Yeah they’ll still fondly remember Claude Giroux’s opening shift in the playoffs against the Penguins – because it was iconic in that he buried Sidney Crosby with a hit and then scored a goal in front of the home crowd, but we no longer have to talk about that as a reference point.

Since then the Flyers have been through three general managers, four coaches, and a lot of bad hockey.

But after dispatching the gutsy and annoying Montreal Canadiens in Game 6 yesterday by a 3-2 score, the last time the Flyers won a playoff series is officially one day ago, so restart your counting clocks.

Look, it wasn’t a pretty Game 6. The Flyers got out to a great start, succumbed to a barrage of pressure from the Canadiens for a period-and-a-half and then presented a 20-minute masterclass on team defense in the third period to win the game.

The Flyers scored just 11 goals in the six games. They yielded 13. Montreal seemed to constantly have the puck, and that shouldn’t surprise as they were widely considered one of the best puck possession teams in the NHL all season, even if they probably weren’t going to make the playoffs before the pandemic hit.

Fans were getting panicky. Giroux, Sean Couturier, Travis Konecny, and James van Riemsdyk, were four of five players who scored at least 19 goals in the regular season for the Flyers, and they accounted for zero goals against the Habs.

Kevin Hayes was on that list too, until he netted his first goal in Game 6.

The power play was mighty awful in the series, with the exception of a three-goal outburst in Game 5, it never looked right.

Fans were freaking out about depth players getting so much ice time. They wanted Ivan Provorov off  the top power play unit. They wanted the captaincy stripped from Giroux.

These same complaints will likely return after the Flyers lose a game in the next round to the New York Islanders (and folks, they will lose at least one, prepare yourself from now), but until that series kicks off on Monday, feel free to bathe in the glory of a playoff series victory.

Here’s what we learned:

1. The Flyers know how to protect a lead

In the nine games the Flyers have played since hockey resumed earlier this month, the Flyers are 7-2. When they scored first, they are 7-0. When they let up the first goal, they are 0-2.

That’s not to say the Flyers can’t overcome a deficit, we just really haven’t had a chance to see that version of the Flyers yet.

The two losses against Montreal were a sleepwalking effort in Game 2 in which they were blanked 5-0. And in Game 5 where they overcame two deficits, once taking the lead and once tying the score, but gave up an empty-netter before they could find an equalizer for the third time.

But the greater evidence is how the Flyers can take a lead, and squeeze you like a python, preventing you from coming back.

The Canadiens tried mightily in Game 6, twice getting within one on goals by chief head-tapper Nick Suzuki.

(We made a lot out of that head-tapping incident, maybe too much as it truly was innocent, but the Flyers still got the last laugh there courtesy of Derek Grant.) 

But, they couldn’t find a way to get through the Flyers smothering defense, especially in the third period, a period the Flyers actually dominated throughout the series, even if some numbers may indicate otherwise.

“I think our best periods have been in the third,” said coach Alain Vigneault. “I found sort of a blueprint to do a good job of shutting teams down. It paid off for us tonight.”

The coach gave himself a little pat on the back there, but it’s well-deserved. Vigneault definitely out-coached Montreal associate head coach Kirk Muller, who filled in valiantly for Claude Julien who had to undergo heart surgery following the Game 1 loss to the Flyers.

“It was a hard fought series,” Vigneault said. “Montreal is a hardworking team, a quick team. They had their D’s way more involved in our series than in what we had seen in against Pittsburgh. Their goaltender gave them a chance every game and it was real tough at forechecking because of his puckhandling. It was tough series. We found a way to win. That’s what the games about.”

Vigneault and the Flyers are going to keep that blueprint handy against an Islanders team who are better than the Canadiens, bigger than the Canadiens and play a style that matches the Flyers, lead by a coach in Barry Trotz who is as much a tactician as Vigneault – which is one of the reasons the Islanders were able to defeat the Flyers in all three matchups during the regular season.

2. Kevin Hayes has earned every dollar of his contract this season

Hayes can be a total bust for the remaining years of his deal with the Flyers and this signing will still be viewed as a good one.

We’ve been over it a bunch, discussing what he means to the locker room and how his play, after a sluggish start to the season last October/November, was among the best on the team.

In these playoffs, he was the Flyers best player in Game 4, was second only to Jake Voracek in Game 5 and was again the best player throughout Game 6.

He finally was able to get on the board as well with this goal:

https://twitter.com/UNBSportsCanada/status/1296952560297947137

That’s a great pass from Grant, who had his best game of the series, head pat retribution aside, playing a fourth line role, but the thing about Hayes is he is always so patient with the puck on his stick, and it was no different here, as he was able to bank the shot off the inside of Carey Price’s pad as he was moving to his right, to get the goal.

Hayes as also excellent in his own end, won some key faceoffs, and when he had the puck, was hard to knock off it.

It’s hard to say a guy who scored one goal in six games could have been the MVP for the team in this series, but you could make an argument for Hayes, he was that good.

3. Provy Alone

With Matt Niskanen out of Game 6 due to a suspension for breaking Brendan Gallagher’s jaw, Ivan Provorov was without his tag-team partner for the first time in a long while.

It showed a little bit early, as Provy didn’t have the greatest opening period, despite scoring this goal:

(By the way, there’s Hayes winning another key faceoff.) 

Provorov’s goal came just 28 seconds into the game, which was huge, meaning the Flyers were playing from ahead for almost the entirety of the contest.

In fact, it was the seventh-fastest goal in Flyers playoff history:

But, aside from that, defensively he was a little off in the opening frame. He got better in the second period, especially on a play when he denied Suzuki’s stick when the pesky Habs’ forward had a chance for yet another goal in close.

And by the third period, Provorov was a beast. His play in the final frame was sensational. He led the defensive charge and prevented Montreal from generating any high-percentage chances whenever he was on the ice, which was often.

Provorov is another guy, along with Hayes, who could be in the conversation for MVP of the series.

4. Ghost sighting

Shayne Gostisbehere was re-inserted into the lineup in place of Niskanen, and he didn’t disappoint like he did the first two games of the series.

Gostisbehere had a mostly excellent game.

He had one turnover behind his own net in the first period that could have been problematic (turns out it wasn’t) but aside from that, this was the best Gostisbehere has looked in a long, long while.

Not only was he his usual dangerous self with the puck in the Canadiens end of the ice, he was solid defensively, and also showed a little bit of nasty with this hit on Suzuki:

Was it enough to keep him in the lineup for Game 1 of the Islanders series? Maybe. Just maybe.

5. Guess who was on the ice for the final shift of the game?

Despite all the moaning and groaning on Twitter and agenda-driven stories on other sites about his uselessness, Vigneault had the fourth line – with Nate Thompson, Derek Grant and Tyler Pitlick, on the ice to protect the one goal lead in the final 30 seconds of the game as the Canadiens had an extra attacker.

Pitlick iced the puck with about 10 seconds to go, but Thompson won the ensuing faceoff, as he often does, and then played keep away with the puck for about six seconds, practically negating the last gasp effort by Montreal all by himself.

Again – complain all you want. There’s a reason these guys get the ice time they get. Vigneault has complete faith in them, as this deployment indicates. And if the Flyers are to keep this playoff run going, they’re going to need them even more in the next series as there is the potential to play all seven games in the span of 11 days (two back-to-backs).

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