PHILADELPHIA – Everyone knows the whole “what came first, the chicken or the egg?” analogy.
For the Flyers, there was a similar discussion going on as to what caused the team’s sudden “infusion of energy,” as head coach Dave Hakstol put it, in the third period of the comeback win over the Sabres on Tuesday: Travis Konecny’s goal or the hit on Jake Voracek?
Ask Konecny and he’ll tell you it was “the hit on Jakey.”
Ask Brayden Schenn or Steve Mason and they’ll point towards the rookie’s goal as the reason for the crowd and the team’s sudden jolt.
What caused what doesn’t really matter. This will be a game these players look back on the rest of a way as a reference point whenever they fall behind. A 3-0 hole isn’t easy to overcome, especially in the final 20 minutes, needing two goals in the final four minutes to tie.
But Tuesday night was the second time this season the Flyers have scored at least three goals in a third period. They’ve also shown a tendency to score in bunches, doing so in the most opportune time last night.
All of this coming after looking a bit tired through the opening two periods on the heels of a back-to-back.
“There’s a never-quit attitude in this room,” said Steve Mason. “We showed in Chicago – we were just talking about that. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to close that one out. But, guys have a belief that you get one and it comes.”
“Like I said we were down so many times this season we came back a lot of times,” Voracek added. “So that’s a big character of this group.”
That’s been a staple of this group since the late second half push last season. Remember when Wayne Simmonds said “it’s a never say die attitude over here?”
That has gone on to define this team, so much so that head coach Dave Hakstol has reached a point where he doesn’t even have to say anything to the players in between intermissions.
“It’s their locker room and those guys do a really good job inside that locker room of saying the right things,” Hakstol said. “They do not need a whole lot said from us.”
Being able to fend off adversity is a sign of a strong team, but at the same time, it also is a result of some flaws. In this case, it’s the slow starts that the Flyers continue to get out to.
“We know we are a better team than this,” said Claude Giroux. “I think our hard work and work ethic got us back in this game, and emotionally the fans being behind us. It was a fun third period.”
Giroux offered his advice on how the team can avoid these situations as frequently.
“We need to be aggressive and instead of not wanting to lose we need to go out and want to win.”
The Flyers will try to carry that mentality over into Thursday’s game with Arizona. At the very least, they’ll always know that no deficit is too much to overcome, and that’s something to be proud of, right?
