The Flyers came into yesterday afternoon’s game riding high. They had closed out their road back-to-back, which marked their return from the Olympic break, with a massive overtime win over the Rangers on Thursday, and after a difficult run before the break, there was, doubtless, a feeling that their fortunes might be shifting, and this could be the win that helped springboard them into a more successful run down the stretch.
But even in that simmering optimism was a knowledge that yesterday’s matchup against the Bruins would be a much more difficult one — after all, the Rangers had already all but called their season over, and the Bruins, in contrast, are the team the Flyers are chasing for the a spot in the playoff picture. This game was require a bit more from them, and it was going to be important to rise to that challenge, and do it quickly.
But what played out for them yesterday on home ice was, in some ways, a difficult game. The Flyers were slow to get their own offense going, and while both sides had an equally quite quiet first period, the Bruins were really able to pick up steam in the second period, pouring on 16 shots to the Flyers’ three. This was a game that had plenty of opportunities to break open in the wrong way on the Flyers, and while ultimately it was them that were able to take advantage of a couple of good bounces and pull away on the scoresheet, it was goaltender Dan Vladar’s locked-in play that kept them above water in the meantime, and allowed them to get to that point in the first place.
Vladar’s performance was, in short, absolutely critical to the Flyers coming away with this win. It was both a solid and at times quite flashy showing, as he just narrowly missed recording a shutout, but still managed a very respectable 26 saves on 27 shots faced, on the way to his 18th win of the season. It was a huge effort for his team, and certainly one of his best outings of the season, to date.
“Yeah 100 percent,” Jamie Drysdale agreed in his postgame comments. “I mean you guys saw the saves he made throughout that game. You know, the shots were pretty low in the first two periods, but I think pretty much every one of their shots is a grade-A. So, you know, he’s been kicking great and big reason why why we came up with the win.”
It was certainly a huge showing for them in how he was able to put out some fires for them early on and really keep them in this game while the skaters worked to ramp up in front of him, and those skaters recognize that effort, but also how much he does outside of that to help boost his team.
“He’s the loudest guy in the room,” Drysdale said. “Yeah, majorly. You know, he does so much for us off the ice as well. In the locker room in between periods, he’s always talking, you know, just saying whatever’s on his mind and usually it’s awesome stuff coming out of his mouth. So, a real positive guy and he’s been real good for us.”
Vladar has been often lauded for his leadership abilities as this season has gone on and he’s continued to get comfortable with his new team, and just as much as he’s stepping up as a more tangible grounding piece for the team, he’s doing everything in his power to drag them into the fight with him. Some of that comes from his work to rally them in words, but it also comes from him playing so well that the team feels a particular motivation to raise their game to a high level in front of him, to battle for him as well as he’s battling for them.
“I mean, I think every game moving forward,” Drysdale concluded, “the mindset is that’s the most important game. We have to get, everyone knows, we have to get red hot and, you know, with him back kicking there and [Ersson] last game, two big performances and, you know, it’s just our job to play [well] in front of him at that point.”
Vladar’s been doing everything he can to get this team in a better position, and it’s hard to work to rally around that. He’s been doing it all season, and it’s been a tremendous boost to them. Head coach Rick Tocchet recognizes this as well.
“He’s just had a great year for us” he said after the game. “Another outstanding effort from him.”
In some ways, what more is there to say? Vladar’s been so largely steady for this team that another good performance is beginning to feel routine. There’s a lot that the team, players and coach alike, can take from this game as a positive, but Vladar’s performance was foundational to any and all else.
As for his own assessment of his game, the impressiveness of this showing, Vladar in his postgame comments was somewhat expectedly reserved.
“Yeah, I feel good.”
Not one to wax poetic about his own accomplishments, Vladar had more to say about his team’s efforts and their abilities to get themselves rolling again, in hopes of salvaging something more out of this season.
“Yeah, like, we are confident group,” he went on, “like we know we have it in us. We had it at the beginning of year and it kind of, you know, slipped away, but you know we just got to find uh back the swagger, because we have it here.”
And Vladar’s confidence in the group is weighty. It’s still a pretty significant hill to climb to get themselves back into that playoff mix — they’ve closed in a bit on the Bruins in that last wildcard spot, but it’s still six standings points needed to pass them, and there are three other teams they need to pass to that as well — but the margins are thin for everyone around here, and with a few good games under their belt, the task isn’t looking so completely impossible.
Confidence can beget confidence, and if Vladar’s belief and solid play is enough to help this team find another level of play, at the very least, these last couple months of the season could get very interesting indeed.
