The Flyers gave themselves what they wanted: a path into the playoffs

They went a perfect 3-0 on their West Coast road trip, defeating the Ducks in overtime, the Kings in a shootout, and then the Sharks in regulation, all with tightened up defense, stronger checking, and above all, clutch goaltending.

They have 80 points in the standings with a 34-23-12 record after 69 games. They trail the New York Islanders for the second Wild Card in the Eastern Conference by five points as of Monday morning, and the Columbus Blue Jackets also by five for the third and final postseason spot out of the Metropolitan Division.

Columbus will be here at Xfinity Mobile Arena Tuesday night. The Flyers will head to Belmont to see the Islanders on April 3, and in between, with the 13 games in total that are left, are three more matchups against the Red Wings (March 28, April 2, and April 9) and the Bruins (April 5), who are both hanging around in the last stretch of the race, too. 

This is it. This is what the Flyers wanted, and while their odds are still relatively slim to make the playoffs, they’ve played well enough of late to still leave themselves with a chance, and with a good amount of four-point swing games still ahead to close the gap.

They’ve done the work to hang in there. Now it’s a matter of whether they can take that next stride to pull ahead.

“I think it’s just a belief and a will,” said winger Owen Tippett, after powering his way to a crucial opening goal in Saturday’s 4-1 win in San Jose. “We’ve had the belief all year, and this was a really good road trip for us. Obviously, we needed to kind of turn things around after the Olympic break, and I think we’ve done a good job. We’ve had a few games where we’ve kinda stepped off the gas a little bit, but we’ve still have gotten points.”

Tippett has played a major part in instilling that belief since the Flyers returned in late February from the Olympic break.

The 27-year-old has always skated with power, and with just as much force behind his shot, but since the start of March, he’s seemed to have put the puzzle of his skills fully together to play the most complete and consistent hockey of his career.

In the Flyers’ 10 games this month so far, Tippett has scored five goals with an assist and a plus-2 rating, while skating an average of 19:15 per night and generating just shy of seven shot attempts per game. The team has gone 7-2-1 in that span.

He’s at 24 goals on the season coming back from the West Coast trip, trailing Travis Konecny by just one tally for the team lead and four to match his career-best 28 goals from two years ago. But if he keeps skating the way he has lately, charging downhill, fighting after the puck, and cutting in with the intention to fire away at the net, he’ll surpass both easily, and maybe just carry the Flyers past the midway point of April, too.

Of course, it won’t be just him.

It’ll take Konecny, too, who’s somewhat quietly been a highly positive skater (plus-12) and the team’s leading setup man (35 assists), which included sequencing a string of passes that led to the go-ahead power play goal from Christian Dvorak on Saturday in San Jose.

It’ll take Matvei Michkov, who at this point won’t fully recover from the sophomore slump, but has gradually skated better, and also made a strong zone entry and pass in from along the wall that went toward an assist on the Dvorak goal.

It’ll take Trevor Zegras, who twisted the Kings up in the shootout on Thursday and then was all over the ice against the Sharks on Saturday, and Noah Cates, who scored in each game of the road trip, to continue their recent resurgence as centers.

And it’ll take a defense led by Travis Sanheim, a physical Rasmus Ristolainen, and a much more complete-skating Jamie Drysdale to keep clogging up the ice and suppressing chances, even if it keeps often adding up into low-event game after low-event game.

Biggest of all, it’ll take goaltending, which has been the Flyers’ Achilles heel going back decades.

Dan Vladar stopped 24 of 25 shots Saturday in San Jose, and has a .918 save percentage in his 10 starts since the Olympic break, with head coach Rick Tocchet heavily leaning on him as the No. 1 goaltender. Just as critical, though, has been Sam Ersson as the backup netminder. He’s struggled through much of the season, but in the three spots he’s been called on since the Flyers’ schedule resumed, he’s managed wins in all three with a save percentage at .916 and with crucial shootout stops of the Kings on Thursday night.

Both goalies will need to keep standing tall down the stretch because, ultimately, good goaltending can mask a lot of problems in the NHL, or exacerbate them when it’s not there.

But they’ve carried the Flyers here, so have Tippett, Konecny, Zegras, Dvorak, Cates, Michkov, Sanheim, Drysdale, Denver Barkey, Alex Bump, and so on.

This is what they wanted: a chance, a genuine one. And while it still may only be a 12.7-percent shot to make the playoffs, per MoneyPuck’s odds as of Monday, the path, and all those pivotal points, are there starting Tuesday night with the Blue Jackets.

The will and belief are, too, as Tippett said.

But now is it truly enough to take that next step ahead?

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