The Flyers' postgame reaction Friday night was considerably subdued.
There was no take-that, how-do-you-like-me-now vibe.
Claude Giroux, whose voice never leaves that even-keeled pitch of his, offered no more than "for all your doubters out there, there you go."
Dave Hakstol bluntly said he didn't give a darn about making a statement to the outsiders.
The Flyers had just gone from a 7-0 Game 1 loss to a 5-1 Game 2 win. They not only stemmed the tide, but they completely turned it. Still, nobody rubbed the fulfilling redemption in anyone's face when the opportunity felt prime for it.
Maybe that's because the challenge has just begun.
What the Flyers showed Friday night was they can beat these Penguins. They hadn't done it in over a calendar year, since March 26, 2017. They had lost their previous five matchups with Pittsburgh by a combined score of 27-11.
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So, yeah, the Flyers needed to prove something Friday and did so boisterously.
But one triumph, no matter how lopsided or sweet, is no vindication to the naysayers. To really prove something would be showing they can do it again, in fact, four times, a feat the Penguins haven't allowed in their last eight postseason series.
If the playoff opener was just one game to the Flyers, then so was the Game 2 victory. Just one game of potentially seven against the two-time defending champs.
"We introduced ourselves into this series," Hakstol said.
An introduction, but the next chapter needs to be written.
Just how difficult will it be to churn out those pages?
The Penguins lost consecutive games only twice since Jan. 1, a stretch of 42 regular-season contests. In Pittsburgh's previous eight postseason series en route to a pair of Stanley Cup titles, it lost back-to-back games only three times and trailed after three games only twice.
None of this should take away from what the Flyers accomplished in Game 2 and the importance of it. The Flyers said they expected to win, a belief that never wavered. A convincing result like the one Friday night on the heels of a haymaker can only fuel that belief inside the Flyers' locker room.
The belief now comes home.
Are the Flyers ready to erase more doubt? A Game 3 win would put the champs against the ropes in Philadelphia. First, the Flyers must land another punch.
They connected in Game 2 and the Wells Fargo Center will be their next chance.
"It gets pretty loud there," Sidney Crosby said Saturday to reporters. "I think any building at playoff time is going to be loud and tough to play in, but that's part of the fun of playing in the playoffs — different atmospheres, the high stakes, things like that — that's why we play the game."
The Flyers still have three more games to win. Despite the history, they're all even with the Penguins. That's something, but not everything.