If it were up to Claude Giroux, the Flyers would have gotten right back into action.
Instead, Tuesday’s 3-2 overtime victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins will be the team’s last game until Jan. 27 -- a week from now -- because of the All-Star break.
“I think we’d rather play (tonight) again,” Giroux said. “At the same time, we can get our rest here and make sure we come back from the break even stronger.”
In front of what was likely the largest crowd at the Wells Fargo Center in months, the Flyers demonstrated a passion and intensity on Tuesday that has been missing for most of the season.
It didn’t start out that way, of course. They went without a shot for 11:54 to start the game, and were sluggish through most of the first period, finishing it with just three shots on net. They managed to claw their way back to life, though, thanks in part to a series of fights from some unexpected members of the team (see story) that jarred them into action.
The game is exactly the kind of momentum-changer a team wants to have heading into an important stretch.
Instead, they'll sit idle for six nights. It's somewhat of a bummer, perhaps, knowing they'll be off immediately after their most exciting outing of 2015.
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“I don’t know,” Pierre-Edouard Bellemare said. “I think that that game set the emotion for something. It felt like everybody felt the same way on the ice and off the ice -- like on the bench, everybody was a whole unit going on and off the ice the whole time. We just have to keep it going, I guess.”
The good news is the break gives some injured Flyers time to work their way back to health. Steve Mason could return for the next game, or shortly thereafter -- good news, considering the recent struggles in net (with the exception of the Penguins game). Scott Laughton, Nick Schultz, Braydon Coburn and Nicklas Grossmann all remain injured, as well.
The Flyers won't practice again until Monday. A week with no on-ice responsibilities will be beneficial to those players, as well as those who were in the lineup Tuesday and sustained some bumps and bruises.
“We’ve got some banged up bodies here that can use the time,” Emery said. “It’s good to get guys back in the lineup, and this time of the year it’s good to get a bit of rest.”
The Flyers will finally get back to business Tuesday when they host the Arizona Coyotes, a team to whom they fell, 4-2, on Dec. 30 in much the way they've lost to plenty of opponents this season: with a slow start and a passionless outing.
The key this time around is to somehow hold tight to whatever momentum they created by playing two-thirds of Tuesday's game as if it were a playoff matchup.
“Obviously the Penguins bring out the best in us, it seems,” Luke Schenn said. “We always get up and rise to the challenge; they’re a great rival. But you’ve got to bring that emotion game after game, especially down the stretch run.
“Every game is going to be pretty tight checking (from now on). I don’t think you’re going to see that amount of scraps and stuff, but you’re going to get some tight checking games, and the emotion has to be there.”