Brian Elliott ‘feeling good' is everything to Flyers

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As hats rained down on the ice and the Claude Giroux euphoria was on, there was Brian Elliott, down on one knee, low-key in his goal crease.

The moment was all about Giroux (see story).

Elliott, at the time, was only 9:49 away from his first shutout of the season. In the grand scheme, this was just as important as anything for the playoff-bound Flyers.

This was their goalie believing again. At Elliott's position, that's everything. 

"Yeah, it's kind of what the goal was," Elliott said Saturday following the Flyers' 5-0 win over the Rangers. "To get this win and start feeling good going into the playoffs."

Elliott is feeling much better than he did Thursday, his first contest back since Feb. 13 core muscle surgery that had him out of game action for 53 days. During the 4-3 win over the Hurricanes, Elliott surrendered three stoppable goals and looked like no immediate answer to the Flyers' troubles in net.

"It's almost like opening night jitters again," Elliott said Thursday.

"It's always tough coming back. It's always hard to replicate a game in practice. You do things, you're out of breath more than in practice."

Then Saturday came and Elliott never let one past him. Sure, he faced only 17 shots, but a shutout is a shutout, which can only help his psyche heading into a first-round playoff series against the two-time defending champion Penguins.

"You try to feel good, try to feel a little bit more confident when you're out there," Elliott said. "Just tried to limit my movements and try to stay compact — just the little things that I was doing before the injury. So just trying to keep that mind frame going. Two games is not a lot, but you build off that for sure."

His third game back will be a totally different animal. It'll be Game 1 in Pittsburgh against the NHL's deadliest power play and third-highest scoring club. Elliott didn't fare well in his two games against the Penguins during the regular season, allowing a total of nine goals in five periods and 1:48 of overtime.

The postseason, however, is often viewed as fresh life.

"Now the page turns really quickly," Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol said. "Now it's a clean slate, it's a new season and there's a new goal."

And the key for the Flyers is Elliott taking something positive into the tournament. With injuries and inconsistency, goaltending was the Flyers' biggest weakness during the regular season. They overcame it to snare a playoff spot in Game 82.

"We lost a couple big games, but we came back from those and really played the way we wanted to," Elliott said. "It's those little things, the way you respond sometimes, that mean the most."

When Elliott is confident and right, that might mean most to the Flyers — the difference between an early exit and extended run in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

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