It has been a rough season for everyone involved with the Philadelphia Flyers. Expectations were high coming into the season and they were expected to challenge for a cup. The first half dozen games or so went swimmingly but suddenly the wheels came off. They started losing – a lot, the coach was fired, the fans got frustrated, there was talk of players partying more than playing and rifts within the dressing room. It seemed the team were going to completely blow the season. Then came the Christmas period and New Year.

They won four in-a-row over Christmas to end December and their captain, Mike Richards who has been struggling at times through the season, got named to the Canadian Olympic team and started to pick up his game.

A late comeback by Boston against the Flyers at the Winter Classic game on New Years day at Fenway Park and another loss a few days later against Ottawa had some worrying that they were reverting back to poor form, but the team showed heart, grit and fight against the Leafs on Wednesday night and then again last night against rivals and cup holders, Pittsburgh, last night.

The game against the Leafs was live on TV here and was incredibly the two teams first meeting of the season and after the game I cannot wait for the rest. The Flyers played tough and they played well. They scored some pretty goals (especially via enforcer/agitator Dan Carcillo) and they stirred it up and dropped the gloves (especially via enforcer/agitator Dan Carcillo). There was eight goals in the game (6-2 Flyers) and four fights and the longer the game went on the closer you felt it was going to get to breaking out into an all out brawl. I’ll have to put some cash aside for the first Flyers game in Toronto this season and try get myself down to the ACC.

Last night beating Pittsburgh though was perhaps even more important. Toronto are a struggling team, while Pittsburgh who are also struggling are a team expected to turn it around and compete for the cup.

I sense a corner is being turned by the Flyers these last two games and with the win against Pittsburgh I am more confident now than I have been in months that they can build on the result and put together a proper run of form that will pull them back into a playoff spot. Let’s face it, the talent on the team says cup contender, so something was wrong that had them so far down the standings, but whatever it is, I think new coach Peter Laviolette is sorting it out and the players are finally buying into his system and bouncing back.

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