Conventional hockey wisdom says that teams can't flip the "on" switch and start playing at the type of level it takes to succeed in the postseason. While some will say that's what the Flyers have done, in reality the Flyers elevated their game in all but one of their final five regular season games leading into the postseason.

A couple of times -- a 1-0 loss to Montreal and a hard-fought loss to the New York Rangers in the front half of the home-and-home that ended the season -- the desired result wasn't there. But the club's all-around play suggested they could make some noise in the playoffs if they could just get there.

So how did the Flyers pull off the five-game victory over New Jersey?

They did it because Brian Boucher built on a strong final week of the regular season and was sharp throughout the series. They did it with outstanding penalty killing. They did it because Mike Richards, Chris Pronger, Claude Giroux and others elevated their games. They did it because they outworked the Devils in the corners. And they did it because they did a tremendous checking job on Ilya Kovalchuk's line for most of the series.

Barring a miraculous turnaround in the Washington-Montreal series, the Flyers are going to run into the Caps in the second round. They will be even bigger underdogs heading in, which can actually be a benefit. But the only downside of wrapping up a series in five games is that there can be a long layoff until the next round starts, and it's all-too-easy to lose your skating legs and game-day rhythm in the interim. I'd rather see the other Eastern Conference series end sooner rather than later.

For more, see today's Daily Drop on Versus.com

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