Home for the holidays.
Three days, that is, as the Flyers go into the Christmas riding a deserved high after a 4-1 win over Minnesota on Monday night.
They are over .500 - 17-16-4 _ and have the third spot in the Metro Division which means they have a playoff berth.
They are just four points behind the Washington Capitals for 2nd place, as well.
I thought Steve Mason looked a lot better and far more comfortable in this game than he had in recent starts where he had given up 16 goals in four of six previous starts.
Goalie coach Jeff Reese told me in COlumbus last weekend that Mason needed some "technical" work on his game; needed a little confidence boost; and needed to work on "tracking" pucks from the shooter all the way to him.
I thought Mason did just that during a shorthanded key save early in the game on Jason Pominville with the Flyers holding a slim 2-1 lead; did it again early in the third period holding a 3-1 lead on Mikko Koivu's bang-bang play in the paint.
“Yeah, it was something that I got away from a little bit was the tracking of the puck from the stick into my body," Mason told me after the game.
"When you are not practicing it a lot, that thing tends to slip from your game. It was nice to sit the last game and have a nice practice time and work on things like tracking the puck from the stick into my body.
"Anytime you are seeing the puck well it makes your game a lot easier, and tonight was a pretty good example."
And those two saves? Did he feel they were indeed "momentum" saves? He said they were but the Koivu save was more critical because the Wild had made their final "push" before the Flyers gave them a pushback and scored one more goal.
“It was definitely a big save," he said. "If we don’t make that [on Koivu], it becomes a one-goal hockey game and there is probably seven and a half, eight minutes left at that point.
"That could have become an entirely different hockey game, and those are the saves that we need to come up with in order to have success."
I keep saying this about Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek. You know when both of them are in sync when they tell you they're not sure how many points they are stockpiling or that either of them had career scoring streaks going.
At the beginning of the season when both these guys had runover scoring slumps stretching back to last season - goal scoring slumps _ they were keenly aware of their shortcoming and gripping their sticks.
You don't see that now. They are totally relaxed on the ice.
“We’re finding the back of the net,” Giroux said. “It’s a lot more fun than the start of the year.
“We’ve got chemistry going. We’re controlling the play better. And Raff is playing great for us. He’s moving everywhere and he has a great stick.”
Michael Raffl doesn't have a lot of points with them (5) but he brings an element that seems to have helped ignite Voracek and Giroux - his speed and skating.
“They all bring a different element,” Berube said. “The speed factor with Jake, the hands of Giroux and Raffl just strong on the puck. But they all skate and that is the key. They move their feet well in the offensive zone.”
Scott Hartnell gave them power and size but his skating didn't always hold up and that's why Berube made the switch. And truth be told, it's helped Hartnell to play better with his new line of Brayden Schenn and Wayne Simmonds - a definite crash 'n crunch line.
Simmer had two goals against the Wild.
All in all, the Flyers have now won 9 in a row at home and take a deserved couple days off then head out to Edmonton for a long road trip that starts the end of December into January.
“We had a long road trip before the game, and it’s always tough to win the games on the road," Voracek said.
"It’s gonna be a long one. It’s gonna be a season changer right there we’ve got to bring some points from the road so it’s going to be tough.”
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