Ten is a row at home.
Not losses, but wins.
What a difference for the Flyers of December and now January than October-November.
'Just taking advantage of an intimidating building to play in, in front of awesome fans," goalie Steve Mason said Wednesday, following the Flyers 3-1 win over Montreal.
"When I came here with Columbus, it was one of the tougher rinks to play in. When we have the fans‘ support like we do, it makes it for a tough game for the opposition."
This team had not won 10 consecutive game on home ice since the 2003-04 season. That's a long time ago. The franchise record is 14 set in 1985.
"I guess when the fans come watch us play and they’re not happy, they were booing us at the start of the year," Brayden Schenn recalled.
"But then we start to hear some cheers and they have been real supportive which helps us play better and makes us feel better on the ice.
"Sometimes confidence is an overrated word, but with this team this confidence made everybody contagious and feel like they’re going to get the job done every night…
"I think we’re confident and believe in one another. We believe in the system, we’re playing for one another and it results in a win."
As Sean Couturier volunteered after the game, the Flyers were a team - this year and even last year _ that found ways to lose games. They've turned it around under Craig Berube. They find ways now to win games.
No one is doubting their comeback ability. No one is worried on the bench when they give up a couple of quick goals. And no heads are sagging like they were back in October.
"Even if we’re down a goal or two, we’re still confident we can come back and score goals," Couturier said. "When we’re up a goal or two now, we’re confident we can close a game, too.
"It’s big, confidence is big and right now we feel we can find ways to win games. Sometimes we’re not in games and our goalie makes big saves. All it takes is one little play to turn momentum around. We’re confident in games that we can shift momentum."
A bunch of little plays can add up. Like a save from Mason in the first minute of play on a Danny Briere breakaway off a turnover.
Few minutes later, Couturier rewards him with a goal. From there, the Flyers built onto the lead, getting it to 3-0.
As Mason said over the weekend in Phoenix, as a goaltender, there is no way to adequately describe how much different it is mentally in net knowing you have goal support, knowing you don't have to be perfect, and knowing the team in front of you is playing with some brass balls and not on its heels.
That's the way the Flyers have been lately, going 9-2 over their last 11 games.
"Every team wants to have good starts and we’ve been able to get some key goals," Mason said.
"[Tuesday] night in New Jersey, obviously, they came out with a big early goal, but we were able to weather the storm after that and come out with a big two points.
"Tonight we were able to get two goals in the first period, and that just puts them on their heels for the rest of the game."
Which is what opposing teams used to do to the Flyers, especially, on home ice.
No more.
"We’re winning a lot of different ways," Berube said. "In the Jersey game we got down 1-0 but battled back.
"I can go back to the Phoenix game where we were down but we battled back. I think they’re confident guys right now and believe they can win. They’re not always going to play their best hockey but we’re squeezing wins out."
Hockey on home ice is fun again.
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