from Marcus Hayes of the Philadelphia Daily News,

Sixteen games ago, the Flyers were drowning. A mediocre and inconsistent club, they had lost a game in Carolina that left them five points out of the playoffs. More significantly, they sat behind four other teams. They faced a six-game homestand. Jake Voracek said they needed to collect 10 of the 12 possible points.

That triggered something.

Not only did the Flyers collect those 10 points, but they also collected 24 of the next 32 points in play. Then, Wednesday night, they rallied for an improbable, 2-1 shootout victory over the visiting Capitals. They are in the final wild-card spot, with 89 points, two more than Detroit, and with a game in hand.

They had been swimming upstream for five weeks. They looked drained in their overtime win against the Jets on Monday; so, it follows, all of this anxiety and effort had to be wearing them down.

Or, maybe not.

"Yeah, it takes a lot of energy from you. It's every day, every night," Claude Giroux said on Wednesday afternoon. "Even if you're not playing, like last night, it's a lot of excitement and anxiety. That's why we play hockey, though. For the rush."

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