At 4-2-1, the Flyers entered Tuesday's game with a chance to prove this wasn't last year's team. They had survived the early flurry of challenges and picked up four wins to boot, the last coming in a shootout no less.
That kind of momentum would need to be sustained.
Facing a 2-6-0 Buffalo Sabres team, you wouldn't know the Flyers had come off two of their most emotional wins of the young season. They played down to the competition once again, though the Sabres proved to be challenging, and miraculously scored in the final minute to manage one point before getting bit in the 3-on-3 overtime for the second time in eight games.
Ultimately, it left the Flyers in the same spot as last season, thinking about what might have been and about a point left on the ice.
"We've talked about it. We have to treat this game the same way," Steve Mason said. "We have to realize the importance of the two points. We're lucky we got the one tonight but we needed the other one as well."
"We didn't play good enough," Jake Voracek said. "We got a point out of it. Too bad we didn't get the second one. A point is a point."
It could be a big point, as Mason eluded to. Every point certainly loomed large down the stretch last season. That said, the Flyers sluggish start against a struggling Sabres team was far from encouraging.
"We had a good first few minutes and we didn't sustain that through the first period," head coach Dave Hakstol said. "Buffalo moved the puck and spread things out really well. We couldn't sustain anything from one shift to the next on a consistent basis. But in saying that, we found a way to continue staying with it to get to overtime."
That point proved to be the silver lining, because the way the Flyers had played in the first 48 minutes showed they didn't even deserve that.
The sluggish start led to two goals for the Sabres in a matter of 10:49, coming from a team that averaged less than two goals per game and were allowing 3.25 per game going in.
The balance eventually proved to be there, but far too late for the Flyers. When the third goal beat Sabres netminder Chad Johnson, there were 53.2 seconds left on the clock, just enough to manage the precious point.
But coming against the Sabres, it was not an effort the Flyers were proud of, and the sentiment remained the same. It doesn't matter who the opponent is, the effort needs to be there regardless.
"It's never fun playing from behind," Brayden Schenn said. "Maybe we've got to start the game like we're playing from behind. We seem to play better when we have our foot on the gas."
"The good teams do," Voracek said. "We've got to find a way to be prepared for it. We've got to take that game like we're playing the Rangers or Chicago or Pittsburgh. It doesn't matter."
"Absolutely not," Hakstol said. "That shouldn't make a difference to anybody. We know they're a good hockey team."
Among the Flyers problems at the eight-game mark, a power play that can't seem to make anything and players on that top power play unit that are struggling to get on the scoresheet. Voracek is the most notable on that list of Flyers without a goal this season and the frustration is starting to set in.
"It's kind of getting old," Voracek said. "I've got to put pucks in the net. I've got to stick with it."
As for the power play, the Flyers will have to make the most of their chances in the future. On two power plays in Tuesday's game, the Flyers managed eight shots. None made it past Johnson.
So with that, the work continues to break the Flyers out of the slump offensive. The chances are there. The finish is not.
"I think we've had chances on the power play," Schenn said. "There's been good saves made on us. We are funneling pucks to the net. It's only a matter of time until those start going in."
"The results haven't been there," Hakstol said. "When you go back and look at the first PP and the number of chances, the puck's got to go in. So do we have to do a better job? Absolutely. We'll take responsibility of that and go back to work."
Kevin Durso is managing editor for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.
