The Philadelphia Flyers walked through the quicksands of increasingly tough opponents last week and proceeded to do everything that they are known to do this season. Nothing major was figured out — there were no breakthroughs or discoveries that have us all giddy at the thought of going through more of this campaign. It was the Flyers trying to play Rick Tocchet-style low-event hockey against some of the NHL’s best teams and getting some loser points out of their efforts.
A nice and tidy 4-1 win over the San Jose Sharks was a nice little establishing note — to recognize that despite some improvement, that team is still below them in terms of overall talent and ability — but then with three games against the Vegas Golden Knights and Carolina Hurricanes to wrap up the week, it was staring down the barrel that could send us tumbling down some real pessimism.