Flyers and playoffs: Keep it real | Sam Donnellon

YONG KIM / Staff Photographer Flyers coach Dave Hakstol watching his team against the Lightning on Thursday night. For a more established team, Thursday’s 5-1 loss to the NHL-best Tampa Bay Lightning would be seen exactly the way some of the Flyers saw it, as a blip at the end of what was otherwise an exhilarating sprint back into the playoff conversation.

The night ended with the Flyers still holding one of those two coveted wild-card spots, separated from the teams above and below by just a couple of games. The NHL has done a lot of subtle things to maintain interest and attendance throughout the league, but the hard salary cap and the somewhat misleading way of listing a team’s record and…