Rebuilding teams invariably point to moments of growth.
The Flyers grew more in the past 72 hours than they had in the previous six months.
They learned hard and necessary lessons from a sworn enemy, and they blossomed. Or they hardened. Or both.
The Penguins, in pursuit of their third consecutive Stanley Cup, overwhelmed the Flyers in Games 1, 3 and 4 of their first-round playoff series. The Pens snoozed through a loss in Game 2, but they weren’t worried. To be fair, they didn’t have much to worry about.
Then something about the Flyers changed, in Pittsburgh, in Game 5, on Friday night.