Four reasons the Flyers’ win over the Senators was key going into the final 20 games

It took a little bit of time but the Flyers finally earned win No. 32.

Last season, the team won 31 across the entire 82-game slate. In their 62nd game this season, they surpassed it. But while it’s all well and good that they took a step forward in the win column, the 4-2 victory over the Ottawa Senators was even more important because of who they beat and how they beat them at this time of the season.

Here are four reasons why this game was key as the Flyers head into the final 20 games of the season.

With the last quarter of the season underway, who the haves and the have-nots are is becoming clearer. The Flyers are the haves, sitting in third in the Metropolitan Division; the Senators are the have-nots, dwelling in the Atlantic Division basement. These are the games the Flyers must win if they want to remain in, what general manager Danny Brière calls, “the playoff bubble.”

But that bubble can easily be burst, especially after a 5-2 loss to the Washington Capitals on Friday night — a team chasing them in the standings.

Coach John Tortorella said he had “full confidence coming into tonight’s game that they were going to answer the proper way.” But facing the young Senators and former Flyers captain Claude Giroux hasn’t been an easy task this season for the Orange and Black. The Senators beat the Flyers twice this season already by a combined score of 10-5; the last time was Jan. 21 in a game Philly jumped out to a 2-0 lead.

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And like Friday night, things were looking grim to start the second period when the Senators tied things up.

“They grabbed some momentum there in the second, first 10 minutes probably [we] weren’t the best with the puck, making them go 200 feet. We turned over a couple and they’re a highly-skilled team. You gotta give them credit, some of those guys can make some plays.”

But the Flyers battled back this time and didn’t cave despite the Senators pouring shots on late in the third.

It had been almost a year since Felix Sandström played an NHL game. His last start came on April 13, 2023, a 5-4 overtime win against the Chicago Blackhawks to close out the Flyers’ regular season. So you’d expect him to have some rust.

But he looked like, for the most part, a well-oiled machine and left the impression that he could be the backup to his countryman, Sam Ersson, the Flyers have been looking for.

“I want to be that guy,” Sandström said. “I want to be someone that can make a difference here. So, I’m ready for the challenge and I’m going to do everything I can to be a big positive for this group.”

The first shots the Swede faced were back-to-back chances by Mark Kastelic at the right post that he stopped with ease. He did allow a backhander to Vladimir Tarasenko in the middle frame to tie things up and a banger by Thomas Chabot after Dominik Kubalik whiffed in the slot with 1 minute, 58 seconds left in the game.

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But he also made some key saves when the game was tied, stopping a Jakob Chychrun one-timer on a Senators power play in the second and a Jake Sanderson one-timer on another power play in the third. He faced 26 shots but also needs to be like Marc-Andre Fleury and show some love to his pipes as the Senators pinged a few.

“He was great,” Joel Farabee said. “Felix has been around here for a few years and I feel like when he’s playing his best, he’s just really calm and just seeing shots. I think he had a couple of big glove saves in the first period there that didn’t seem like dangerous shots, but he made them seem easy. He seemed really locked in.”

Calm. A word that has been used to describe another Swedish Flyers goalie.

“I think the water’s different over there or what,” joked Farabee. “But yeah, it just gives the team a lot of confidence when they’re playing like that. They’re making those hard shots look really easy and we just try to help them out as best we can.”

Tortorella said he missed having Tyson Foerster on the bench because he was able to put the forward in any situation. He probably should have said because the kid is scoring.

Foerster returned from a right foot injury on Feb. 24 and now has six goals and one assist in his past five games. He notched a pair on Saturday for the second time during the stretch and has 16 goals on the season.

His first goal of the night was off an offensive-zone faceoff win by Laughton. The second was after he was hooked on a breakaway after creating a turnover and scored on a penalty shot. The two goals came in 45 seconds. The last one with two seconds left in the second period.

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“He’s been great. I think you take that much time off with an injury and he’s come back pretty seamlessly,” Laughton said. “He’s been great for us. He’s been good all year defensively, and now he’s starting to score some goals here which are crucial for our team. Great guy and really happy for him. He makes a couple of huge plays there out of kind of nothing and that’s kind of what we need with [Travis Konecny] out.”

The hope is Konecny will be back either Monday against the St. Louis Blues or Thursday at the Florida Panthers. With Foerster heating up and the Flyers’ top scorer reentering the chat, it just adds another offensive layer to the lineup.

It’s been a while since Farabee had found the back of the net. Fourteen games to be exact. But in a must-win, he came through and not only scored but set the tone with a goal 68 seconds into the game.

“Gets us off to an early start. He was making plays, so good with the puck,” Laughton said. “I feel like it’s so easy to play with him, you can read off him everything that he does. So happy for him and hopefully we can continue as a line to kind of contribute in these next 20 games and build some chemistry off this game.”

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Playing on a line with Laughton and Foerster, Farabee deflected in a point shot from Nick Seeler for his 18th of the season. He now has 45 points in 62 games this season.

“Anytime you score you feel pretty good,” Farabee said. “I felt like it just gave me a lot of confidence throughout the game, made some plays and, obviously, playing with Laughts and Tyson I felt like we played really well tonight. So, we just kind of got our legs going from there and just felt pretty good.”

Getting Farabee on the scoresheet will be critical down the stretch. As Tortorella said, “I hope that helps him scoring [and] I hope that helps with the rest of his game, too.”