Three takeaways from Flyers’ 5-1 win over Dallas: Power play finally clicking, Owen Tippett dazzles, and more

Are the Flyers a wagon?

That question was asked a few weeks ago and, well, here it is again. The Flyers took on a perennial Stanley Cup contender in the Dallas Stars on Thursday and dismantled them, 5-1.

“We put the work in, we were that good. We had a lot of people going. I thought we had the right energy. Yeah, I’m not going pick it apart,” coach John Tortorella said. “Probably one of the better games I’ve seen us play.”

The Flyers dominated the stats. They outshot the Stars, 43-15, and held Dallas to just one shot on goal in the first period. In fact, Dallas’ lone shot was 29 seconds into the game, and the Flyers did not allow another shot for 25 minutes and 43 seconds. Per Natural Stat Trick, The Flyers had a Corsi For Percentage of 62.6% across the entire game at all strengths. They also had 13 high-danger chances and 37 total scoring chances.

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All against the likes of Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, Joe Pavelski, and Jake Oettinger. Not too shabby. The Orange and Black have now matched their season high with five straight wins, where they have outscored opponents 17-8, have a 90.9% penalty kill, and — wait for it — a 30.8% effectiveness on the power play.

“We just go out and play,” said Scott Laughton, who scored on a penalty shot and has goals in consecutive games for the first time this season.

“Coming off the road, we played a really simple road game on that trip, tried to do the same thing here. I thought our D did a great job of stepping up on their forwards, not allowing them to get speed ... not allowing them to get many chances. We blocked a lot of shots. [Sam Ersson] saw the puck well. It was a good team effort, everyone contributed.”

Here are three takeaways from the Flyers’ big win.

Going with 11 forwards and seven defensemen once again, the Flyers did not show any tired legs on Thursday night after playing three games in four nights on a road trip before having the past two days off.

It certainly helped they got back Sean Couturier (undisclosed injury) and Jamie Drysdale (illness), who both missed the past two games. But what has also helped the team is the spark from guys who are just oozing confidence right now.

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Morgan Frost was a healthy scratch in 10 of the first 20 games, and watched from the press box most recently on Jan. 4. He then asked to speak with Tortorella and voiced his thoughts with the bench boss. Since then, the center has seven points in seven games, including two assists against the Stars.

“Confidence is definitely higher than at the start of the season right now,” Frost said with a big grin.

His first assist of the night was a stunner, as he made a no-look, back-turned, backhand touch pass between his legs to Sean Walker cutting down the middle. Walker gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead late in the first.

Frost’s second was a chip pass over to Cam Atkinson, another guy exuding confidence right now, for a power-play goal. Atkinson, who sat alongside Frost on Jan. 4, ended a 26-game goal drought with a pair against the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday. He’s a streaky goal scorer, and now has three goals in three games.

Speaking of the power play, with Atkinson’s tally, the Flyers have scored at least one goal in six of the past seven games with the man advantage. And it should come as no surprise that the team has also won six of those seven — though they lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins despite scoring a power-play goal, and beat the St. Louis Blues without one.

What has changed? Confidence is a big one. It’s also having two cohesive units now. One has Egor Zamula manning the point and the other has Drysdale. The newest blueliner has quick feet, a high hockey IQ, great vision, and is not afraid to walk the line. His seamless ability to do that allows him to create space, open lanes, and keep penalty killers on their toes.

On Atkinson’s marker, Drysdale stepped into the zone a bit more from the point before sending a pass over to Travis Sanheim in the right circle for a one-timer. The addition of Sanheim on the second unit has also added a big-time shot threat to the group.

The goal — 44 seconds into the third period, making it 3-1 Flyers — was critical to preventing the Stars from mounting a comeback.

“I think we’re just letting the puck do the work and taking what they give us and keeping it simple,” Atkinson said. “Every team has good PKs and goalies, so we’re going to have to get those greasy rebound goals and we’re doing that.”

Confidence was an overriding theme in this one, and the one guy who can do no wrong right now is Owen Tippett.

Yes, he potted two but the first one was a little basic — a shot off a face-off win by Couturier. The second one was anything but.

“SportsCenter Top 10,” Laughton said.

Tippett got the puck in the Flyers’ defensive zone, raced down the ice, and finished a 360-degree spin move with a whipped backhander over the shoulder of Oettinger. This comes one game after he split the Blues with a shimmy and fired a backhander over Joel Hofer.

“Honestly, I looked up to see if someone was coming with me. I knew we had a couple of guys and once I saw no one there, I did a bit of improv,” Tippett said with a chuckle.

Indeed.

“When everyone’s playing well, it’s fun, it keeps going,” Tippett said. “It gives everyone confidence. I think when the team is playing well and it’s a full group effort it gives everyone confidence and when you’re winning games it’s a fun time.”