With Flyers at the All-Star break, here are five takeaways

Fifty-one games down. One week of rest. And then 31 more games to go.

As the Flyers hit the All-Star break, the team is more than halfway through its first season under coach John Tortorella. They’ve now been without longtime captain Claude Giroux (or any captain at all) for 72 games and top player Sean Couturier (back surgery) for the last 105 games.

It hasn’t always been pretty — and there is a strong argument that the team’s middling status is the worst-case scenario — but the Flyers have a .500 points percentage and a record of 21-21-9. They’re second-to-last in a deep Metropolitan Division but are just six points out of a wild-card spot, although some of the teams ahead of them have games in hand.

» READ MORE: Bigger, stronger, and healthy again, Flyers prospect Tyson Foerster is knocking on the door of the NHL

Here are five takeaways from the Flyers’ season so far:

Nobody expected the Flyers to be this good. With better health, they were almost guaranteed some improvement on last season. However, the loss of Giroux at the deadline, a lackluster offseason, and the preseason injuries to Couturier and Cam Atkinson left the Flyers with a dearth of talent.

Atkinson and Couturier were the Flyers’ most consistent forwards coming into the season and without them there were a ton of question marks entering the year. But through effort, more disciplined play, and offensive balance, the Flyers have found their footing over the last few months. Now, it feels as if the Flyers, who are 10-4-2 since the holiday break, are capable of stealing a win on almost any night.

Konecny was among the many reasons the Flyers struggled last year. He was supposed to be one of the team’s top players, but instead he scored just 16 goals and shot a career-low 7.3%. That role has completely reversed this season. Now, he’s one of the main reasons the Flyers are succeeding. He has bounced back from last season, exceeding expectations, and completely changing his future outlook with the team.

Thanks to a new analytics project and his own hard work, Konecny already has 24 goals, is averaging 1.09 points per game, and has worked his way onto several of the league’s offensive leaderboards. The Flyers have him under contract for two more seasons (unless they trade him to help build their future), and he takes up just 6.7% of the team’s salary-cap space with an average annual value of $5.5 million.

Several of the Flyers’ young players were called upon to step up last season amid the team’s struggles. For the most part, they failed to do that as they struggled with the physical, mental, and emotional demands of the NHL, and the fact that they were shuffling back and forth from Lehigh Valley. This year, they’ve been called upon to prove they’re part of the team’s future and have been given a longer rope. It took some time, but many of those youngsters are making strides, hinting that the Flyers’ future might not be as grim as once feared.

Noah Cates has quietly led the way. A rookie who was selected in the fifth round of the 2017 draft, Cates has become one of the Flyers’ most reliable players — all while learning to play center on the fly. Owen Tippett is also looking like a nice piece after being acquired in the Giroux trade — the 23-year-old is on pace for 25 goals and is starting to use his speed and power to his advantage.

» READ MORE: Bigger, stronger, and healthy again, Flyers prospect Tyson Foerster is knocking on the door of the NHL

While center Morgan Frost has still been somewhat up and down, he’s looking more confident than ever and the flashes of his offensive prowess are coming more often (19 points in his last 23 games). Finally, since Cam York was called up in early December, he has looked the part, proving that he can go against the NHL’s best while also contributing offense. York has 11 points in 24 games and is plus-10, the second-best mark on the team.

Carter Hart was one of the unproven young players coming into the season. After a bright start to his career, the highly rated goaltender was coming off back-to-back disappointing seasons, albeit last season he was playing behind one of the worst teams in the NHL. He started strong this season and has not let up with a .911 save percentage and 2.88 goals-against average. The team has also been a little better in front of him, which has been nice to see.

Just as important, the backup goaltending has been solid. Samuel Ersson, in particular, was impressive when he was called up from Lehigh Valley and went 5-0-0 in his first NHL games. With Ersson in net, the Flyers sparked their successful January, when they went 8-4-2.

Tortorella is exactly the coach that many expected him to be. He pushes his players hard. He creates headlines in postgame press conferences. He gives his players tough love (ask Kevin Hayes, who’s been the main target of it). And he draws attention to himself more than any other part of the organization. He’s basically as much the face of the organization as Gritty is at this point.

So far, it seems to be working when it comes to on-ice results. The players are playing disciplined, tough hockey. They’re blocking shots, forechecking hard, and using their defense to create offense. Tortorella inherited a team even interim coach Mike Yeo said had ingrained bad habits. He’s been slowly breaking the Flyers, even in the veterans. Konecny, Hayes, and Tony DeAngelo have all been victims of Tortorella’s benchings, and it has worked.

The young players have also taken a step forward as previously mentioned, and that would have been an initial concern with Tortorella’s hiring.