Travis Konecny and the Philadelphia Flyers chased after the NHL-best Colorado Avalanche for the latter 40 minutes this past Sunday. They just couldn't find that last goal for the tie to at least force overtime in a 3-2 loss. 

A couple of days later, as has been the trend so far this season, they course-corrected quickly.

They handled the visiting San Jose Sharks without issue, 4-1, getting a slick goal from Christian Dvorak skating as the top-line center and, finally, a contribution from a dormant fourth line off a deflected puck in front of the net from the newly installed Carl Grundstrom.

They're 16-9-3 for a 35 points that's keeping them up in the Eastern Conference Wild Card picture. Since the start of November, they're 10-6-2 with 22 collected points in the standings, while continuing to prevent losses from piling up, even in the face of losing top-scorer Tyson Foerster and more recently top defenseman Cam York to injury.

Thursday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena, they'll have the high-powered Vegas Golden Knights in front of them as another tough test against one of the league's elite. 

A measuring stick, in other words. Though Konecny sees things about this year's Flyers differently. 

"I've been saying this; some people use games as measuring sticks, and I think we don't need to do that anymore," Konecny said after Sunday's loss to Colorado. "Like, we've shown we can compete with the best teams, so why not start believing that we should be right there with them?"

It never hurts to have a little belief, and potentially getting one over on Jack Eichel and Mitch Marner? That could suddenly build up a lot of it for the Flyers. 

A few other thoughts...

Keep skating Konecny

Emil Andrae collected a rebound in front of the Flyers' net, moved to start breaking out, and then looked up to see Konecny already by the far blue line. 

Andrae mailed him the stretch pass, Konecny recovered it on the bounce in from the boards, then skated in toward the Colorado net all alone and tucked a shot under the pad of Mackenzie Blackwood for the second-period goal that brought the Flyers to within one against the Avalanche.

Konecny was flying everywhere after, and even got ahead of another play midway through the third period, when Trevor Zegras recovered a fanned-on Colorado shot and tossed it over to Konecny, who had already made the quick read to start sprinting through the neutral zone. 

That energy carried into Tuesday night's win over San Jose, on a line that seems to be clicking between Konecny, Dvorak, and Zegras, and saw Konecny earn his 500th career point with the assist on Dvorak's goal.

By the end, Konecny had a look at the empty net against the Sharks and eventually took it for the goal after trying to feed it across the ice over to Zegras instead. 

But there's hardly anything wrong with the puck finding you. It's not like it's been complete luck either. 

Since the start of December, in four games so far, Konecny has three goals, three assists, and 14 shots on goal, all while skating with a considerably more noticeable jump through the neutral zone that is leading to more offense for the Flyers downhill. 

The veteran winger is up to eight goals and 17 assists on the season now entering Thursday night (25 points in 28 games).

The 28-year-old Konecny started a bit slow trying to find his role under first-year head coach Rick Tocchet, but of late, it appears he's gotten comfortable playing within a still somewhat new structure, and as a result, is allowing himself to get a bit more opportunistic as the season wears on. 

And his continued production will be a major key for the Flyers as they push into the winter, especially knowing that they won't have Foerster again for at least another couple of months.

Blue line beauty

It's not an ideal spot for the Flyers to be skating without York, who left last Wednesday's win over the Sabres, but he's skating in practice with optimism that he'll be back soon.

There's optimism that Rasmus Ristolainen, who hasn't been seen in months, won't be far behind him as he's skating and practicing with the team again, too. 

Meanwhile, the blue line corps that's still there has been getting by, albeit, in just the couple of games they've had to skate since.

It's a credit to Jamie Drysdale, who's been a much smarter and cerebral defenseman this year; Travis Sanheim, who has been consistently taking on top minutes and could very well end up turning a lot of heads skating for Canada at the Olympics soon (provided the NHL players still go); Ty Murchinson, who held his own in his NHL debut on Tuesday night; and even Noah Juulsen, who as a depth defenseman isn't often noticeable, which is about the best compliment you can pay to a guy in that kind of role. 

Then there's Andrae.

Sunday against Colorado, he fed that pass to Konecny on his goal, but then he had another excellent play earlier near the end of the first period, when he had the puck by the point and along the wall. 

Andrae made a fake to shake the checker closing in, then shifted down and saw the space to peel inside across the left faceoff circle. Another Avalanche skater moved to try and take the puck off him, Andrae made a deke to drag it right around the reach of the opponent's stick, then stepped into an off-balance shot once he realized his momentum had carried him into the slot with enough room to get the puck on net.

Those moments were two of Andrae's standouts from Sunday, but not his only.

"That's what I'm looking for right there," Tocchet said of the 23-year-old afterward. "He was very good tonight. When he had the puck and he had room to skate, he skated. He didn't wait. Even on the blue line, there were times when he had it, he had a step on a guy, he took what we call 'the good ice.' He wasn't flat-footed. He wasn't looking to defer. He was being aggressive. It's a good step for Emil to play against the top team in the league and do what he did."

Another step toward becoming a more dependable NHL defenseman, one that the Flyers can't ever send back to the minors.

When you hear the noise

The Vancouver Canucks are last in the Western Conference and at a crossroads, which includes the fate of their captain and star defenseman Quinn Hughes. 

Hughes' name is getting thrown around in trade rumors. The Flyers, as a team looking to take a step forward and with their coach being Tocchet, who Hughes was a big fan of when they were together in Vancouver, are being viewed as a possible suitor. 

It's just whispers and armchair GMing on the Hughes front for now, and when it comes to the Flyers on the trade front, they've been experts at keeping their plans under tight wraps up until it finally happens ever since Danny Brière and Keith Jones took over the front office. 

However, they can't dance around not having heard any of the noise.

Speaking about Andrae, Drysdale, and what has made their defensive pairing work during his morning skate press conference on Thursday, Tocchet slipped a bit.

"Hockey IQ and quickness when you're small," Tocchet began to explain about how the two make up for being undersized on the blue line. "You know, if you look at a guy like – I'm not gonna say Hughes' name. That's probably not...but guys like him, though, that are smaller..."

That drew a laugh from the local press as Tocchet caught himself and recovered to continue the answer. It's also not the first time he's brought up Hughes when talking about how to defend since he's gotten the job in Philadelphia. 

The awareness that he probably shouldn't mention the name right now, though? 

I mean, hey, when there's smoke.

OK...Carter Hart...

Goaltender Carter Hart got picked up by the Golden Knights and has returned to playing. 

He's back in Philadelphia, but earlier Thursday, Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said Akira Schmid will have the start in net for them against the Flyers, leaving it to a hockey decision that they just wanted to get Schmid in.

Hart was then not made available to any media.

In February 2024, Hart was charged with sexual assault by the London, Ontario, police in the reopened 2018 Hockey Canada case, which involved him and several of his teammates from the 2018 Canadian World Junior team. 

He was found not guilty this past July, signed with the Golden Knights in late October, and was reinstated into the NHL on Dec. 1.

Hart, who was once viewed as the Flyers' franchise goaltender, took a leave of absence from the team in late January 2024 for "personal reasons" that hindsight now shows to have been the impending charges. 

During the Canadian court process, Hart's contract with the Flyers expired, they did not issue him a qualifying offer, and he became a free agent, though with teams awaiting further direction at the time on how to approach him and the other charged players from the NHL.

In September, when the league did offer its ruling, Brière said Hart's agent called him, saying he would be looking for a fresh start away from Philadelphia.

The 2018 Hockey Canada sexual assault scandal, and Hart's involvement in it, is a highly sensitive subject and a conversation that has to be had with extreme care and empathy.

But in the scope of Thursday night at least, I'll say this much: There wouldn't have been any good to be had from Vegas starting Hart in Philadelphia. It's not a happy return. It's not a welcome back. It could never be any of that. 

It's a dark cloud, which Vegas is managing to not bring attention to, whether it really was a hockey decision or not.

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