Flyers-Rangers observations: On short-term goals and Ivan Provorov’s skin peeling off

NEW YORK — The Flyers continued to roll, defeating the New York Rangers, 1-0, Tuesday night to win their fifth straight game. Here are some observations:

Playoffs?

Scott Gordon, the interim coach whose Flyers are the NHL’s hottest team, would prefer short-term goals.

That’s what he told his players after Anthony Stolarz made 38 saves to steal a victory from a Rangers team that had controlled most of the action.

“We don’t have to worry about eighth place right now,” Gordon said, referring to the Eastern Conference’s last playoff spot. “We have to worry about what’s in front of us, the closest team that’s in front of us.”

With 32 games left, the Flyers are 10 points behind Pittsburgh for the last wild-card spot. But the Flyers (48 points) also must hop over Florida (48 points, two games in hand), the Rangers (49 points), Carolina (54), and Buffalo (56) in the wild-card hunt.

“If we are looking at smaller goals — we’ve got a couple teams that are maybe two, three, four points ahead of us — and if we get to a point where we can leapfrog them, and then we worry about the next grouping of teams in front of us,” Gordon said. “When it’s all said and done, you can’t look too far into the future. You have to worry about the game that’s in front of you.”

That would be a matchup against the Bruins (27-17-6) on Thursday in Boston.

The Flyers (21-23-6) are 1-1 against the Bruins this season, dropping a 3-0 decision (with an empty-netter) in Boston on Oct. 25, and winning the Jan. 16 rematch, 4-3, behind Sean Couturier’s hat trick and Carter Hart’s 39 saves.

During each victory in their five-game winning streak, the Flyers have been outshot. In fact, in the Flyers’ last eight games, the team with the fewer number of shots has been the winner.

Here are the five wins:

· Beat Minnesota, 7-4, but outshot, 38-27.

· Beat Boston, 4-3, but outshot, 42-19.

· Beat Montreal, 5-2, but outshot, 35-24.

· Beat Winnipeg, 3-1, but outshot 32-31.

· Beat Rangers, 1-0, but outshot, 38-19.

Gordon said most of the opposing teams’ shots have been from the perimeter during the streak, and he didn’t seem concerned.

And when teams have gotten Grade A chances — and there have been too many of them — Hart and Stolarz have bailed them out.

Gordon wasn’t happy with the Flyers attack Tuesday, but noted that playing games on consecutive nights might have contributed to the lack of offensive crispness.

“When we had opportunities off the rush, we didn’t even get shots,” he said. “And those opportunities, most of them went back the other way. They didn’t necessarily lead to great opportunities [for the Rangers], but it took away from us being able to establish some momentum.”

The Flyers' power-play problems continued, as they were 0-for-2 Tuesday and had zero shots. They have scored a power-play goal in just two of their last nine games.

That has to change dramatically if this team has any shot at climbing back into the playoff race. Hey, the penalty kill has turned things around, so it’s not impossible.

Defenseman Ivan Provorov, who has struggled throughout the season, has looked like his old self in the last two games since the bye week.

“I think they were his best two games since I’ve been here,” Gordon said. “There’s no comparison. He’s carrying the puck with confidence. He’s moving his feet. He’s getting up in the rush. His gaps have been great.”

Gordon put Provorov on the team’s top power-play unit late in the game, but that was primarily because the Flyers were protecting a 1-0 lead and he wanted his best defenseman out there.

So why has Provorov turned things around?

“I think he went to Turks and Caicos and got sunburned,” Gordon deadpanned about Provorov’s whereabouts during the bye week. “Peeled off a layer of skin.”

Hey, whatever works.