The Flyers gave Travis Sanheim the keys, and he’s giving them reason to believe

Flyers coach John Tortorella said he wasn’t sure what the best way to travel home from a late game in Las Vegas is. Do you fly home right after the game? Or do you wait until the next morning?

These days, teams tend to do whatever the sleep science and recovery experts say. So instead of Flying home in the overnight hours Wednesday morning, the Flyers stayed an extra night in Vegas — their fourth after arriving late Saturday night from Dallas — and departed Sin City around 8 a.m. Wednesday.

But imagine being wired after playing in an NHL game that started around 8:20 PST and then getting back to the team hotel well after midnight, the bus to the airport scheduled for some seven hours later.

“By the time you get settled down from that, you’re not sleeping too much because you have a flight in the morning,” Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim said.

Sure, they’re not flying on a commercial airliner, but sleeping on a plane is still ... sleeping on a plane. It was a day “off” for the Flyers, but hardly. Tortorella said he felt awful Thursday and was worried about how his players would feel as the Flyers hosted the Minnesota Wild. Sanheim, 27, said the travel grind was a big factor. He didn’t get to sleep until pretty late after the game. Then when he got home Wednesday afternoon, he tried to stay up as late as he could to get back on a normal schedule. And after morning skate in Voorhees Thursday morning, Sanheim said he got a nice nap in.

He then logged 27 minutes, 36 seconds of ice time during the Flyers’ 6-2 win Thursday night, the most he’s had in a regulation game since April of 2022. He finished the night atop the NHL rankings at 26 minutes, 12 seconds of ice time per game, and the Flyers needed all of it Thursday night.

The Flyers nearly traded Sanheim before his new contract kicked in July 1, and after the potential trade to St. Louis fell apart, the Flyers challenged him. Ivan Provorov was gone, and the team needed a new No. 1 defensemen to take the reins.

» READ MORE: Travis Sanheim wants to turn the page with the Flyers, in more ways than one

Through seven games, Sanheim, who went through an offseason program that saw him add 15 pounds of muscle, is doing everything the Flyers asked him to do, and everything a $50 million defenseman is supposed to do. He’s playing big minutes in all situations. He’s driving play, joining the rush, and winning puck battles.

And on Thursday night, he finally saw the fruits of his labor. After tallying two assists, his sixth and seventh of the young season, he scored the team’s final goal in what became a rout.

All of this is coming after what was easily Sanheim’s worst season as a pro last year. The previous regime rewarded his prior play by signing him to an eight-year deal. But by June he was almost out of town as the Flyers looked to retool.

Tortorella said he was happy for Sanheim with how his season has started and how he has responded.

“I’m [on him] all year long last year, he’s in trade talks, all that stuff,” Tortorella said. “His skill level hasn’t changed. His skating hasn’t changed. What has changed is his mindset. He has shown us right from day one that he’s going to take control, and he has done it to this point.

“I know it was a miserable year for him last year. I’m proud of him, the way he’s handled himself so far.”

Said Sanheim: “I obviously put in a ton of work this summer. I knew this was a possibility, and I just wanted to be prepared. I feel pretty good right now.”

It’s certainly showing. He now has eight points in seven games while logging more minutes than he ever has. This on a team with a new-look defensive group that saw a bit of a shuffle Thursday ahead of the game against the Wild when the Flyers sent Emil Andrae to Lehigh Valley and recalled two other defensemen.

» READ MORE: Flyers show some good, some bad in last-minute loss to Vegas. It was a microcosm of what they are.

The Flyers are 4-2-1, off to another hot start. Last year’s hot start was mostly because of the way goaltender Carter Hart played. Hart is playing well again, but his team is playing a lot better in front of him. Defensively, with a sometimes pretty inexperienced group, the Flyers have had more structure in their defensive zone. For large stretches of games, they’ve dominated projected playoff teams, including Tuesday night in Vegas.

How’s it working so well, with such a new group, with Sanheim and others in new roles?

“To me, I think they help one another,” Tortorella said. “That’s the only way we’re going to stay competitive in the league this year as we build — and we’re going to go through some growing pains — is to be together. We have to do it as a group, as a committee, and I think that helps us in situations when you go through the ebbs and flows of a hockey game.”

There were ebbs and flows Thursday. The Flyers dominated the first 32 minutes and grabbed a 3-0 lead. But then Minnesota controlled the next 10 minutes and got the score to 3-2. It would’ve been easy for a rebuilding team like the Flyers, without much of an identity yet this early in the season, to buckle. But they didn’t.

“The room is together,” Tortorella said. “I think that’s the biggest improvement we’ve made from last year. I don’t think our room was awful last year, but our room needed to change.

“I think they’re together, and there’s a belief. Belief is a very strong thing. If we can just stay about ourselves and keep that type of mindset, we’ll stay competitive.”

He didn’t say it, but Sanheim is a big part of that. How can the timetable of a rebuild change? How is belief built? In part because the $50 million defenseman answers the call and takes the next step, sleep-deprivation and jet lag be damned.

» READ MORE: Carter Hart is off to another strong start for the Flyers. Now, it’s about making it last.