The Flyers are approaching the rest of the season as a ‘clean slate.’ Their effort vs. the Oilers was a good start.

EDMONTON, Alberta ― Typically, a statement game signals to the NHL and fans that a team is a playoff or Stanley Cup contender.

For the Flyers, Wednesday’s game against the Edmonton Oilers felt like a statement game — but of a different kind.

While they did not win, falling 3-2 in overtime on a goal by Evan Bouchard, the way they played against the high-octane Oilers said they are not the same team that started the season with nine straight losses.

But it also felt like they showed they have moved on from the swirling rumors and controversy of the past few days. That the Nick Seeler and Matvei Michkov bench argument is over — as both players stressed Wednesday morning after the team’s morning skate. And that they are keeping the noise around the report that Michkov might be looking for a change of scenery outside the room.

» READ MORE: Flyers GM Danny Brière calls ESPN report ‘not correct,’ reiterates Matvei Michkov is ‘part of the solution’

General manager Danny Brière, who hustled to rejoin the team in Edmonton after attending the GM meetings in Toronto, spoke to Michkov separately and then to the team on Wednesday, telling the group to focus on themselves.

“Just kind of reset, clean slate,” Noah Cates said of the GM’s message. “Get back to having fun. Being in our detail, being in our structure, and everyone kind of being a better version of himself, for the crest and for the team.”

Wednesday night was the second straight game the Flyers were in their structure. The first game came Monday in a 3-1 win against the Vancouver Canucks. The Flyers came out that night with a strong forecheck and good puck support in the offensive zone. They executed breakouts with tape-to-tape passes and hard board work. They backchecked, created turnovers, and picked off passes to break up their opponents’ chances or create their own. And they picked up cutters and played smart in their own end.

It was a solid game, even if the third period got a little hairy. The only question was whether it was truly a breakthrough, because the Canucks are easily the worst team in the NHL.

But the Flyers kept rolling against an Oilers squad that entered the game averaging the third-most goals in the NHL (4.05). They kept Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid, who now has 49 points in 20 games, to one assist each.

“I think we’ve got to recognize what kind of team we are. We are defense first,” said Rasmus Ristolainen, who looked good in his first game since Oct. 24 and just his second since Oct. 3. “We’ve got to take care of our own net, and get the puck that way, and then take it to their zone, and keep running them down.”

According to Natural Stat Trick, at five-on-five, the Flyers were responsible for 57.7% of the scoring chances. They created 17 high-danger chances to the Oilers’ 11 and owned 59.3% of the expected goal share. And they did it against an Oilers team that entered the night third in the NHL in points (29) and came in with points in seven of its past eight games (five wins, two OT losses.

Across the first two periods, the Flyers poured on the shots — a combined 29 — through the first 40 minutes. The only problem is they had just one goal for their efforts before Travis Sanheim powered his way through in the third period to send the game to overtime. His shot was one of four in the final frame of regulation for Philly.

“I thought we played a good game,” captain Sean Couturier said. “We were above them. We were ready to battle. They played more of a North-South game now [and] we knew we had to be ready to compete along the walls and recover pucks off dump-ins and chip-ins. So thought for [the] most part we did a good job and created some chances. Unfortunately, they got that extra opportunity.”

The eye test and the analytics highlight the stark difference in how the Flyers are playing the last two games. They have gone from averaging 2.21 goals and 3.37 against to 2.50 goals for and 2.00 goals against. And at five-on-five, they have posted a save percentage of .971, which was .898 through the first 19 games.

It is a small sample size, but if the Flyers are wiping the slate clean and truly starting fresh from Wednesday night on, it was a good start.

» READ MORE: ‘It’s not true’: Rick Tocchet, Flyers players downplay the Matvei Michkov trade drama

“Yeah, I think so,” coach Rick Tocchet said when asked if his group came out with a purpose.

“Listen, you get tired of hearing that stuff. Same thing happened a little bit last year. What’s happened for us is maybe a good thing for us — a little adversity — and now we need some guys just to keep buying in, and we have to play a certain way. And we’ve got to use our bench, and that’s who we are, and that’s what happened tonight.”